Built in 1705, Château Ramezay once belonged to Claude de Ramezay, a former governor of Montreal and was later the headquarters of fur-trading company Compagnie des Indes Occidentales.

It now serves as a historical museum that draws on much of this with period pieces recreating some lavish and more basic New France interiors.

But the museum also uses some of its permanent collection of books, coins, photographs, documents and relics to ponder Montreal’s place in North American history.

One intriguing part of this was Château Ramezay's spell as the American headquarters during its Revolutionary War when Montreal was part of the United States – though only for nine months from the autumn of 1775. And it was in 1776 that Benjamin Franklin visited the city in order to try and persuade the colony to join the United States.