Canada Guide
Ontario
Musée Canadien des Civilisations
Opening time: May to June & Sept to early Oct daily 9am–6pm, Thurs until 9pm; July– Aug daily 9am–6pm, Thurs & Fri till 9pm; early Oct to April Tues– Sun 9am–5pm, Thurs until 9pm
Price: $10
Website: www.civilization.ca
Gatineau's pride and joy, standing on the far side of the Alexandra Bridge from the National Gallery, is the whopping Musée Canadien des Civilisations, whose curvy limestone contours are supposed to represent the rocky sweep of the Canadian Shield. Not everyone was convinced, but the architect – Douglas Cardinal, a Blackfoot from Red Deer, Alberta – certainly mounted a spirited argument and the building is undoubtedly distinctive; the best view is from the Ottawa side of the river.
The museum spreads over four floors and the entrance, where you can pick up a free plan, is on Level 2. Also on Level 2 is a mixed bag of attractions, including a Canadian Postal Museum, a Children's Museum, offering an interactive "world tour", a theatre and a giant IMAX cinema screen showing nature and adventure films (for a supplementary fee of $7–10). Upstairs, Level 3 holds Canada Hall, which tracks through Canada's history from the Viking colony on Newfoundland to the 1970s. It's an ambitious affair, featuring life-size reconstructions of historical environments, from an Acadian settlement and a fur-trading post to a Métis camp, a frontier farm, a Maritime shipyard, an Ontarian Main Street circa 1900, a Canadian Pacific train station, a Union Hall and a Chinese laundry. Level 4 holds temporary exhibitions and then it's down to Level 1 for the Grand Hall, easily the largest room in the museum and perfectly designed to display a magnificent collection of around twenty Pacific Coast totem poles – more properly house posts. The main line of poles stands outside six native "houses" which explore Pacific Coast native culture, including displays on trade, religious beliefs, tribal gatherings and art.