Michael Portillo continues his rail adventure from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Quebec City, following his 1899 edition of Appleton's Guide to Canada. In the Acadian fishing village of Neguac, New Brunswick, he discovers sea-farmers are producing up to 15 million oysters a year. Michael takes to the water to investigate how it is done and is rewarded with a taste of the freshest mollusc he has ever sampled.

His guidebook leads him to Miramichi, where he reads that French-speaking Acadians settled after they were expelled by the British from lands they had occupied further south. Intrigued by a tale of 18th-century ethnic cleansing, Michael visits an historic village to find out about these people and why Britain took such drastic action against them. Boarding the night sleeper for the next 400 miles of his journey, Michael heads for Quebec City, where old Europe survives in the New World. With its narrow streets and flights of steps, and a hotel modelled on a 16th-century chateau, Quebec City was the heart of New France and reminds Michael of Paris. Yet the Quebecois national dish leaves him cold. Show less