QUEBEC CITY (AFP) — French magazine Paris Match has received an earful from its Canadian media cousins after the leading weekly feted Quebec province rather than Quebec City, which is celebrating its 400th anniversary.
"Paris Match honors Quebec... not really," quipped the francophone daily Le Devoir after the French magazine published a special issue commemorating the anniversary but leaving Quebec City almost entirely out of the coverage, which focused in large part on its larger rival Montreal.
La Presse, another Montreal newspaper, declared it a "monumental gaffe," while public broadcaster Radio-Canada suggested the "blunder" showed the French magazine was in the dark about the city and its eponymous province.
The English-language press also seized on the error, with the National Post saying Paris Match was obsessed with Montreal and its artists and restaurants -- an affront to Quebec City whose rivalry with Montreal is "legendary."
By way of apology, Paris Match editor-in-chief Gilles Martin-Chauffier said in Le Devoir: "We had no idea this was about the 400 years of Quebec (City), we thought it was about the founding of all of Quebec (province)," adding that the weekly will dedicate renewed coverage to the Quebec celebrations.
A popular writer in La Presse said that the despite the error, the 30-page Paris Match special painted an "affectionate and sympathetic tribute to Quebec."
Quebec City, founded by French explorer Samuel de Champlain on July 3, 1608, is located on the St Lawrence River, 155 miles (250 kilometers) northeast of the younger Montreal.
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