Showcasing Historical and Cultural Heritage to Visitors

The Soulanges Canal, located in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges RCM, is a major heritage site in Quebec’s history of navigation and maritime trade. Yet, despite its importance, its history remained largely unknown to the general public and difficult to convey in a lively and engaging way.

The MRC wanted to tell the canal’s story in a new way, moving beyond a strictly informative approach to include anecdotes, historical facts, and personal accounts; offer a modern, interactive experience accessible to both residents and tourists; and create a tool capable of adapting to various formats (signs, banners, bike tours) without requiring heavy infrastructure.

Creating Interactive Discovery Tours

To address this challenge, the Vaudreuil-Soulanges RCM chose to use MySmartJourney to design immersive, self-guided digital tours accessible via simple QR codes.

Three experiences were created:

• The Archipelago Tour: a bike route enhanced with audio and multimedia clips, allowing cyclists to discover the history of the canal as they ride.
• The Oriflammes Tour: 27 banners installed along the bike path, each linked to an interactive segment that traces, kilometer by kilometer, the canal’s construction and key milestones.
• The 2005 Signs Tour: a historical tour that enhances existing signs with digital content highlighting the canal’s importance to navigation and trade.

Visitors can thus explore the site on their own, without needing to download an app, and enjoy a cultural experience that is fun, educational, and accessible.