Vieille prison de Trois-Rivières — Attraction in Trois-Rivières

This is very unique attraction and a must-visit in Trois-Rivières! You could only visit the site on a guided tour, and it's super cool to see the different floors, and even the dungeons in the basement (if you could even call that a basement). Note that most of the tours are in French, and English tours are not always offered - you could check the website for the timing and availability. There were only French tours when I visited so I took that; however, it turned out that the guide we had talked so quickly that I could barely understand him (maybe only 10%). In comparison, I listened to the French audio-guide at the nearby Museé Borealis and I understood about 70%, and there were even a few times on the prison tour when we passed by other groups and the other guides clearly spoke at a slower pace. I asked our guide if he could speak slower and he did for a few sentences before picking up the pace again (I do understand that without conscious effort it is hard to change your speaking speed).

Additionally, our guide spoke as if he were reciting, which felt a bit robotic, and always delivered a long speech at one or two stops per floor before giving us a long-ish time to explore around. It would have been much nicer if he talked like telling us a story, and made more stops in different rooms with shorter explanations each. Overall, I would love to visit again and perhaps try a different guide in French, and I hope the administration would take note of these...

This experience is all about the tour guide and the amazing story telling that Alex indulged us in for an hour. The prison is comparatively a small one, originally constructed to house 40 prisoners it held at it's closing almost 4 times as many prisoners. The conditions inside were quite extreme and it is obvious that the sole purpose was to break spirits and make incarceration a regretful experience!

The tour is what makes this experience special, as the guide (Alex in our case) effortlessly engaged us in a story session for the duration of the tour. That we were a small group possibly enhanced our experience is worth...

The site is amazing but as English only visitors our experience was very limited . We had to join a tour which was only in French . It cost $21 each and was supposed to be 1hr . We were told information boards around the site had English translation. Unfortunately these were few and far between . Our tour guide was enjoying the group and after 1hour was only half way through . Google translate worked overtime but still disappointing not to have got the whole story. We still had another 1hr of driving to do so left tour...