It’s cosmopolitan, it’s boisterous, it’s tranquil, it’s corrupt, it’s beautiful, it’s so cool. it’s one of the greatest cities in the world. Montreal has culture. Montreal has it. Montreal has soul. It’s my city.
Montreal thrives on music and art. Walk anywhere downtown and every park or square passed will have an avant-garde sculpture like Les Chuchoteuses (The Whisperers) on St. Paul St. in Old Montreal.
On weekends, they will likely have a couple, or single or a group making music. Music, music everywhere, or if you want to make your own music (of a sort), and if you’re really, I mean really a kid inside, try the musical swings on Maisonneuve St. right behind the Place des Arts and be surprised.
If you end up in Jeanne Mance Park (used to be Fletcher's Field, when it was still a farm, 1879) at the east foot of Mount Royal (what other city has a large hill/park in the middle of town) get caught up in the Tam Tam Jam, weekends, right by the ‘angel’ statue – percussion of every sort, loud it is, young it is (with a certain recognizable smelly smoke in the air), unique, it is.
Climb to the top of Mount Royal to the lookout for a great view of downtown, follow the broad trail to Beaver Lake and the toboggan runs.
Right, so Old Montreal is the big draw for tourists with its narrow cobble-stoned streets, slightly Parisian air (some say London), large Jacques Cartier Square full of buskers, music around every corner, the Old Port with its long promenade and quays, hosting the Montreal Science Center and home of the Cirque de Soleil - full of high- and low-end eateries, high-end art galleries, terrasses on top of buildings with great views of the river and our Big Wheel, home to Notre-Dame Basilica, a Gothic Revival church and that Second Empire Pile – our City Hall, at the top of Jacques Cartier Square, native art stores, Bonsecours Market, and the usual bric-a-brac stores. It’s where Montreal was born. There are four hundred years of history here, with the oldest street in Montreal: St. Paul. Some of the most arresting buildings are the past Main Offices of Canadian banks (including some, like Molson’s Bank, that haven’t existed for quite a while – they printed their own banknotes from when Montreal was the economic and financial capital of Canada. For the locals, it’s more like… meh, been there, done that.
Downtown is, well, like any downtown full of skyscrapers, but our city has multi-story murals on the side of skyscrapers, no stuffy business meeting vibe here. Downtown is buzzing. The Quartier des Spectacles is here with outdoor shows year-round – free, including the annual Jazz Fest.
The imposing Mary Queen of the world Cathedral is here (our daughter got married here a while, OK, a long while back) on Dorchester Boulevard (right, it’s called René Levesque now, but I prefer Dorchester). Did you know that Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemens, visited Montreal in 1881 and opined that “This is the first time I ever was in a city where you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window”. (They wrote strange sentences back then). Yes, we do have plenty of churches.
McGill University’s quadrangle is on downtown’s north edge. Check out Ste-Catherine Street or Crescent for fashion, style and… a little bar-hopping. Or walk along Sherbrooke Street to view some of the remaining robber-baron mansions from what used to be The Golden Square Mile. Any number of museums make their home here, yummy Chinatown, small but powerful, and all this, just north of Old Montreal.
A little further north is Le Plateau, that area east of the Mountain from Park Avenue to Papineau St. In the first half of the 20th century, its western sections were where newly arrived European immigrants would settle as the rents were cheap. They went to its north-south hub, St. Laurent Street, to purchase their groceries, buy their shoes and clothes, frequently second-hand. When they had tucked away a bit under the mattress, they moved further north to the Mile End District or Park Ex (where my Dad bought an apartment building).
The quirky outdoor staircases, a truly unique architectural feature of the city, much in evidence, are mostly in the Le Plateau district. Some call them deathtraps, or accidents waiting to happen How do you get your furniture up; your daily groceries, your baby, in winter!! What if you’re old? Take a walk along St. Denis St., from Sherbrooke north or any other north-south street like Esplanade, and there will be plenty of photogenic examples. Why did they do this - simply, it left more space indoors although it had its downsides.
Le Plateau is a worthy walk all by itself, the most densely populated part of the city (mostly due to those deathtraps), full of counter culture stuff, with a large concentration of artists, musicians and creative organizations. Lots of cafés on major streets for people watching the mostly younger crowd rush by. In 1997, the digital digest Utne Reader rated it as one of the hippest neighbourhoods in North America.
Montreal is a BIG festival city, so for your edification, I made a (short) list…
· The Grand Prix de Montreal - June 5-7
· The International Jazz Festival – June 27 – July 6. This is the biggie. If there is just one thing to catch, it’s this one, unless you are like me, then it’s the Fireworks Festival.
· Mural Festival - June 4-14
· Nuits d’Afrique - July 7 - 19
· Vues d’Afrique (African & Creole Film Festival) – 11-21 April
· Just for Laughs Comedy Fest - July 8 - 26
· Les Francofolies - June 11-20
· FringeMTL – 27May-16 June
· Gay Pride Parade – 11 Aug
· Fantasia International Film Festival - July 18 - Aug 4
· Osheaga Music and Arts Festival - Aug 2-4
· The Highland Games – Aug 4
· Highlights Festival – early March
· International Children’s Film Festival, Mar 2-10
· International Fireworks festival – June 27 - Aug 1
· Festival TransAmerique - May 22 - June 6
· YULeat Festival September 14-16 at the Old Port features Brunches. exclusive dinners, Steet Food, Tasting area, Culinary workshops, Farmer's market…
· World Beer Festival – May 24-26
…in case you drop in.
I said it was short, as there are usually over sixty festivals each year. I’m eagerly waiting for the Festival to end all Festivals, or, the Retro festival, (a repeat of last year’s festival) or the Festival of star gazing, or…
In fact, we love our festivals so much that we created the Quartier des Spectacles in downtown, the home of the Jazz Fest, conjoined with the Place des Arts, our opera-classical-fusion venue, and, yes, you will need spectacles if you get tickets in the nose-bleed Balcon section.
Montreal is a big (did I say, 'big' before?) foodie city. If you have mucho dinaros, you must visit Toqué in Old Montreal, or Le Club Chasse et Peche or Joe Beef ditto, (they do tend to cluster where the tourists and money are), or La Chronique or Leméac on Laurier in midtown. Thirty-four of Canada’s 100 best restaurants are located in Montreal.
For something more humble, but still delish: Bouillon Bilk on St. Laurent Blvd, near Eva B (see below), unpretentious, minimalist décor, great food, or Le Mousso on Ontario St East for the art lover. These should get you started…oh, and how can I forget…
Montreal is the bagel capital of the world. OK, so let’s get serious about bagels, just to be clear, there is no competition between New York and Montreal bagels. Ours are clearly the best, they are hand rolled – they are smaller, sweeter, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and are baked in wood-fired ovens!!! New York uses burlap boards – burlap boards? We use wood. And the best bagel in the world, well, that would have to be between St. Viateur Bagel and Fairmount Bagel in the Mile End district. Not for me to decide (but Fairmount bagel was founded in 1919, while St. Viateur is a recent arrivée {1949}) – you decide, they’re only a long block apart.
…and how can we forget – the Montreal-style Smoked Meat sandwich, and comparing it to Pastrami is like comparing a Lamborghini to a Lada. The brisket is cured in seasonings with black pepper, coriander, garlic, mustard seeds and secret ingredients, and much less sugar. Then it is hot smoked to cook through, and then steamed to completion. Piled high between two slices of rye bread, it is heavenly. Go to Schwartz’s on St. Laurent St. for the real deal. Mordecai Richler, in one of his novels called the spices used in Schwartz’s smoked meat a “maddening aphrodisiac”. They do a mean steak too.
Bagels and smoked meat have been in Montreal since the early 20th century and are emblematic of the city’s unique cuisine.
Right, so I fear to even mention this other object, invented in Quebec: poutine. This is the grits-and-gravy of the South, Canadien style, beloved by kids, hated by some, it has blossomed into a sensation: (greasy) french fries, squeaky cheese curds and brown gravy - it has been transmogrified into dozens of iterations and travelled the breadth of this country. Ok, so foie gras poutine - puhlease!!, served at Au Pied de Cochon ($35!!) - on Duluth St. - in the Mile End, - one of Montreal’s signature restaurants - (is nothing sacred?) where the menu features foie gras with everything, and Magret Duck at 59 bucks. And then, there is Le Travelling Grand Poutine Show – a bunch of food trucks going from town to town and featuring no less than 17 marvelous (disgusting) poutine fabrications. They will be in Pointe-Claire from 16-18 August (for my Montreal readers). Can you say Hawaiian Poutine…brrrrr. I am NOT putting a picture up.
The Underground City
Montreal is a colddddd city and as the saying goes: ‘Montreal has two seasons: 'Winter and Bad Ice’ (ya gotta live here). All told there are 32 Kms of tunnels under 12 square kilometers of the most densely populated part of the city. There are 120 ground level access points including the 60 Metro stations. You can live there, eat there, eat at the highest restaurant in the city atop Place Ville-Marie (our first sort-of skyscraper), workout there, go to the cinema, go to the opera, a show, go to a deli, buy your clothing, newspaper, all without ever stepping outside. Get lost (I did), start your journey at the Eaton Center on Ste. Catherine Street.
Did I mention that Montreal is a cold city, where winter lingers and comes too soon, so as soon as the snow melts (at times before the snow melts) Montrealers are on to the ‘terrasse’ scene, filling these outdoor eateries/drinkeries to catch the wan rays of the spring sun. By summer (2024) Montreal has closed 11 streets in seven neighbourhoods in town to car traffic, providing ample opportunity for people-gazing, and busker watching.
Quirky Montreal
UNESCO called Montreal a city of culture and design. MURALS! Montreal has been honing its mural city status for quite a while. Since 2012 the MURAL festival has gathered artists from all over to add to Montreal’s rich collection of murals. To see over 80 of them, start walking up St. Laurent Blvd from St. Catherine St. to Mont-Royal St. During the three days of painting, there will be outdoor dance parties, food trucks and fun in the closed-off street. Lately the art has moved to fresh canvases east of The Main (aka St. Laurent Blvd). Not to be missed: the 21 storey high “Tower of Songs” mural of Leonard Cohen by artists El Mac and Gene Pendon on Crescent Street, where he frequented the Sir Winston Churchill Pub. And yes, there will be music on St. Laurent and in the Peel Basin, and Montrealers will boogie-on-down. Why, you ask, is there music at a mural festival? What a question? Well, that’s ‘cause, give us a festival and we will boogie. We will even boogie during Poutine Week (look it up), I think. If you want a tour guide, contact Official Montreal MURAL Tour, or if you want to go it yourself, TourBird, an audio tour app has a top-notch mural tour that features The Main.
As a total aside, last summer in Budapest, we saw this eye-popping multi-story mural.
Now for something completely different…during your peregrinations around the city, you will, without doubt, come upon…
Eva B, THE #1 coolest vintage store in Montreal at 2015 St. Laurent Blvd, between Ontario and Sherbrooke, right next to the JazzFest site. OK you may be forgiven if you think the place is derelict – the outside is totally, and I mean totally, graffiti-ced (graffitied, grafted?) – there’s a Michael Jackson mannequin staring out of an upstairs window holding a doll outside (remember?)… Step inside and it’s freaky/funky, massive, tons of character - be blown away by the plethora of antique stuff – oh, and you get a little bag of popcorn to wander around with (cool marketing idea). Of course, clothing galore, stacks and stacks of books, CDs, DVDs, LPs, retro knick-knacks for your apartment, Halloween masks, mannequins, typewriters, B/W TVs, huge ghetto blasters, film cameras, shoes, purses, antique costume jewellery, a bathtub on legs!!, a hammock, sun glasses … and its also a smoothie bar/café/restaurant with three seating areas including in the back yard… then there is the upstairs with more stuff. I know, I know, run-on sentence. Must visit.
OK, quirky?
Wilensky’s Light Lunch, on the corner of Fairmount and Clark since 1932 for their famous salami sandwich, or the big orange ball, Gibeau Orange Julep on Décarie North also opened in1932.
Did you know that you can surf in Montreal – near Lachine there are standing waves on the St. Lawrence River that surfers use.
What about a real section of the Berlin Wall, donated by the city of Berlin to commemorate Montreal’s 350th birthday – covered in graffiti, find it in the World Trade Center near Victoria Square.
How about a cavern to explore, yes… a bit out of the way, the St. Leonard Cavern was discovered by a bemused farmer in 1812. Visit by appointment only.
The only thing missing is a ghost tour, wait, there is one: The Haunted Pub Crawl. We’re #1, while Dublin City has 15 haunted pubs, and Savannah, Georgia has 25, we have 40 of these haunted drinking establishments. The Haunted Montreal Pub Crawl is led by a professional guide, starts it McKibbin’s Irish Pub, the formerly mentioned Sir Winston Churchill Pub, the funeral-home-cum-discotheque, Le Cinq, and can’t miss Hurley’s Irish, where a Burning Lady haunts the establishment (what’s this with the Irish?).
So there you have it, Montreal, the second largest French-speaking city in the world I’ve been told. (Well, Kinshasa has recently passed us). Did I mention that pubs in Montreal close at 3 AM? Mais, certainement!
Outstanding. Beautiful. Well done.
You've captured many of the reasons we love Montreal.
Great job, learned a lot about our city and new places to explore