Montreal is a 1.8 million-person Canadian city that is somewhat divided from its country and within itself. It is the largest Francophile city (in the primarily Francophile Quebec province) in an Anglophile country. It is also the second largest French-speaking city in the world.
A Multicultural City
The French explorer Jacque Cartier found Montreal in 1642. The city generally thrived until the French ceded control of parts of Canada to the British at the end of the Revolutionary War. Quebec and Montreal were allowed to maintain their French language and Catholic religion. But both the province and city became increasingly multi-cultural attracting not only the English, but also settlers from all across Europe and workers from China.
Meanwhile, Canada’s economic growth had begun to shift from the French-focused east and the Saint Lawrence River, to the west, around Toronto and the Great Lakes leaving Quebec both economically and culturally isolated and subject to the dictates of the church.
Although the Province and city became increasing secular, it continued to be at an economic disadvantage to the rest of the country. It was subject to continual political disagreements as to whether Quebec should maintain its autonomy (as advocated by Parti Quebecois) or be increasingly integrated into the rest of the country. Although the debate continues today and the city remains something of an amalgam of its traditional French background. French, for example, remains the province’s official language although its citizens reject the idea of establishing Quebec as a sovereign state. The “Old City” and communities coexist with a more contemporary commercial section of the city. The result: an inviting cosmopolitan city that provides something for everyone.
Exploring Old Montreal
On our brief (day and a half) Montreal visit, we focused primarily on and around the historic Old Montreal (Vieux Montreal) with its narrow cobblestone streets, gaslight lamps and repurposed 18th and 19th-century homes, shops, and hotels. Old Montreal has plenty to see and do.
Rue St-Paul
St-Paul Street is a pretty, perpetually active main street. It is lined with restaurants, galleries, and whatever other boutiques manage to fit among them.
Chateau Ramezay Historic Site and History Museum
The Acting Governor of “New France” built the lovely mansion in 1705. Today the restored mansion is a museum that traces the history of Montreal as mainland Canada’s third city (36 years after the founding of Quebec and eight years after Trois-Rivieres). The upstairs section of the museum explains and provides numerous historical descriptions and artifacts, some in beautifully restored paneled rooms.
Its history narrative begins with the region’s Iroquois villages. It then moves onto discussing the European exploration and settling of the region including:
- The initial ancient voyages and settlements in Newfoundland though subsequent explorations (especially Cartier’s second exploration in which he camped for the winter on a site in current Old Montreal)
- Fur trapping and the origin of forts, trading posts, and towns
- The 1837 and 1838 rebellions against the church’s domination over the city and its education and social life and how even these failed to significantly loosen the church’s hold.
- The city’s initial growth from 9,000 people in 1800 to 267,000 in 1900 and as a commercial center through the 19th century
- The diversification of its population from immigrants from around the world; and
- Its economy over the 20th century.
The vaulted basement has been transformed into a composite model of an 18th-century merchant-class home with each room furnished in period furniture and decorations.
Pointe-a-Callier
The city was initially founded at this location. Today it is the site of the Montreal Archeology and History Complex.
Montreal Capitale Center
The Montreal Capitale Center is affiliated with Pointe-a-Callier. It is located a block away in the city’s original fire station (Station #1). Exhibits explain how Montreal became the nation’s first capital in 1840 in the large St. Anne’s Market building that was located across the street. This original site (now called “Parliament Under Your Feet”) is now a park with a series of exhibits in shipping containers and pavilions that provide an overview of the displays in the Capitale Center. The Center itself discusses the history and provides images of and artifacts from the original capital building (through its 1849 destruction in a fire), animations, and profiles of some of the young country’s first leaders.
Old Port Quay Area
A is a scenic walkway and bike path that runs alongside the St. Lawrence River that takes you past Montreal’s numerous quays that reach from Old Montreal into the St. Lawrence River. Many have been reconstructed as part of the city’s cultural area. Two of the quays (Grand and King Edward) now house a visitor pavilion, viewing deck, parking, several of the city’s science museums, and IMAX theater.
A third quay has been connected to a spit of land to create the multi-acre Old Port complex. It contains the wheel of Montreal, Cirque de Soleil, docks from which to board sightseeing cruises, an enclosed bay in which to use rented paddleboats, a zipline, dozens of food stands and craft shops, a food truck park playground, beach and on the weekend we visited, a food festival. At the end of the Quay, a clock tower overlooks a sun-bathing (albeit non-swimming) riverfront beach. Nearby is an old grain elevator which has been preserved as an integral piece of Canada’s history and is hoped to someday be transform into a vertical, hydroponic farm.
Notre-Dame Basilica
When built in 1824, this was was the largest church in North America. The Gothic Revival cathedral and basilica is still huge with tall spires and a dramatic entryway that cut a prominent figure at the head of Place d’Armes. Its exterior is impressive. But buy a ticket and go inside. The blue paths down its aisles and the blue light over the alter bathe the dramatic hand-carved pews, sculptures, stained-glass windows, and red, silver, and gold accents in a dramatic light. A large wrap-around balcony and huge, 7,000-pipe organ add to the drama. But as dramatic as it is during the day, the cathedral can literally be seen in a different light in the evening’s choreographed, multimedia AURA Experience (which you can also see via an online video). Just how beautiful is the basilica? In 2023, Angi, a home service publication which analyzes TripAdvisor reviews, named it the 6th most beautiful building in the world and the single most beautiful church, ahead of icons including Notre-Dame de Paris and Sagrada Familia
Bonsecours Market
The domed, 1847, neo-classical masterpiece has been repurposed as a public market. It is the home to numerous restaurants, food-related shops, and galleries, and when we visited, an art and crafts show with roughly 100 exhibitors.
Marguerite Bourgeoys Historic Site and Museum
The beautiful (both outside and in) building and chapel is a memorial to Canada’s first female saint. The site includes a lovely chapel with Marguerite’s elaborate casket and a museum that profiles and provides artifacts related to her life and times.
Place Jacques-Cartier Pedestrian Mall
The mall is filled with shops, sidewalk cafes, boutiques, crowds, and street performers.
Place d’Armes
Historical landmarks and satirical statues face and reference the squares’ most important buildings: the Notre Dame Basilica and the first Canadian bank, the Pantheon-like 1817 Bank of Montreal. The primary historic monument, meanwhile, is the Maisonneuve Monument, an imposing 1895 monument in memory of the founder of Montreal constructed on the 250th-year anniversary of the founding.
Beyond Old Town Montreal
Although we spent most of our time in Old Montreal, we also walked to and through some of the city’s other more interesting and atmospheric neighborhoods. Among the more interesting of those we explored are:
Underground Montreal
Construction began on the 21-mile mesh of underground walkways in 1962. It contains subway stations and more than 2,000 shops, offices, restaurants, and other services that help to insulate citizen’s from the cold winters (and perhaps someday, excessive heat).
Golden Square Mile
Well-to-do Anglophone merchants developed the area in the 19th century. They built their Victorian-style mansions during the boom that was fueled by the building of the Canadian Railway. The 1880 Victorian Stephens Mansion (now the Le Mount Stephens Hotel) is one of the most elaborate of these homes. It has an incredible, hand-carved, stained-glass window and skylight-lit staircase and lovely paneling in its bar and restaurant.
Another of the remaining mansions has been transformed into the Schulich School of Music. Most of the neighborhood buildings that escaped the wrecking balls of the 1950s/60s however, are more utilitarian structures. Ground floors along upscale Sherbourne Avenue contain stores or expensive boutiques and galleries with apartments or condos above.
The 60s and 70s, however, was an age of transformation, when the metro and Underground City were built and old buildings demolished in favor of glass-clad skyscrapers. While there are pockets of high-rises throughout and surrounding the Golden Square Mile, one of the first and largest such concentrations is on the neighborhood’s McGill Avenue, from the Place Ville Marie Esplanade to the Gate of the University, which itself has severable notable late 19th-century buildings. The 60s/70’s building extravaganza was described in a temporary outdoor exhibition consisting of 36 panels that contain text and archival images from McGill’s McCord Museum.
Among the neighborhoods other highlights are the large but nondescript Mary Queen of the World Cathedral, the Museum of Fine Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, the Windsor Train Station and the greenery, fountain and arched bridges of Dorchester Square which is surrounded by towering commercial buildings and the cathedral.
Quartier des Spectacles
This is home to most of Montreal’s performance art venues from theaters and concert halls to dance companies. The district, which melds historic and contemporary buildings into a cohesive web, also includes a public space (Place du Festival) which is available free to community organizers of a wide range of artistic events.
Museum District
The major commercial district located around Sherbourne and Crescent Streets. It houses many of the city’s premier fashion and interior design boutiques, jewelry stores, and galleries.
Quartier International
The quarter was where the Francophone bourgeoisie settled in Montréal at the beginning of the 19th century. It is a showplace for some of the city’s eclectic modern architecture, monuments, sculptures, and other forms of public art. It is also home to the city’s Convention Center, World Trade Center, and several of the city’s premier hotels.
Latin Quarter
While it was originally a neighborhood for middle-class Francophiles, today it’s a melting pot for all nationalities. It is home to several of the city’s museums, libraries and the University of Quebec and Montreal as well as the rue St.-Denis nighttime entertainment district.
Chinatown
Chinese miners and railroad workers resided here in the mid-19th century. It has been transformed into a Chinese commercial district, with its streets (especially De La Gauchetiere) lined with restaurants and stores selling Chinese foods and medicines. Its entrance, as with many Chinatowns, is market by paifang arches.
Parks
The city also has several world-class parks, some of which we had a chance to visit. Chief among these are:
- Mont-Royal Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, is a 500-acre park with trails and views of the city, the St Lawrence and their surroundings.
- Olympic Park’s 114 acres was the site of the 1976 Summer Olympics. It is laced with trails and a panoramic view over the city. The park is also home to Montreal’s Biodome and Planetarium and the 541-foot Montreal Tower and observation deck.
Montreal Restaurants
We quickly agreed to split an enjoyable cheese fondue for dinner which came with a 2-ounce side of kirsch, which we stirred into the fondue. We had more difficulty in finding an appropriate wine. After tasting a Quebec Riesling and a Niagara Peninsula Gewürztraminer-Riesling blend, we shifted to France with an acceptable but non-descript 2022 Domaine Seginet-Bordet Chablis. At least we tried to find a local wine.
Le Pied de Cochon
We began dinner with one of the restaurant’s half-dozen innovative fois gras dishes: Plaque a Champlain which is served on a pancake with bacon, cedar, demi-glace, and maple syrup. It was delicious, although we ended up separating most of the fois to more fully enjoy its buttery richness. We followed this with a more subdued, but very nice olive oil-poached cod with cherry tomato confit and choron sauce. Our wine was a 2020 Isabelle Denis Pommier Pinot Noir from Burgundy’s Chablis region. Although we fought off the urge for dessert, we did succumb to lures of a 2018 Chateau les Justice Sauterne.
Marcus Restaurant and Lounge
We were particularly excited to try this Marcus Samuelson restaurant for dinner after enjoying wonderful meals at his New York restaurant Hav & Mar. Although we were less impressed by this menu, we enjoyed our lamb chop with spiced yogurt and black cod with sesame, potato, and edamame. We added a roasted cauliflower with almonds and Gochujang as a shared side dish. All three dishes were well worth ordering. As an alternative to Pinot Noir, the sommelier recommended a medium-bodied, high-elevation Nebbiolo-based 2018 Le Tense Sassella Valtellina Superiore from Lombardy which did indeed work with all three dishes.
Our greatest reservation with the restaurant was the very slow, inattentive service by our server on what was a very light evening. While the meal was quite nice, it was not at the same level as Hav & Mar.
Stash Café
Our lunch at the very popular Polish restaurant consisted of very tasty potato and cheese pirogues, pretty good beef cabbage rolls with tomato sauce, and disappointingly tasteless potato pancakes with apple sauce and sour cream. The lunch gave Tom a chance to sample a local, St. Ambroise IPA.
Bar George
We had a very nice seafood-based lunch in the lovely bar in the luxurious Mount Stephen Hotel. Our meal consisted of octopus with lima beans, spicy tomatoes, peppers and pine nuts; and baked salmon with peas, pearl onions, blood orange, and broccoli puree (Why is it that pureeing seems to improve all veggies, even broccoli?)
Evening Entertainment
Old Port Food Truck Park. An after-dinner walk took us to the city’s Old Port District, where we ran across large, very active food truck park.
Modavie is a pretty Old Montreal bistro with nightly entertainment. A band that played a nice combination of country rock, jazz, and a bit of blues was on stage during our visit.
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