Montreal
(Montréal) is
unique in North America, blending a brash
New World urbanity with the romantic charm of its
European-flavored historic districts and a Gallic sense of
joie de vivre evident in the city's many pavement cafes and dynamic nightlife.
Although its downtown skyscrapers are a testament to the economic clout of
Canada's second largest city, visitors are more likely to be drawn by the promise of a horse-drawn
calèche ride along the cobbled streets of Old Montreal or a stroll up Mount
Royal, the city's landmark.
Montreal is situated on an
island, 50km by 16km (31 miles by 10 miles), between the Rivière des Prairies and the St Lawrence River. 'Discovered' by
Jacques Cartier in 1535, the island was already inhabited - the Iroquois village of Hochelaga stood at the foot of Mount Royal. By 1642, Hochelaga was abandoned in favor of the European settlement,
Ville Marie.
A French colony until
1760,
Montreal fell to the British, and today some 67% of the inhabitants claim
French as a
mother tongue, making Montréal the second most populous French-speaking city in the world after Paris.
Defying simple definition, Montreal's character is rooted within the uneasy marriage of the founding French Catholic and English Protestant cultures yet derives its vitality from a
cosmopolitan mix of immigrants from around the globe.
The
charming buildings of
Old Montreal, are today filled with boutiques, bars, hotels and restaurants and from the promenade along the adjacent
Old Port one sees the nearby islands of Ile Ste-Hélène and Ile Notre-Dame, site of the
Expo 67 World Fair, and now comprising the city's largest park,
Parc Jean-Drapeau. The world's tallest inclined tower can be visited atop the
Olympic Stadium, a legacy of the
1976 Summer Olympics, and next door is the city's expansive
Botanical Garden.
The ‘real' Montreal, though, exists in its
neighborhoods - like
Little Italy and
Chinatown and especially the multicultural
Mile End and
Plateau Mont-Royal.
Boulevard St-Laurent ('The Main') bisects Montreal into east and west, is the city's
liveliest street, where the shops, bars and ethnic restaurants draw crowds until well into the night.
The best time to visit Montreal is in the
summer, when even the nights can be sultry and the whole city seems to be
partying, as the festival season (notably the
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal) moves into high gear. The cooler
autumns bring out the
colors in the leaves and are a great time to visit the forested
Laurentians or the rolling hills of the
Eastern Townships. Even the cold and snowy
winters can be enjoyable - the city authorities maintain more than
150 skating rinks in the region every winter where everyone can enjoy Montréal's winter charms.
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The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
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