Some friends and I are taking a weekend in Montreal next month. We’ll be staying at a hotel near the ballpark and probably doing all of our tourist-ing around there (going to see the Expos-Indians series).
The problem is that none of us know French. I know enough Spanish and Latin to get the general gist, but the more I look around about stuff on Montreal, the more I realize how French is it.
My Q, then, is should we be worried about our total lack of knowledge for all things French? My assumption is that if we stick to tourist-y places (aka places where we’ll be dropping a lot of American money) that everything will be multi-lingual so we continue to spend $.
Or, will we feel like American tourists in the middle of Paris?
I know there are quite a few people on here from Montreal, so any help would be appreciated (and feel free to suggest things that a group of post-college 20-somethings would enjoy).
If you end up feeling like an American tourist in the middle of Paris, you’d be surrounded by lots and lots of people who speak English with French accents. Because that’s how my trip to Paris was like. The few times I tried to launch a conversation in French, my auditors always answered me in English.
There isn’t a whole lotta touristy stuff by the ballpark. For free transit infomration, go to www.stcum.qc.ca for the Montreal transit system. The submay system (Metro) is really very good. The closest station to the stadium is named Viau. Ride to stations like Champ-de-Mars (you’ll have to change lines from green to orange) and you’ll be just north of “Old Montreal”, which is about as touristy as it gets without involving lapdancers.
For lapdancers, go to the Peel station and walk west on Ste-Catherine street. You’ll find their habitat easily enough.
I find that you don’t need French in Montreal. I tried speaking French, but when people noticed I was stumbling, they switched to English without any hesitation. This even occurred outside of “touristy” areas – a man said something to me as we were walking on the street. I understood the word for “pants” and was trying to figure out what. However, as he heard me talking to my wife in English, he immediately switched. (He was telling me I had gotten some dirt on my pants. You perverts should be ashamed).
Spend some time in Old Montreal while you’re there.
Small corrections… although you can probably still access the STM website using the old address, the new one is www.stm.info. And the closest station to the (hideous) Olympic Stadium is Pie-IX (pronounced pee-neuhf). It’s actually attached to the stadium. At Viau station (the next one to the east), you’ll find the Biodôme - that’s pretty touristy, actually.
Awesome, thanks a lot for the info, guys. Keep it coming if you have more!
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But I have to say that going to Montreal to watch baseball is like going to Hawaii to go mountain climbing.
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Well, how much longer do you think the Expos will be around? And how many times in your life will the Indians be playing there? And why else should a bunch of baseball-crazy kids from Cleveland go to Montreal? The art?
Plus, we’ll totally be on TV. We’ll be the only ones there with FOX SPORTS OHIO signs!
A lack of French will be a very minimal problem in Montreal. One thing you will find is that Montrealers are much happier to converse with you in English if they know you’re an American.
I’ve been here since 1995, and for the first half of my time here, I didn’t speak any French. It’s really not a problem. IMHO, more francophones speak English here than anglophones speak French. Most of the signs are in French, but the really critical and universal ones (traffic signs for instance) are immediately recognizable by shape and colour.
Guides at touristy places all speak English. So do almost all clerks, at least downtown and on the west half of the city.
Downtown, by the way is mostly “Ste. Catherine’s Street.” We could probably give you some better tourist info, if we knew what kind of stuff you were looking for – sports, nightclubs, restaurants, etc.
Lastly, I have to say that no trip to Montreal is complete without climbing the mountain that gives this city its name. Old Montreal is beautiful, too
Well, there’s the Biodome and the Insectarium, as well as tours of the Olympic complex itself.
Barbarian:
Actually, Hawaii is pretty mountainous - Diamond Head outside Honolulu, and the various volcanoes. Perhaps Kansas or Nebraska would have been better exemplars of flatness.
And all I can say is, when I was there in September of 1996, and I couldn’t find my way to a certain address, none of the people I asked could give me clear directions in English. Perhaps I just chose the wrong area to get lost in. I’m glad that others’ experiences were better.
I’m going to be armed with maps, I hope. AAA gave me three different ones. Plus, there’s a lot of numbered streets…hard to get lost on those, dontcha think?
How is that Insectarium? I joked with my friends about going, but is it neat?
The Biodome is fun - four or five different biozones in what used to be the bicycle track for the 76 Olympics.
I would also second climbing Mont Royal (actually, it’s more of a big hill, and you can take a bus if you like ). The park on top of the Mont was designed by the same guy who designed Central Park in New York. Lots of nice winding trails.
And, if you’re in town during the exhibition season for the CFL, go to Percy Molson Stadium to catch the Als in a game. Three down football on the big field!
(Chaim - 1996 - post referendum - may still have been some anti-Anglo feelings floating about?)
I stand cheerfully corrected re: the biodome and insectariums. The humongous botanical gardens are just north of the stadium, too.
And I blanked on the Pie-IX metro station, too. The few times I’ve been to the stadium, I’ve always left via the Viau metro (walking a bit East, though I live to the West) so I could get a seat before the huge throng of disappointed Expos fans could crush into the train at Pie-IX.
For real touristy crap, ride to the (yellow line) Ile Ste-Helene station and wander around “Man and His World” (the site of the 1967 World’s Fair) and “La Ronde”, our local amusement park.
There’s also the Biosphere, on St. Helen’s Island, in the former US pavilion of Expo 67 (a giant geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller). I hear it’s kind of cool, though I’ve never been. Metro Jean-Drapeau.
It’s also a major gay cruising/sex spot. Don’t be surprised if you see a naked man tanning up on the hill. I have. (I wasn’t cruising when I saw that, BTW.)
Also, if you’re here during the last couple weeks of June/first week of July, you can catch the Jazz Festival. I’m not particularly into jazz, but I always enjoy going down there to catch somefree, open-air shows. The best free show is always at the midpoint of the festival, which lasts 10 days.
I’d say things have gotten better. Then again, I’m more than fluent in French, so…
[nitpick]Île-Ste-Hélène station is now called Jean-Drapeau… [/nitpick]
Anyway, there’s not much left of “Man and His World,” save for the Biodome (former US pavilion) and a radically changed La Ronde on Île-Ste-Hélène, and the Casino de Montréal in the former France and Quebec pavilions on Île-des-Soeurs. The old Expo/Man and His World site no longer looks like this.
