**KeithT **and I are considering a two-day trip to Montreal. It’s within driving distance from here so we’ll leave early on a Saturday, see as much as we can, stay over - we both like B&Bs so probably somewhere like that, see more on Sunday and then drive home.
What should we absolutely not miss?
Where should we eat? We both like small, non-touristy, family-owned, off-the-beaten-path, ethnic restaurants.
What part of the city is good to stay in so we can eaily walk to as many attractions as possible and/or take the train or buses to things?
What else do we need to know?
Also, he’s still a poor grad student, and I’m planning a move and a wedding so this needs to be as inexpensive as possible. Thanks!
You’re picking just about the worst time of year to visit. Montreal is cold, dark and dreary in February.
But if you insist…
The old port city has some B&B’s and because it’s low tourist season, it may not be a bad idea to stay there. If you are lucky and get some fresh snow fall, it may even be pretty. Plenty of restaurants, cafes and bars all within a very small area.
Don’t miss Notre Dame Cathedral (walking distance). Museum of Fine art (short cab ride). Downtown shopping district (walk or short cab ride).
Honestly, you’re not getting much bang for your time and money this time of year unless you embrace the cold, sleet, snow and ice and make the best of it.
Unfortunately, I’m moving before summer. So it’s now or never. Well, actually I’ve been there before with my family (when I was ~10) so it’s now or never for **KeithT **since he’s a Midwestern boy born and bred. We’re trying to hit all the major East Coast cities (at least the Northeast ones) before I move out to the Midwest. Right now they’re all 3-4 hour trips. Once we move, they’ll be out of driving distance. We’ve already done Boston (on a miserable ~50 degree, rainy day in May last year) and NYC (in December… yup, great weather there too). So we’re pretty well used to nasty weather.
Thanks everyone for the ideas so far. Keep them coming!
I went in October, which was still cool and rainy, but not so bad overall. That was a very confusing couple of months – I spent successive weekends in Florida, Baltimore, Montreal, and then Halloween in New York City.
A couple blocks from Auberge Maeva there’s lots of cute French restaurants and places to go hang out and people-watch. I also had a good time strolling around the university (which has several subterranean levels) watching the students bustle about busily. Of course, I was a nineteen-year-old with a backpack so I didn’t stick out.
See if you cna track down poster Matt_Mcl. He lives in Montreal and gave me some good pointers when I took a trip a few years back. He’d probably be fun to meet, too
Me, I was there for an Indians/Expos baseball series so I didn’t see much. Glad I went when I did!
One tip - when someone greets you with “bonjour” say “hello” back to them otherwise you end up listening to French.
I grew up in Montreal, and I certainly agree that poutine is an underappreciated treasure. (In case anyone is wondering, it’s french fries with gravy and cheese curds… no joke… but it’s tasty stuff). Anyways, if you’re into the touristy American thing, you should hit the nightlife of St. Catharine’s street, possibly Prince Arthur as well. You could also check out the Old Port, which is historic and pretty, St. Joseph’s Oratory, which is also historic and pretty cool, and there’s always the Biodome or one of our many museums if that’s your thing. If not, find some hockey, there’s always some hockey somewhere. (Even if it’s on TV in a sports bar). Hope that helps.
I was in Montreal for a few days last summer and had a great time – beautiful, fascinating city. Off the top of my head, I remember that the basillica was great, and the Old Town part closer to the river had a very Old World feel. Sherbrooke street and the area around McGill University had some beautiful old buildings; IIRC there are placards on the street that can help you do a self-guided walking tour. Montreal has a lot of strong ethnic neighborhoods; one of my favorite things was walking up to the North of the City to the old Jewish neighborhood and buying the BEST BAGELS I’VE EVER TASTED. (Yes, better than New York’s.) That whole neighborhood had a slightly Old World feel in itself; perhaps surprisingly to most Americans, Montreal is apparently one of the last outposts of the Yiddish language. There are also some great smoked meat restaurants nearby.
It’s probably true of every city, but I really got a kick out of just soaking up the local scenery – wandering around, trying to get a feel for the place. Montreal is truly unique – at once so very (North) American, yet so French. I even enjoyed walking around the skyscrapers of the financial district – so very, very American – and seeing everything in French.
If you get a chance, I’d recommend finding a book called City Unique: Montreal Days and Nights in the '40s and '50s by William Weintraub. It will give you a great feel for the city in one of its heydays – the “two solitudes” in full swing, the corrupt politics, the overwhelming influence of the Catholic Church, and everything in between. Also good is Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey through Quebec. Though it is, as the title says, decidedly unsentimental and unromantic about the place, it is still enlightening. I read that one before going to Montreal, and City Unique after; I wish I’d read them in the opposite order.
An anecdote: a theme of both books is how insular and/or close-knit Quebecois society can be. On my flight into Montreal from London, the Quebecois woman sitting next to me recognized the flight attendant as having been in her elementary school class! They hadn’t seen each other for years; they chatted a bit, but neither seemed overly surprised at having run into each other. It was probably a coincidence, but it seemed very apropos considering where I was flying into. Oh, and everyone applauded when the plane landed – you could see how happy all the Quebecois on the plane were to be home again. Fascinating place.
Folks, if you can make it this weekend, they’re holding the Nuit Blanche event this Saturday night.
Dozens of museums are free and open all night, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts which is currently hosting a never-to-be-repeated-outside-Russia exhibition of artifacts relating to Catherine the Great.
A word about churches. Montreal is crammed to the gills with them, but the daddy of them all is Notre-Dame Basilica, on Place d’Armes (Place-d’Armes metro). The interior is so breathtaking that the architect converted to Roman Catholicism.
My second choice would be St. Patrick’s Basilica, a hidden treasure on René-Lévesque at Saint-Alexandre (Square-Victoria metro). The interior is lush and covered with hundreds of little mosaics of saints.
Very impressive from the outside are Saint Joseph’s Oratory (on chemin Queen-Mary, Côte-des-Neiges metro), the largest church in Canada; the interior is not a whole lot after the other basilicas, but if you feel like it, have a look at the museum (it brings new meaning to “I left my heart in Montreal”). And just about any picture book of Montreal will have a view of Christ Church Cathedral (Union x Sainte-Catherine, McGill metro) and Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral (René-Lévesque x Cathédrale, Bonaventure metro), with modern office towers soaring behind them.
By all means walk through the old city - get the pamphlet from the tourist information point just west of Place Jacques-Cartier on Notre-Dame across from the old courthouse (Champ-de-Mars metro) and look at the historic buildings and such. But I’d advise you to reconsider eating there - it’s kind of touristy and fairly expensive to do so, although the food is of course excellent.
Smoked meat and bagels have been mentioned. It is unacceptable not to go to Schwartz’s (Saint-Laurent x Napoleon, Sherbrooke metro), a microscopic smoked-meat deli. Prime ministers and movie stars have eaten there and everyone has heard of it but it’s too gruff and small and the food is too good for it to be touristy. The granddaddies of the bagel places are Saint-Viateur Bagel and Fairmount Bagel Bakery. Failure to bebagel yourself is likewise unacceptable.
RealityChuck is right about tossing a rock to find good food. It is hard to be too badly disappointed. Some of my faves: Modavie, rue St-Paul Ouest, Old Town. Modavie is very friendly and usually busy. Updated French-based cooking, specializing in some great lamb dishes, and has a great wine list and good jazz in the evenings. Another outfit of the Antonopoulos family, who have done some very snazzy stuff in the Old Town including 3 nice hotels. Café Charrier, rue St-Denis, near the old mental hospital. Fantastic brunch. An unpretentious neighborhood hang that’s been there since the 1930s. Brioche Lyonnaise, rue St-Denis, Latin Quarter. Unusual perhaps, a French place actually run by native Frenchmen. Pastries a specialty of course, but breakfasts, lunches, salads, sandwiches all top drawer. Invariably lovely college-age servers.
