The Rough Guide to Montreal 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) PDF
Preview The Rough Guide to Montreal 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
Rough Guides • Broaden your horizons Explore every corner of Montréal, using the clearest maps of any guide. Choose where to go and what to see, inspired by dozens of photos. Read expert background on everything from the architecture in Vieux-Montréal to music and theatre festivals. Rely on our selection of the best places to stay, eat and party, for every budget. It’s like having a local friend help plan your trip. “Authoritative, practical, and refreshingly direct, Rough Guides can’t be beat.” Chicago Tribune THE ROUGH GUIDE to Montréal With Québec City, the Laurentians & Eastern Townships OTHER ROUGH GUIDES INCLUDE: www.roughguides.com ISB N 978-1-84353-775-5 USA $17.99 Can $22.99 Published by UK £11.99 Rough Guides Distributed by The Penguin Group 9 7 8 1 8 4 3 5 3 7 7 5 5 Montreal_pub_cover.indd 1 23/11/06 10:20:43 am ROUGHGUIDES Montréal ROUGHGUIDES PHRASEBOOK WITH AUDIO FILES About the authors John Shandy Watson was born and raised in Canada and fell in love with Montréal while studying at McGill and Concordia universities. After stints in Berlin, Vienna and Vancouver, he landed in London where he now works as a freelance writer and editor. He has written a number of online city guides and contributed to the Rough Guide to Canada. Toronto-born Arabella Bowen spent most of the 1990s living in Montréal, indulging her passion for French language and culture while writing city columns for the Montreal Gazette, going to grad school and generally getting into the fray of provincial politics. While she’s since moved to New York, she continues to call la belle ville home. Author Picks Although we try not to waste pages on places we don’t like, anything marked with this icon merits a special recommendation, whether it’s an atmospheric café, a perfectly sited hotel or a favourite novel. Stickers have been sent out to all of the relevant establishments, but to make sure the place is a genuine recommendation, it’s worth checking that it’s also listed in the guide. About this book Rough Guides are designed to be good to read and easy to use. The book is divided into the following sections and you should be able to fnd whatever you need in one of them. The colour section gives you a feel for Montréal, suggesting when to go and what not to miss, and includes a full list of contents. Then comes basics, for pre-departure information and other practicalities. The city chapters cover each area of Montréal in depth, giving comprehensive accounts of all the attractions, while the listings section gives you the lowdown on accommodation, eating, shopping and more. The out of the city chapters describe excursions further afeld. Contexts flls you in on history and books, while individual colour inserts introduce Montréal’s cuisine and festivals, and language gives you enough French phrases and Montrealisms to get by. Next comes the small print, including details of how to send in updates and corrections, and a comprehensive index. Colour maps covering the city can be found at the back of the book. This third edition published April 2007 The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all the information in The Rough Guide to Montréal, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by Above: Strolling Boulevard St-Laurent © Tim Draper, Rough Guides any traveller as a result of information or advice contained in the guide. Front cover image: The Illuminated Crowd sculpture in front of the BNP Tower © 4cornersimages Back cover image: Montréal sidewalk cafés © Tim Draper, Rough Guides Montreal Inside cover.indd 1 12/21/06 7:39:54 PM US $17.99 CAN$22.99 ISBN: 978-1-84353-775-5 5 1 7 9 9 9 7 8 1 8 4 3 5 3 7 7 5 5 The Rough Guide to Montréal written and researched by Arabella Bowen and John Shandy Watson NEW YORK • LONDON • DELHI www.roughguides.com Montreal Colour INTRO&TNTM.indd 1 12/6/06 6:58:38 PM Montreal Colour INTRO&TNTM.indd 2 12/6/06 6:58:41 PM Contents Colour section 1–16 K Gay Montréal .................... 184 L Performing arts and film.... 190 Introduction ............................... 4 M Shopping .......................... 199 What to see................................ 6 N Sports and outdoor When to go .............................. 10 activities............................ 211 Things not to miss ................... 11 O Kids’ Montréal................... 218 P Festivals and events........... 223 Basics 17–40 Q Directory ........................... 228 Getting there ........................... 19 Out of the City 231–278 Arrival ...................................... 25 Getting around......................... 27 F Les Laurentides................. 233 The media ................................ 30 Les Cantons-de-I’Est ........ 245 Travellers with disabilities ........ 31 Québec City ...................... 253 Travel essentials ...................... 32 Contexts 279–294 The City 41–132 1 Downtown Montréal ............ 43 Language 295–302 2 Vieux-Montréal.................... 67 3 The Quartier Latin and Travel store 303–306 the Village ........................... 85 4 Plateau Mont-Royal and north ............................ 92 Small print & Index 307–320 5 Mont Royal and northwest ....................................... 102 6 Parc Olympique and Jardin cTaoslotuer osfe Mctoionnt rféoallol wing Botanique ......................... 109 p.112 7 Parc Jean-Drapeau ........... 117 8 Westmount and the Lachine Canal ................... 123 Summer festivals colour section following Listings 133–230 p.208 9 Accommodation................ 135 H Cafés and restaurants....... 146 I Bars and lounges .............. 168 Montréal colour maps J Clubs and live music.......... 177 following p.320 3 Illuminated Marché Bonsecours The Plateau’s Coloniale Street | CONTENTS | Introduction to Montréal Montréal is by far Canada’s most cosmopolitan city. Toronto may have the country’s economic power and Vancouver its most majestic scenery, but the centuries- old marriage of Protestant English and Catholic French cultures that defnes Montréal has given the city a dynamic allure that is unique in North America. Its captivating atmosphere combines the best of both traditions, tempered with the Scottish merchants and Irish workers who built much of the city and also the diverse mix of Italians, Greeks, Eastern Europeans, Jews, Chinese and Portuguese who have put down roots in various neighbourhoods over the last century. And yet Montréal’s free-spirited ambience – at once laid-back and highly style-conscious – is a product of the city itself rather than merely a sum of its multiethnic parts. Ever since the French frst few the fag here in the 1600s, the struggle for the city’s soul has cen- tred on – and largely set apart – its English and French factions. As such, Montréal has always been a pivotal player in the tense politics of Québec separatism, which reached its lowest point in the late 1960s, when the Front de Libération du Québec waged a terrorist campaign on the city. This occurred in the wake of legislation that enshrined French-language dominance in Québec, causing English-Quebecers to fee in droves, tipping the nation’s economic supremacy from Montréal to Toronto. 4 After decades of linguistic dispute, though, a truce appears to have at last settled in, and nowadays it’s hard to believe that little more than a decade ago a Montreal Colour INTRO&TNTM.indd 4 12/6/06 6:58:47 PM | INTRODUCTION | WHAT TO SEE | WHEN TO GO narrowly failed 1995 referendum on separation transformed the city into a pitched battlefeld over linguistic and territorial rights. It seems virtually everyone can speak French, while the younger generation of Francophones also speak l’anglais – certainly a bless- ing for English-speaking visitors, who should have no problem fnding someone who speaks the language. The duality of Montréal’s social mix is also refected in its urban make-up. Sandwiched between the banks of the St Lawrence River and the forested, trail-covered rise of Mont Royal (233m high, but a “mountain” in the minds of Montrealers) the heart of the city is an engaging melange of old- and new- world aesthetics. Busy Downtown, with its wide boulevards lined by sleek ofce towers and rambling shopping malls, is emblematic of a typical North American metropolis, while just to the south, Vieux-Montréal preserves the city’s unmis- takable French heritage in its layout of narrow, cobblestone streets and town squares. Closer investigation belies both these cliches, however, for there are charming nineteenth-century churches dotted about Downtown, while the bulk of Vieux-Montréal’s buildings are actually the fruits of the Anglophone merchant class that made its fortunes of the country’s plentiful natural resources and later during the Industrial Revolution, when the nearby Lachine Canal was “Canada’s Pittsburgh”. Ironically, the impetus for the canal – the Lachine Rapids in the St Lawrence River – was the reason for the city’s early success in the frst place: Montréal was as far as ships could travel into the interior, and so became a major port and trading centre. It’s the street-level vibe that makes Montréal such a great place to visit. Like the homegrown Cirque du Soleil, Mon- tréal has a ceaseless and contagious ener- gy that infuses its café culture, the thrill- ing, into-the-wee-hours nightlife and the boisterous summer festivals – celebrating jazz, comedy, music and flm. Nowhere captures the city’s free-spirited ethos better than Plateau Mont-Royal, the trendiest neighbourhood in town and efective meeting-point of Montréal’s founding and immigrant cultures. Here, the best restaurants, bars and clubs hum 5 and groove along boulevard St-Laurent, Basilique-Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde Montreal Colour INTRO&TNTM.indd 5 12/6/06 6:58:51 PM | INTRODUCTION | WHAT TO SEE | WHEN TO GO The illuminated Hôtel de Ville the symbolic divide between the Fact file city’s French and English communi- • Montréal, founded in 1642, is ties, all under the watchful gaze of the third-largest French-speaking the city’s most prominent landmark: city in the world (after Paris and the cross atop Mont Royal that Kinshasa). recalls Montréal’s initial founding as a • What Montrealers consider Catholic colony. “north” is actually northwest – this is because the street grid was set up parallel to the St Lawrence, which fows northeast where it passes Vieux-Montréal. The fur- ther “north” you go from there, What to see the greater the house number in addresses. Boulevard St-Laurent divides the city into east and west. nvariably, most frst-time visitors • On average, it snows nearly head straight for Vieux-Mon- every second day during Decem- tréal, the oldest part of the city, ber, January and February. The Iwhere the continent’s fnest col- heaviest snowfall on record was lection of seventeenth- to nine- on March 4, 1971 – the 102cm teenth-century buildings line the that dropped that day is nearly half the average snowfall for the atmospheric streets between rue St- whole year. Antoine and rue de la Commune. • The population of the city Sights are clustered around a number of Montréal is 1.6 million, of of public spaces, and Place d’Armes, which 54 percent have French dominated by the radiant Basilique as a mother tongue, 17 percent English and 29 percent another language (a ffth of these are Ital- ian). The population of greater Montréal, including the off-island cities and suburbs, is just over .5 million. • The roughly triangular Île de Montréal covers nearly 500 square kilometres and is domi- nated by Mont Royal – known by everyone as “the mountain”. The island has 267km of shoreline, surrounded by the St Lawrence River to the south and east and the Rivière des Prairies to the northwest. • Montréal’s top three most- attended events are Just for 6 Laughs (Juste pour Rire), Festival de Jazz and Divers/Cité. Montreal Colour INTRO&TNTM.indd 6 12/6/06 6:58:54 PM The Biosphère | INTRODUCTION | WHAT TO SEE | WHEN TO GO Notre-Dame, is the best place to start from. The n e i g h b o u r i n g streets are home to historic muse- ums as well as the delicately steepled Chapelle Notre- Dame-de-Bon- Secours and the silver-domed Marché Bonse- cours, one of the city’s best-known landmarks. In the district’s southwest corner, the excellent Musée d’Archéologie provides a good introduction to Montréal’s three and a half centuries of history, while the reclaimed land of the Vieux-Port, running the length of Vieux-Montréal along the St Lawrence River, is lined with promenades, parks and a number of har- bourfront attractions. Between Vieux-Montréal and the mountain, you’ll fnd Montréal’s mod- ern Downtown, centred on the east–west artery rue Ste-Catherine, and flled with a collection of department stores, hotels, restaurants and cinemas. Nearby, the scaled-down (but still massive) rendition of St Peter’s – the Basilique-Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde – as well as the warm-hued interior of St Patrick’s Basilica contrast with the more sober Protestant churches dotted about. Although no longer the tallest of Montréal’s skyscrapers, the cross-shaped Place Ville Marie seems to tower over the city; it sits atop the shopping mall that began the Underground City’s (RÉSO) network of pedestrian tunnels linking the Métro system to shopping centres, ofces and cultural institutions. The foremost example of the latter is the complex of theatres that, along with the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, comprises Place des Arts, half a dozen blocks east of Place Ville Marie. The west end of Downtown overlaps the Golden Square Mile, the his- toric enclave of Montréal’s wealthy Anglophone elite, which clings to the southern slopes of the mountain. This neighbourhood’s contributions to the city include a number of sumptuous mansions and such public institu- tions as McGill University and the Musée des Beaux-Arts facing onto rue Sherbrooke, the premier address for upscale galleries and boutiques. By contrast, the eastern edges of Downtown are marked by the small yet bustling Chinatown and the bars and cafés of the Quartier Latin, stomp- 7 ing ground of students from the Université du Québec à Montréal. A Montreal Colour INTRO&TNTM.indd 7 12/6/06 6:58:55 PM | INTRODUCTION | WHAT TO SEE | WHEN TO GO Public art on McGill similarly vibrant energy infuses the Village, the openly gay and lesbian distr ict further east along rue Ste-Catherine. The Plateau Mont-Royal dis- trict on the moun- tain’s eastern fank mixes Montréal’s typically down-to-earth quality with hip style and ethnic charm. The largely Francophone neighbourhoods of the Plateau lie to the east of the chic boutiques and cafés of rue St-Denis – ideal for people-watching – while a panoply of ethnic businesses and trendy restaurants are clus- tered on and around boulevard St-Laurent, more commonly known as “The Main”. Rising above Downtown but best accessed from the Plateau, Parc du Mont-Royal is the city’s largest park, wound about with trails and terrifc views over the city. The Oratoire St-Joseph and its massive dome rise above the western fank of the mountain, while to the north, a pair of vast cemeteries give way to tony, Francophone Outremont and the Greek and Jewish communities of Mile End. Further north still, Little Italy is a major foodie destination, as much for its espresso and Italian dishes as for the enticing produce stalls and gourmet shops surrounding the Marché Jean-Talon. Some of Montréal’s chief tourist attractions are a bit far from the centre, but remain easily accessed via the Métro. In the city’s east end, the Stade Olympique, with its unique inclined tower, lies between the Biodôme, Franglais Despite Québec’s linguistic battles, there’s often a great deal of cross- over between English and French and it’s not uncommon to hear Montrealers switching from one to the other in the course of a single conversation. Francophones and Anglophones have also each picked up words and phrases from the other’s language – a combination of French and anglais dubbed “franglais”. So while you might hear a Montréalais say something like, “Je suis allé à un party ce weekend – c’était full fun”, it’s no less natural for a Montrealer to throw in French expressions while making plans for the evening: “Let’s try to grab a seat on the terrasse for 8 the cinq à sept before heading to that new resto on the Plateau – we’ll need to grab a bottle of wine at the dep along the way, though.” Montreal Colour INTRO&TNTM.indd 8 12/6/06 6:58:58 PM Calèche in Vieux-Montréal | INTRODUCTION | WHAT TO SEE | WHEN TO GO
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