Hello from Montreal - A Driving Tour as a Great Introduction to a Fascinating City

Shortly after my arrival in Montreal, around 13 hours, I met Carol, a professional guide Guidatour licensed in the lobby of the Holiday Inn and was going to be my local expert on a road trip through the downtown Montreal. I had not been there in Montreal once before age 10, so I really need a quick overview of the city to become familiar with its layout. Although downtown Montreal is very compact and can work, do business would give me a great introduction to this metropolis.

My hotel, we drove south on St. Urbain Street and our first big show was one of the main tourist destinations in Montreal: the Place d'Armes and exquisite Basicilica of Notre Dame, the largest and the most beautiful cathedral in Montreal . From there, we passed by the city council in Montreal and headed up the Saint Lawrence Boulevard, also known as "The Main", for generations the traditional route of successive waves of immigrants as they made their way north of the port area is definitely nods in other neighbhourhoods city. We passed the hotel Godin, a former clothing factory that was recently converted into a boutique hotel, one of the many restored historic buildings has been transformed into a modern hotel.

Prince Arthur Street is a pedestrian street in the north with a variety of reasonably priced restaurants with outdoor terraces. This area was a hotbed of hippie culture in the 1960s and today offers a wide selection of family restaurants. A little further west, we decided to have lunch at Chez Gautier, one of the most famous bars in Montreal, established in 1978, Parisian décor Chez Gautier has beautiful woodwork and handicraft magnificent glass dome ceiling in the bar.

Right next to Chez Gautier and under the same ownership is the Belgian Patisserie, a bakery that offers a wide selection of beautifully designed cakes and baked goods. Carole and I sat on the deck where I satisfy my cravings for authentic French onion soup and a salad with warm goat cheese and toast. It was a delicious light meal that revitalized me to continue my explorations.

Our drive continued with a trip north through the Parque de las Americas, a park that celebrates Latin American immigrants in the city, until we reached the Mont-Royal, just east of Mount Royal. This whole area is called the "Plateau", a relatively flat east of St-Denis which is subdivided into smaller neighborhoods area. This is one of the trendiest neighborhoods of Montreal.

Western Plateau Outremont covering the adjacent mountain area. The mixture of ethnic groups was demonstrated by the side of the living by a synagogue and a Chinese church. Carole noted that some of the best bagels you can have Fairmont Street. Côte Sainte-Catherine is the main boulevard of Outremont and surrounded by a variety of parks and mansions. Outremont is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Montreal and used to be a French fort, while Westmount, the area on the southwest slopes of Mount Royal, historically used for the English fort.

We went through the University of Montreal, one of the four universities, two of which are aimed at English-speaking and two French verse. The UDM is mainly spoken French and the campus was designed by renowned architect Ernest Cormier, who was one of the first to introduce the Art Deco Montreal. We continue in Côte-des-Neiges, a multiethnic neighborhood of recent immigrants.

The big attraction on the northwest side of the Oratory of Mount Royal Saint Joseph, crowned by the dome of the second largest in the world after St. Peter's in Rome. The chapel was built as a result of the efforts of Brother André (1845-1937), a man of humble origin, who was the keeper of the Notre Dame College in the street. Many miracles are attributed to Brother André and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. In 1904, Brother André began construction of a small chapel on the side of the mountain, opposite the university. This chapel became too small, so in 1917 a church of 1,000 seats was built. In 1924, finally, the construction of the basilica began and was completed 40 years later, in 1967. The Oratory is a beautiful building and one of the main monuments of Montreal. Driving into the city from the west you can see this glorious structure for miles.

Around the Bend is the École Polytechnique, where Marc Lepine disturbed killed 14 women in December 1989 in what was called the "Slaughter of Montreal". A permanent monument was erected to commemorate this infamous incident and keep the memory all women victims of violence room. Cemetery Dame-des-Neiges-Notre began in 1855, is the largest cemetery in Montreal and has many of the most prominent citizens of the city. More than 800,000 people are buried here and in many tombstones carved wooden bear witness to many prominent residents. While Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is the largest French Catholic cemetery in the city, the Mount Royal Protestant cemetery right next door is the final resting place for many prominent Montreal Anglo residents.

Mount Royal is the culmination of Montreal at 223 meters and has a large green space for city dwellers. The park dates back to 1870 when local Westmount residents were concerned about deforestation in the mountains due to cutting firewood. Famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, creator of Central Park in New York and many other public green spaces in the United States, was commissioned to design the Mount Royal Park.

Our first stop in Mount Royal Park is Beaver Lake, an artificial lake created in 1958 in what was once a swamp. The lake is surrounded by meadows and trees and used as a skating rink in winter. Then parked the car a little further up the mountain, right next to the Smith House, the former last remaining farm in Monte Real offers today several exhibitions and activities. The basement of this building is home to a large gabbro rock that is an example of igneous rock which constitutes Mount Royal and over the mountains of the Montérégie region. Contrary to popular belief, Mount Royal is an extinct volcano, but the result of magmatic intrusions.

After a short walk through a wooded track system arrived at the famous viewpoint of Montreal, Belvedere Kondiaronk (name of a Huron chief) overlooking downtown skyscrapers. By the way, the skyscrapers of Montreal are not as high as those in other cities, since, according to the stipulations of the area, no buildings are allowed to be higher than the mountain. The view from this point of view is amazing and I wish every city had a point as viewpoint. Just off the look is the Chalet du Mont-Royal, a large structure built in 1932 which features concerts and special events.

Our brief tour of Mount Royal concluded with a tour of the residential area of Westmount, once a city of about 20,000 inhabitants, completely enclosed by the city of Montreal. Westmount has long been the traditional elite residential area of Montreal English speaking and many houses Tudor Revival and Georgian Revival reflect the richness of this region. Greene Avenue is one of the shopping streets in the area and has many fashionable shops of Westmount.

Further east on Sherbrooke Street, one of the streets of Montreal, is the Golden Square Mile, once the site of the industry's top Canada between 1850 and 1930. Most of the residents were in Scottish home were enriched in the fur trade business. At that time he concentrated about 70% of the wealth of Canada among residents of the Golden Square Mile. Today, only a few Victorian houses remain, and many buildings are home to retail stores. Part of the McGill University Golden Square Mile, the oldest university in Montreal, founded in 1821 following a generous donation from Scottish fur trader John McGill origin. On our way back to my hotel also spent UQAM, the University of Quebec in Montreal, the youngest university in the city, founded in 1979 and a modern addition to the city.