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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/09/2006 (7143 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
EDITOR’S NOTE: When in Montreal… do as Montrealers do. Here are two views of Montreal — one by francophone writer Carolyn Parent, a lifelong Montrealer, who offers an insider’s view of her city; and one by Martha Chapman, an angophone who grew up in Montreal and knows how to save a buck in either official language.
By Carolyn Parent
MONTREAL — Back in the 1970s, Old Montreal, one of the largest historic urban centres in North America, was certainly the most un-happening place in the city.
Busy developing downtown Montreal, promoters couldn’t care less about that derelict district. Today, after three decades of carefully planned revitalization, this neighbourhood’s renaissance is such that it has become the city’s oldest new hot spot for locals and tourists alike.
Bordering the St. Lawrence River, le Vieux, as we say, is where French settlers founded Montreal or Ville-Marie in May 1642. One square kilometre in size, the area numbers some 600 buildings, most of them dating back to the English regime.
Back in the 19th century, Montreal was a commercial hub, the Canadian gateway to most European products, says Gilles Morel, Old Montreal co-ordinator for the Société de développement de Montreal.
The goods were stored in tall warehouses-salesrooms such as those on St. Paul Street. Accordingly, one of the most important task the Quebec government and the city had to tackle in order to revitalize the area was help warehouse owners turn their commercial buildings into residential ones. The rationale was: If this historic neighbourhood is to survive, it has to be inhabited.
And so, about $1.2 million has been invested annually for the last 30 years to help owners do just that. With public space and infrastructure rehabilitation, the tab totals a hefty $300 million.
But every penny was worth it, wasn’t it? In 1975, there were 550 avant-garde Montrealers living in le Vieux; today, 4,200 residents, 35,000 workers, among which the hip Cité du Multimédia types, and 13 million visitors per year bring life and flair to its cobblestoned streets!
“On McGill Street, 10 years ago, you’d better not crave anything more sophisticated than a club sandwich because that’s all that could be had,” said Morel. Today, most streets, including McGill, are lined not only with posh restaurants and bars, but also art galleries and designer boutiques.
Another master-stroke of Old Montreal’s revival was the Lighting Plan. At night, 20 or so public squares and architectural gems are literally highlighted, including lively Place Jacques-Cartier and discreet Dalhousie Station as well as City Hall, Marché Bonsecours, Gothic-Revival Notre-Dame Basilica and the Aldred Building, a stunning Art Deco landmark.
The Lighting plan really gives Old Montreal an exceptional character, says Morel. Take St. Hélène Street, where you find a most beautiful cluster of 19th-century buildings, among which is one of the neighbourhood’s most elegant boutique hotels, Hôtel Gault. (It is lit by 22 gas lamps that shed a soft, bluish glow. How romantic!) On a practical note, lighting also made the neighbourhood a safer one.
According to Morel, an interesting consideration for out-of-town visitors is that le Vieux is a rare historic centre where one can actually sojourn, mainly in restored heritage buildings converted into boutique hotels. Auberge du Vieux-Port, Hôtel St-Paul, Hôtel Le Place d’Armes, Hôtel Le St-James, that has Madonna and the Rolling Stones among its habitués, are among the dozen or so hotels that have mushroomed in recent years.
Of course, all Montreal guidebooks feature Old Montreal tours, but I suggest you take your cues from the horse’s mouth, Charles Lapointe, president and CEO of Greater Montreal Convention and Tourism Bureau as well as member of the World Tourism Organization’s executive committee. Here are some Old Montreal sites he would personally want to show visitors.
Ranking first on Lapointe’s tour is Pointe-à-Callière, Museum of Archaeology and History, a strategic starting point because it is the city’s birthplace and it features a wonderful multimedia show about its history.
Next, we would go to a lovely site visitors often overlook: the courtyard of Gibby’s restaurant. Dating back to the end of the French regime, its old stables have been very well-preserved.
Then, if it’s summer or early fall, we would hop on the St. Lawrence Shuttle going to Île Sainte-Hélène and Parc Jean-Drapeau from Jacques-Cartier quay. Near a lookout stands Alexander Calder’s Man, which is not only the artist’s biggest steel sculpture, but also his most beautiful. The view of the skyline from that location is just superb.
And from there, continues Lapointe, it’s a five-minute walk to the Biosphère. The former American pavilion during Expo ’67, the Montreal World Fair, remains an architectural masterpiece. It now houses a family-oriented science museum promoting a better understanding of the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes ecosystem and water-related issues.
One of my own favourite Old Montreal spots these days include the quays of the Old Port, where we can tango on Friday nights and salsa on Sunday afternoons.
On Parc des Écluses, Flora, the first edition of an event tapping into flower power and showcasing 40 or so innovative gardens, is truly sensational. It is inspired from Europe’s ephemeral garden festivals, explains artistic director Raquel Peñalosa, and its objective is to present residential gardens as actual life and design milieux.
How fitting : just last May, Montreal was named a Unesco City of Design.
As for fall foliage, well, visit Parc du Mont-Royal where Mother Nature, around mid-September, makes a true spectacle of herself. And there, have a little thought for Old Montreal. For it was in 1643, after having survived a terrible flood, that the French colony headed by Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, thanked Virgin Mary by planting a cross on the mountain top.
Travel writer Carolyn Parent is a life-longer Montrealer
You don’t have to break the bank for a memorable visit to Montreal
By Martha Chapman
MONTREAL — In March of this year, Montreal hit the jackpot. An entire issue of the prestigious American magazine Gourmet was dedicated to the city and its many charms. Trilled the cover in large type: Affordable Montreal.
Inside, articles waxed sappy about maple syrup and gooey about poutine (poutine!). Other stories touted the new trendy hotel, the St. James (from $400 per night) and the famous Toqué! Restaurant, where the five-course tasting menu will set you back $98 — or $148 with wine.
Affordable?
Sure there are all sorts of posh places to eat, sleep and shop in this wonderful city, but there are lots of bargains too. Let’s see where you can get the most joi de vivre for your vacation buck in Montreal.
Transportation
PUBLIC transportation is recommended. Not only is gas hideously expensive throughout Quebec, but Montreal drivers are notoriously speedy and sporadic. There’s also much confusion when it comes to street parking: for example, a sign in Old Montreal advises — in French only — that there is no parking Tuesday to Friday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. March to December; no parking on one side of the post from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. unless you are a permit holder; but on the other side of the post, visitors can park for two hours between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Got that?
To the rescue: Montreal’s excellent transit system, which includes an extensive subway system known as the Métro. A three-day system-wide pass will set you back just $17 and get you all around the city.
There are other great ways to get your footing in Montreal. Gray Line packages a serviceable three hour tour, which will whiz you around the city’s major landmarks for $36 per person. 514-934-1222; www.coachcanada.com.
Despite the city’s great pride in its miniature mountain, Mont Royal, it is surprisingly flat and full of kilometres of dedicated bike lanes. Montreal on Wheels offers guided bike tours of some of the city’s most colourful neighbourhoods as well as tandem bike, scooter and rollerblade rental. 877-866-0633; www.caroulemontreal.com.
Accommodation
IN case your budget doesn’t stretch to the divine Hotel St. James, check out these attractive, fun, and thoroughly cool options.
As any Montrealer knows, Le Plateau — the neighbourhood to the immediate east of downtown — is artsy, hip, and bohemian. Cafés, bars, and charming boutiques crowd the streets alongside homes with those famous wrought iron outside staircases. Half an hour here and you will wish you had taken up a career in batik instead of actuarial science.
Channel your inner artiste with a stay at Anne Ma Soeur Anne, a centrally located studio B & B right in the heart of rue St. Denis. Located over a jazz bar on the top two floors of an 1890s apartment house, Anne Ma Soeur Anne (literally, Anne my sister Anne) is named for the owner’s daughters Julie-Anne and Anne-Tsin.
Some studios feature Murphy beds and terraces from which you can admire next door’s tomato plants. All feature a clever mini-kitchen with sink, two-burner stove, microwave, toaster oven, and mini-fridge. Breakfast comprises coffee and orange juice, thoughtfully supplied in the mini-kitchen, and a croissant delivered to your door. “If you want to know Montreal, you must come here,” says the gracious manager, Isabelle Imbert. Guests, including Cirque de Soleil staffers, clearly agree. Rates from $80 to $165 depending on season; 514-281-3187; www.annemasoeuranne.com.
Old Montreal is one of the strongest tourist magnets in the city, with its cobblestone streets, chic boutique hotels and historic buildings. But fashionable needn’t translate into expensive: not if you stay at Casa Del Matéo.
Located over a restaurant of the same name, this inn is surely the only Mexican-themed hostelry in Canada owned by an Iranian yoga master who lives in Hawaii. Fanny Esfahani, manager and the owner’s sister, explains you can cut your accommodation costs by choosing one of their rooms, which feature a shared bath. Plus, of the 22 rooms, 18 have a kitchenette. Rooms are basic but spacious, and just to hear the bells of Notre Dame Basilica two blocks away is worth the price of admission. Rates from $80 to $125; 514-286-9589; www.casademateo.com.
A note about accommodation such as Anne Ma Soeur Anne and Casa del Mateo: those charming high ceilings on the ground floor come at a cost to tourists who must climb up to their accommodation (elevators not being common in such buildings). At Anne Ma Soeur Anne, you’ll find the reception office at the end of a 24-stair climb: consider packing light or bringing a muscled companion.
For yet another novel choice of accommodation, you can’t go far wrong with the New Residence Hall at McGill College, available to tourists when school is out — mid-May to mid-August.
If “college accommodation” makes you think of John Belushi in Animal House, you’ll have to think again. Until 2003, the New Residence Hall was a typical mid-scale downtown property, and is remarkably unchanged since then. Outside it’s a non-descript 16 storey building; inside is a spacious lobby, complete with grand piano. Rooms are furnished with mini-fridges (a hit with the students term-time) and clientele is a fascinating mixed bag from student groups to visiting academics. Rates range from $98 to $103 including continental breakfast at the self-serve restaurant.
For the price, you can’t beat the location. You are a couple of blocks from the McGill Campus, which puts you smack in the centre of many downtown attractions including Sherbrooke Street, the McCord Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts. Within a block or two of the Residence is a Métro station and a mall including a supermarket and SAQ (liquor store). 514-398-3471; www.mcgill.ca/nrh.
Now onto the main course.
MONTREAL is a city of food-a-philes, and no wonder. From French cuisine, complete with all that stuff that’s so bad for you, to ethic dining and organic smorgasbords, this city has it all.
A tightwad must-do is one of the 200 BYOB restaurants. The treat in bringing your own bottle in Montreal is that you can buy wine in convenience stores, known as a dépanneurs or “deps” to the locals. That means that even if you show up to the restaurant sans bottle, you need only walk a block or two to find a shop that will happily sell you one. Even better? No corkage fee.
BYOB restaurants are found throughout the city but there is a proliferation of them in the Plateau area, particularly along Duluth Street East and Prince Arthur.
Remember the tightwad’s mantra: get away from the tourist areas and you’ll find the steals in meals. Blue-collar neighbourhoods may not boast too many chic boutiques, but when you can get a three-course luncheon for $5 (like you can at Chez Clo at 3199 Ontario Street East), who can complain?
Or, take the advice of Gilles Bengle, Tourism Montreal’s genial director of media relations: choose a top-notch restaurant, but dine there at lunch, for a third to a half of what you would spend at dinner. At the elegant Club Chasse et Pêche in Old Montreal, a three-course luncheon featuring bison was $21 while the bison main course alone on the dinner menu was $30. 514-861-1112; www.leclubchasseetpeche.com
For more deals, seek out the portable little volume Cheap Thrills by Véhicule Press. Featuring Montreal meals under $15, the guide highlights 90 restaurants by type and neighbourhood.
Smart Shopping
Speaking of indispensable volumes, if shopping is part of your Montreal getaway, you’ll love Smart Shopping Montreal. Now is its 20th year, Sandra Phillips’ yellow paperback — its French version is referred to by local Francophones as “the little yellow bible” — is chockablock with tips for keen-eyed shoppers. Shops are listed by specialty (bathing suits, chocolate, medieval are just three listings) and there’s a whole chapter on leisure where you can ferret out deals in manicures, concerts and free museums.
Phillips loves “nosing around” the city and she seems to know it better than some cab drivers. “It takes four months going five hours a day to update the 1,500 listings in the book,” she says. Chabanel Street, in the heart of the garment district in Northern Montreal, is an old stomping ground for her. This is the mecca of bargain clothes shopping, and the home of $5 jeans and $10 evening bags. www.smartshopping.net.
Lastly, you simply cannot visit Montreal without taking part in the cultural scene. This is a city where festival follows festival in a continuous wave of music, dance, food, films, and entertainment. The two summer biggies, the Montreal Jazz Festival and Just for Laughs, each feature several hundred events, the majority of which are free. Find out more at www.tourisme-montreal.org.
If you’re a museum buff, you’ll love the Montreal Museum Pass. You’ll receive admission to more than 32 museums plus the three-day transit pass for only $45 ($35 without the transit pass). www.museesmontreal.org.
Imagine how much money you’ll save… money you can now spend at the Club Chasse et Pêche. Or on Chabanel Street. Or just prolonging your stay in delicious, affordable, Montreal.
The frugal Martha Chapman is a Toronto writer who grew up in Montreal.