Quebec, Canada

Montreal

This is a really nice city to visit with a very French Canadian feel. On some streets, you can certainly feel the European influence on the city. Montreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. The name is derived from the French Mont Royal ("Mount Royal"), the name of the hill at the heart of the city. Formerly the largest metropolis of Canada (a distinction acquired by Toronto in the mid-1970s), it is the second-largest French-speaking city in the Western world after Paris. The population is 1,620,693 people in the city of Montreal, and 3,635,571 in the Greater Montreal Area. The city rests on the Island of Montreal at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The port of Montreal lies at one end of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which is the river gateway that stretches from the Great Lakes into the Atlantic Ocean. Montreal is bordered by the St. Lawrence river on its south side, and by the Rivière des Prairies on the north. The city is truely an international city with many languages. According to wikipedia, there are 53% of the population that spoke French as a first language, followed by English at 18%. The remaining 29% percentage is made up of many languages including Italian (3.6%), Arabic (2.1%), Spanish (1.9%), Chinese (1.24%), Greek (1.21%), Creole (predominantly of Haitian origin) (1.02%), Portuguese (0.86%), and Vietnamese (0.60%).

Montreal is the cultural centre of Quebec, and of French-speaking North America as a whole. The city is Canada's centre for French language television productions, radio, theatre, film, multimedia and print publishing. The Quartier Latin is a neighborhood crowded with cafés animated by this literary and musical activity. The local English-speaking artistic community nevertheless contributes dynamically to the culture of Montreal, and intense collaborations exist between all Montreal communities. The result is a dynamic musical scene, ignited by the presence of numerous musical festivals, that melts different musical styles and traditions. To find the local music scene in Montreal, I recommend www.finiterecords.com and DJ Guapo.

In the summer, I recommend visiting during the Montreal International Jazz Festival (MIJF, also called the Jazz Fest, in French Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM)) which is the largest jazz festival in the world. It is held annually in Montreal, Quebec during the summer season (usually the beginning of July) and gathers artists from around the world. It is typically attended by over 2 million people who are attracted by the electric atmosphere, diversity of shows and by the city itself. Many parts of the city's downtown core are closed to traffic for two weeks as outdoor shows are free to the public on many stages. Attendance to some shows is over 100,000

Boulevard Saint-Laurent (Saint Laurent Boulevard, known locally as "The Main") is one of the best places to find nightlife, with many bars and nightclubs and a wide range of restaurants.

Downtown Montreal lies at the foot of Mount Royal, which is designated as a major urban park, and extends toward the St Lawrence River. The Downtown area contains dozens of notable skyscrapers — which, by law, cannot be higher than Mount Royal.

An underground shopping mall that forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city, the world's largest, with indoor access to over 1,600 shops, restaurants, offices, businesses, museums and universities, as well as metro stations, train stations, bus terminals, and tunnels extending all over downtown.

The mountain is the site of Mount Royal Park (officially Parc du Mont-Royal), one of Montreal's largest greenspaces. The park, most of which is wooded, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York's Central Park, and inaugurated in 1876

Just southeast of downtown is Old Montreal (French: Vieux-Montréal), an historic area with such attractions as the Old Port, Place Jacques-Cartier, City Hall, the Marché Bonsecours, Place d'Armes, Pointe-à-Callière Museum, and the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica.

Montreal is known for contrast between old and new architecture. Architecture and cobbled streets in Old Montreal have been maintained or restored to keep the look of the city in its earliest days as a settlement, and horse-drawn calèches help maintain that image.

Nicknamed "la ville aux cent clochers" (the city of a hundred belltowers), Montreal is renowned for its churches. As described by Mark Twain, "This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window." The city has four Roman Catholic basilicas: Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral, the aforementioned Notre-Dame Basilica, St. Patrick's Basilica, and Saint Joseph's Oratory. The Oratory is the largest church in Canada, with the largest dome of its kind in the world after that of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

The Eastern Townships of Montreal

This area is dotted with little towns that have traditionally been where English was spoken. The rolling hills with charming little towns and beautiful lakes are certainly worth a visit. The principal cities are Sherbrooke, Granby, Magog, and Cowansville. The Eastern Townships (French: Les Cantons de l'Est) is a tourist region in south-central Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. The region comprises the counties that are divided into townships after the traditional New England method of land grants, as opposed to other Quebec counties which are divided into municipalities based on the former seigneuries and parishes. The region boasts numerous summer colonies popular with vacationing Montrealers and several ski resorts, the biggest one being Mount Orford. For more info, visit: http://www.easterntownships.org

Some nice homes in the area: (many of which can be rented in either the summer or winter)

This is a house that we rented on Brome Lake:

Another beautiful house near Frelighsburg, Quebec

the barn & countryside

Note: the winters can get alot of snow, which is good for skiing, but makes it tough to leave the house!

Quebec City

This is probably the number one tourist destination in all of Canada. It is a city that looks and feels like a European transplant in North America. It has little cobble stone roads, churches, and a castle in the middle of the city overlooking a river. French is the main language in Quebec city, but it is very tourist friendly no matter what language you speak, Quebec is a perfect place for a romantic weekend getaway.

Travel Books about Quebec, Montreal