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‘Montreal’

Montreal derives its name from a nearby mountain, Mont Royal, which also happens to be one of its main tourist attractions but there’s much more to this city on the St. Lawrence River than natural wonders. Read the rest of this entry »

The Jardin Botanique de Montréal resides in one of the most lush areas of North America and was founded in 1936 by one of Canada’s premier botanists, Frère Marie-Victorin. It houses over 100,000 specimens representing 20,000 species is second in size only to Kew Gardens in London, and is easily a rival for New York’s famed institutions. Read the rest of this entry »

Constructed on the site where Montreal was founded in 1642, the Museum of Archeology and History is deservedly one of the most popular attractions in the city. First opened in 1992, the museum itself is built on some of the grounds that once held the objects now on display. Read the rest of this entry »

Known officially as the Quai du Vieux-Port, this section of Old Montreal is paradoxically one of the most up-to-date portions of the city. Like many cities bordered by large bodies of water, activities abound. Read the rest of this entry »

Using waterways to move goods, aid industry or simply for transportation has been done for centuries but the excellent canals and ports used today didn’t always exist, and sometimes creating them took generations. So it is with the Lachine Canal in Montreal. Read the rest of this entry »

What do New York’s Central Park and Mont Royal’s parks have in common? They were both designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most unusual religious structures in existence, due to its design and its history, St. Joseph’s Oratory is a large Catholic church atop Mont Royal in Montreal. Read the rest of this entry »

The iSci Science Center, or le Centre des Sciences de Montréal, as it is formally known, is one of the premier attractions in a city already filled with so many. Located along the length of King Edward Pier in Old Montreal, it’s also one of the newer sights. Read the rest of this entry »

The Insectarium de Montréal, is one of the foremost collections of insects in the world, and while there may be some that are larger, such as that in New York, there are none finer. Opened in February, 1990 over 400,000 visitors per year come to be amazed at the collections. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the few cities to dedicate a museum to the glory of building, the Centre Canadien d’Architecture in Montreal is itself glorious and is, in fact, actually two separate buildings. Read the rest of this entry »

The Casino de Montréal gets about 15,000 gamblers per weekday, 25,000 on a weekend day. It’s not hard to see why. With 3,000 slot machines alone, there’s a lot of action. But that only begins to cover the possibilities in this gaming house in Quebec. Read the rest of this entry »

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal is the oldest museum in Canada, and one of its finest. Founded in 1860, it moved to one of its present locations just before WWI in 1912, and is ‘one of’ because the museum is actually comprised of two separate buildings separated by a street, connected by a long underground tunnel. Read the rest of this entry »

French for ‘Our Lady’, this Catholic cathedral of Montreal called Notre Dame richly deserves the same name as its more famous Parisian cousin. The church was designed in 1824 by an Irish-American Protestant, James O’Donnell.   Read the rest of this entry »

Vieux Montréal, as it’s known in the native language of Quebec, is a European postcard made real in North America. Along the cobblestoned streets crossing Place Jacques Cartier it’s easily possible to imagine oneself in Paris. Read the rest of this entry »

The Montreal Biodome is one of the most unusual tourist attractions in the world. Originally built in 1976 to house Olympic Games events, it has evolved into a showcase of ecosystems as they might be. The Biodome holds four such areas, representing different ecosystems of the Americas. Read the rest of this entry »

Underground City has brought into reality a popular science fiction scenario with its network of tunnels under the streets of Montreal that house one of the most unusual shopping areas in the world. Read the rest of this entry »