Other sights in Montréal
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TOHU
If you decide to take a jaunt to Montréal’s circus mecca in its working-class St-Michel district, be prepared to be wowed. This innovative complex TOHU (which comes from the French expression tohu-bohu, for hustle and bustle), includes an arena designed only with the circus arts in mind, Cirque du Soleil’s international headquarters and artists’ residence and the National Circus School. Moreover, it was built on the sight of North America’s second largest waste dump and the whole complex is now powered completely by methane gas from the landfill garbage beneath it.
You can visit the complex on your own (via guided audio tour), or on a guided 90-minute tour. TOHU …
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Rue St-Jacques
Known as the Wall Street of Canada into the 1930s, Rue St-Jacques was lined with the head offices of insurance companies and banks that proclaimed Montréal’s prosperity for the best part of a century. In those days it was known as St James Street.
Some great edifices are veritable temples to capitalism. The 1902 Guardian Insurance Building has helmeted women guarding the entrance while lions and mermaids watch over on the 2nd floor. The Molson Bank Building looks more like a royal residence; heads of founder William and his two sons grace the doorway.
The most glamorous of the lot is the Royal Bank Building, the city’s tallest building (22 stories) when it was built in…
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En Prison
Leaving from Musée Québécois de Culture Populaire are the highly recommended 90-minute tours of the former Trois-Rivières prison, En Prison (Tel: 819-372-0406; www.enprison.com; 200 Rue Laviolette; adult/child/student $9/5/7; first tour 10am, last tour 4:45pm Jun-Aug).
When it closed in 1986 it was the oldest continually in-use jail in Canada. The tours are led by former convicts – perhaps the only job in Canada where a criminal record is a prerequisite. The tours cover not only the history of this particular prison but life in Canada’s prisons in general. It’s fascinating but at times rather disturbing stuff, and guides try to lighten things up a bit by throwing in a…
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Quai Alexandra & Around
This eastern-most pier in the port is home to the Iberville Passenger Terminal, the dock for cruise ships that ply the St Lawrence River as far as the Magdalen Islands out in the Gulf of St Lawrence.
Nearby the Parc des Écluses (Park of Locks) holds exhibitions of landscape architecture, shows and concerts. A bicycle path starts here and runs south-east along the pretty Canal de Lachine.
The abandoned 17-story-tall concrete silo on the south side of the locks is the last big relic of Montréal’s heyday as a grain port. On the promenade just west of Café des Éclusiers is the Silo Phone, a set of speakers and microphones hooked up to the grain silo across the locks. Sa…
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Quai Jacques-Cartier
This pier is the anchor of the Old Port area, home to restaurants, an open-air stage and a handicraft center. Every year the port stages a number of temporary exhibits, shows and events.
Tours of the port area also depart from here, and a ferry goes to Parc Jean-Drapeau. The ferry can also stop at Parc de la Cité-du-Havre, where there’s a restaurant and picnic tables.
Just east of Quai Jacques-Cartier is the Parc du Bassin Bonsecours, a grassy expanse enclosed by a waterway and criss-crossed with footbridges. In summer you can rent paddleboats ($6.50 per half-hour) or remote-control model sailboats; in winter the ice-skaters take over.
There’s a café at the Pavilion…
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Parc National du Mont-Tremblant
Opened more than a century ago, the wild, wooded Parc National du Mont-Tremblant covers more than 1500 sq km of gorgeous Laurentian lakes, rivers, hills and woods. You’ll find fantastic hiking and mountain-biking trails as well as camping and river routes for canoes. The half-day route from Lac Chat to Mont de la Vache Noire ($19) is particularly popular. If you are planning for activities, be sure to reserve a canoe and a place on the shuttle bus by calling the Information Center Parc du Mont-Tremblant well in advance of your arrival.
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La Domaine Joly de Lotbinière
La Domaine Joly de Lotbinière, a stately museum between Trois-Rivières and Québec City, was built for Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (1849–1908), a premier of Québec. This is one of the most impressive manors built during the seignorial period of Québec and has been preserved in its late-19th-century state. The outbuildings and huge cultivated garden are a treat, and the café serves lunch and afternoon teas.
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Musée Québécois de Culture Populaire
Musée Québécois de Culture Populaire is one of the most interesting stops. Its changing exhibits cover the gamut from folk art to pop culture, delving into the social and cultural life of the Québécois. Recent exhibits include a quirky show on the social significance of garage sales and woodcarvings of birds commonly sighted in the area.
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Cathédrale de l’Assumption
Church admirers can pay a visit to the colossal Cathédrale de l’Assumption, a soaring neo-Gothic confection with exquisite sculpture and intricate Florentine stained-glass windows.
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Musée d’Art Contemporain des Laurentides
Less than an hour from Montréal, St-Jérôme’s Musée d’Art Contemporain des Laurentides mounts small but first-rate exhibitions of regional artists’ works.
reviewed
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