Montreal is the second largest city in Canada. The pious 17th-century French
founders of this vibrant island metropolis might be a little surprised to have
produced a place that revels so much in its reputation for joie de vivre, but at
least their edifices remain; the spires of some of Canada’s finest churches
still rise above the skyline.
Montreal’s location at the convergence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers
made it Canada’s first great trading center. It was founded in 1642 by a group
of French Catholics as a Christian community and port. Much of its economic
power has now moved west to Toronto, and what makes Montreal interesting today
is a cultural, rather than a geographical, confluence. About 70 percent of its 3
million residents are of French descent, another 15 percent have British
origins, and the rest represent nearly every major ethnic group.
Many speak three or more languages. The communities form a kind of mosaic, with
the anglophones in the west, the francophones in the east, and other ethnic
communities in pockets all over the island. There is nothing rigid about these
divisions: Anglophones eat and drink in the restaurants and bistros of the
historic French district, and francophones visit the traditionally English area.
The most interesting neighborhoods sprawl along the southern slopes of
Mont-Royal – the 234-m (767-ft) hill from which the city derives its name.
Vieux-Montreal’s network of narrow, cobblestone streets huddles near the
waterfront, while the main shopping area is farther north along Rue
Sainte-Catherine.
It extends below the city’s surface in the maze of tunnels that connect the
Underground City, the complex of homes, stores, and leisure venues that spreads
out beneath the bustling city. Other modern attractions include the Olympic Park
stadium and the Musee d’Art Contemporain, built in the 1990s to complement
Montreal’s fine historic museums.
Canada Cities