Montréal 2010

 

 

Top: The Biosphère is dedicated to water and the environment; located on Ile Ste-Hélène, it started life as the U.S. pavilion for the 1967 World’s Fair. Bottom:  St-Viateur Bagel makes bagels 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Photo courtesy Hungrywoolf blog

Montréal is a unique North American city. Resolutely modern in many respects, it has preserved its historical landmarks and European heritage, which goes back to the founding of Ville-Marie in 1642.

We look forward to welcoming many of you in June 2010, especially Rotarians who will come to Montréal for the first time. You will be enthralled.

If you are not convinced, visit the  Web site for  the historical part of the city that we commonly call Vieux-Montréal. Click on “ Quick Tour” to learn about what you can expect once you are in Montréal. All the attractions are just a short walk away from most hotels, the downtown area, and the 2010 RI Convention venues: the Palais des congrès and Centre Bell.

Montréal offers a bounty of attractions, each one more famous than the next. We will name just a few that no visitor should miss:

• Montréal Botanical Garden and its insectarium, along with the famous Biodôme.
• Mont-Royal , the three-peaked “mountain” Montréalers are so proud of. At the heart of Mont-Royal is a nearly 500-acre park, a refuge where you can take a break from the city and find many activities. In the winter, you can practice Nordic skiing. You will also find two lookouts, where you can get a breathtaking view of the city. On clear days, you can see the St. Lawrence Lowlands, which extend all the way to the Adirondacks in the United States. The City of Montréal’s official Web site provides all sorts of information about Mont-Royal.
• Underground Montréal. A network of 20 miles of tunnels teeming with shops, restaurants, banks, and movie theaters, the underground city is the largest of its kind in the world. Because it links up to several métro stations, Montréalers can shop and see a performance at Place des Arts while keeping warm, even if a blizzard is raging outside. Some downtown hotels are also connected to the underground city, as are the Palais des congrès and Centre Bell.

We have some other suggestions for the curious convention goer or for those who will extend their stay in Montréal, whether before or after the convention:

• Alleyways and side streets. Make a point to stroll though some of Montréal’s intriguing alleyways and side streets, which started to appear in the middle of the 19th century. The alleys often connect two main streets and sometimes feature little homes that are still inhabited. Avoid the ones in the downtown area, where you will see only the backdoors of restaurants, but those in residential areas – behind houses, condominiums, or apartment buildings – are worth the trouble. They are small, beautiful oases where you can breathe and relax and, more often than not, they are adorned with gardens. Consider exploring the ones in Plateau Mont-Royal. One not to be missed is ruelle l’Ecureuil, behind the Théâtre du Rideau Vert on rue St-Denis, near rue Gilford. To get there, go west on rue Gilford, then look to your left, where you will see a tree-lined alley. Cars are not allowed on ruelle l’Ecureuil, but visiting these streets is more enjoyable on foot anyway.
• Cuisine . Of course, you will find bountiful restaurants for all tastes and budgets. An increasing number of them (even some excellent French establishments) have adopted the bring your own bottle (BYOB) practice. Please note, however, that you cannot bring your own bottle in a restaurant that has a wine list.
• Vibrant streets . Leave downtown and its main thoroughfares and discover the busy Place Jacques-Cartier in Vieux-Montréal. It is a pedestrian street with many ethnic restaurants, including Greek, Italian, Polish, and Vietnamese fare. On summer nights, you will find street artists along with sidewalk cafes and restaurants packed with people. Go up rue St-Denis, past rue Sherbrooke, and you’ll find Square St-Louis (an upscale area during the 19th century) surrounded by comfortable Victorian homes. From there, you can take rue St-Denis to avenue du Plateau Mont-Royal. This vibrant street is also filled with sidewalk cafes and restaurants. You will then pass avenue Duluth (with, again, a whole array of restaurants) before arriving at avenue du Mont-Royal, in the heart of a trendy neighborhood that houses many artists, young professionals, and families, not to mention a colourful local scene. Until recently, it was a prominently French-speaking area, but today it has become more diverse.

Many of our Rotarian friends attending the 2010 RI Convention are likely to be bike enthusiasts. Happily, Montréal has just launched a bike rental system with stations all over the city. (You can find all the details at www.bixi.com.) The city also has an extensive network of bike paths. Near downtown, we suggest that you take the beautiful path along the Lachine Canal and the banks of the St. Lawrence River.

This is just a quick overview of what Montréal has to offer. Please don’t forget that the 2010 Host Organization Committee (HOC) will offer activities during the RI Convention as well as tours of Montréal, other areas of Québec, and additional Canadian destinations.

Please join us.

Bertrane Royer (2010 HOC director) and Hélène Turmel are members of the Rotary Club of Montréal Ville-Marie