Sampling the Delights of Montreal

It doesn’t get cooler than Montreal. And not just because of the winters. Sarah Tucker explores the vibe of Canada’s Anglo-French gem

Montreal mourned for months when Leonard Cohen died. The singer-songwriter, poet, novelist and legend, who passed away in 2016, was born here in this cool, creative city – and the news of his death went floral. So many flowers were left outside his home here that they blocked the road and the local authority had to find another place for the tribute. 

At the Musée d’art contemporain an exhibition celebrated Cohen’s life, while a black and white image in downtown Crescent Street shows the icon at his most enigmatic. Chosen by his daughter from a photo she had taken herself, it captures perfectly a benevolent expression that is the very look of love. Listen carefully and you can almost hear the sound of his voice.

Montreal was just right for an enigma. There is an intriguing, energizing duality here, seen not only in the language – staff in hotels, shops and restaurants greet the visitor with a considerate, bet-hedging ‘Bonjour, hi!’ – but in the juxtaposition of buildings old and new and in the wildly contrasting seasons. 

A warm city of festivals in summer – Montreal Jazz Festival, Just for Laughs – in winter it is literally too low for zero. With surface temperatures descending to a breath-stealing -30°, much of Montreal goes to ground: the famous Underground City boasts 32km of tunnel linking all the major buildings of the central district. Up above winter sports flourish, with great skiing at nearby Mont-Tremblant. Here you will also find a husky farm, guaranteed to have your smitten children pleading for a pup.

Montreal is resolutely young and dynamic. With no fewer than 11 universities – including the celebrated McGill – it has the largest student population of any metropolitan area in North America. It’s also one of the world’s largest centres for video game design, a technological manifestation of its enduring identity as a creative hub; a place for musicians, artists and poets. Beauty and function are everywhere conjoined: you’ll find fruit and vegetables growing in municipal beds where one might reasonably have expected to find flowers.

Each arrondissement – 19 of them since the municipal reorganisation of 2006 – has its own distinctive character, but my favourite district is the one known colloquially as ‘the Plateau’: a neighbourhood with a strong artsy vibe, full of independent restaurants and coffee bars where writers sit, work, observe and generally look conspicuously intense. There are ‘chat chat’ areas – function self-explanatory – which look a bit like pretty, painted bus stops with makeshift seats, plus an excellent farmers market and 24-hour bagel shops where you can see them make and shape the dough. No gluten free bagels, alas, but every other conceivable variation is on view. The maple syrup, unsurprisingly, is particularly good.

Lengthy McGill Street is where you will find the widest variety of really good restaurants, including the recently opened LOV serving vegan and vegetarian food. Brussels sprouts and cucumber juice sounds more like a forfeit than a cue for Pavlov’s dogs, but here the combo worked a treat, funked up by herbs and spices galore. I left detoxed and with skin glowing, conscious of having experienced a kind of edible facial. 

Healthy living, in fact, is well and truly on trend in Montreal. According to my guide, everyone stopped smoking in the 1990s virtually overnight, as word of its noxious effects filtered through. At Hotel Le Germain – an art deco delight that reminded me of the Delano in Miami – each floor has four green apples by the lifts for snacking, beautifully arranged like an art installation but replaced every morning and afternoon. The hotel also sends out for yoga teachers like most of us send out for pizzas, with a suite set aside for either a group class or a one-on-one.

And this is a walking city. In Mount Royal Park – situated on the small mountain west of Downtown that gave Montreal its name – hiking and biking trails abound. Here, on the park terrace overlooking the city and Saint Lawrence River, you can also take part in morning yoga, tai chi and meditation sessions while drinking in the phenomenal view. Only the restaurant Les Enfants Terribles, with its fabulous 360 degree sweep of city, park and river, affords a vista to surpass it.

Newly renovated, and a short step from the Germain, the Queen Elizabeth Hotel is where John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their second ‘bed-in for peace’, in the early summer of 1969. And do take the subway to Montreal Botanical Garden, which each year (February to April) plays host to thousands of live tropical butterflies and moths.    

Finally, for something different, try Bota Bota, a historic river ferry anchored in the city’s Old Port and converted into a wonderfully tranquil spa. The portholes are still there – only larger – and there is a mixture of rooms which involve steam or sauna with cold tubs. You can also take a dip in the river itself – very cold but thoroughly recommended.

English and French, historic and healthy, a hot destination with a vibe that is impossibly cool: Montreal is the place where contradiction and complementarity meet. Hallelujah! As the late Leonard Cohen might have said.

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