Time Off Montreal's religious roots are celebrated in the dozens of beautiful churches and there are an abundance of festivals throughout the year. Thanks to a favourable currency exchange rate and the availability of skilled workers, Montréal has become a favourite location for Hollywood film and TV producers. Two notable ways to see Montreal are from the harbour on a boat excursion departing from Jacques Cartier Pier or from one of a number of horse-drawn carriages based at various locations around the old town. Montréal Attractions Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal
116 Rue Notre-Dame Ouest, Montréal , Quebec H2Y 1T2
Tel: +1 514 849 1070 Completed in 1829, the 3,800-seat Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal is a colossal neo-Gothic church with a spectacular interior of breathtaking vaulted ceilings, ornate woodcarvings and attractive stain-glass windows.
Musée des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts)
1379-1380 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, Quebec H3G 1J5
Tel: +1 514 285 1600
Assembled over a 130-year period, the 25,000-piece collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is one of the most comprehensive in North America. It contains a great many works by Canadian artists, including a large section devoted to native work by Inuit and Amerindian reflecting the diverse cultural heritage of Montreal's many ethnic groups.
Musée d' Archéologie Pointe-à -Callière
350 Place Royale, Montréal, Quebec H2Y 3Y5
Tel: +1 514 872 9150
Built around the excavated remains of the original settlement of Montréal, the Musée d' Archéologie Pointe-à -Callière is a fascinating maze of corridors reconstructing historical events with the use of holograms and tableaux.
Botanical Garden
4101 Rue Sherbrooke Est, Montréal
Tel: +1 514 872 1400
Second only to London's Kew Garden (the largest of its kind in the world), the 181-acre site contains ten large glasshouses displaying many exotic species of flora and fauna. There is an insectarium, poisonous plant garden and a Japanese garden where Montreal can boast one of the best collections of bonsai outside Japan.
Casino de Montréal
1 Avenue du Casino, Montréal, Quebec H3C 4W7
Tel: +1 514 392 2746
Built as the French Pavilion for Expo '67 on Ile Notre-Dame, the Casino de Montréal is one of the world's largest containing 88 gaming tables and 1700 machines. Access is restricted to over 18s with a dress code that excludes tracksuits, shorts and denim trousers or jackets.
Musee d' Art Contemporain de Montréal
185 Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, Montréal, Quebec H2X 3X5
Tel: +1 514 847 6226
Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal is the only collection in Canada entirely devoted to work by Canadian and international contemporary artists.
St. Patrick's Basilica
454 René-Lévesque Boulevard West, Montréal, Quebec H2Z 1A7
Tel: +1 514 866 7379
This gem of church architecture is to Montreal's English-speaking Catholics what the Basilique Notre-Dame is to the city's French-speeking Catholics. Rarely visited by Montreal tourists, this 1847 church is one of the purest examples of Gothic Revival style in Canada.
Musée Marc-Aurèle Fortin
118 Rue St-Pierre, Montréal
Tel: +1 514 845 6108
A small museum devoted almost exclusively to the works of Marc-Aurèle Fortin, one of the most innovative landscape painters of the twentieth century. The museum also hosts exhibitions of current works by Québec artists.
Centre de Commerce Mondial de Montréal (Montreal World Trade Center)
747 Square Victoria, Montréal, Quebec H2Y 3Y9
Now Montreal's financial district, the area is one of the oldest parts of the city and contains many beautifully restored nineteenth century buildings.
Musée George-Etienne Cartier
458 Rue Notre-Dame Est, Montréal, Quebec H2Y 1C8
Tel: +1 514 283 2282
Housed in two exquisitely restored period buildings, this nineteenth-century interactive museum features animations and exhibits which tell the story of one of Canada's most famous French-Canadian statesmen. Guides at the Musée (also known as the Sir George-Étienne Cartier National Historic Site) enrich the ambience, by wearing Victorian costumes and role-playing Cartier's friends and servants.
Chateau Ramezay
280 Rue Notre-Dame Est, Montréal, Quebec H2Y 1C5
Tel: +1 514 861 3708
One of Montreal's eighteenth-century colonial buildings, formally the Governor's residence and now a museum, its collection covers the history of Montréal and Québec, from pre-Columbian native society to the early twentieth century. Outside, the 'Governor's Garden' has recently been sympathetically restored. |
