Mark Twain noted that, in Montreal, '
....you couldn't throw a brick without hitting a church'.
Getting there:
As Montreal is only a 2 hour drive from Ottawa, we decided to visit it on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.
We were glad we went but it was not a place we fell in love with.
Beware: driving on the Highways that ring this city is not for the faint-hearted or those of a nervous disposition!
Montreal's History:
The island of Montreal was originally occupied by the St Lawrence
Iroquois, the first European contact being in 1535 when Jacques Cartier was led here while searching for a northwest route to Asia. A small French settlement was not established until 1611.
A hundred years later, in 1642, the tiny town of Ville-Marie was founded as a Sulpician mission by Paul Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve. It soon became a centre of the fur trade. After its capture by the English in 1762, Montreal remained (until the 1970s) the most important city in Canada and was briefly capital of the province in the 1840s.
Prohibition on sales of alcohol in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s made Montreal a mecca for cross-border fun seekers from nearby New England and New York. The city built up a seedy, yet playful, industry in alcohol, burlesque, and other vices. In the 1960s, an urban renewal drive centred around Expo 67. The World's Fair in Montreal brought a subway system and a number of attractive urban parks. The 1976 Olympics left a strikingly idiosyncratic stadium and many other urban improvements.
As Montreal expanded in the mid-20th century, the old city, Vieux-Montreal, fell into decline, severed from downtown by the Autoroute Ville-Marie. In the early 1960s, however, developers stepped in and by the 1980s the district had undergone a transformation.
Vieux - Montreal:
In a big and, it seemed to us, an ugly city, Vieux Montreal is a breath of fresh air with its cobbled streets ...
......its markets ( outdoor
and indoor)....
its green spaces......
and its diverse architecture.
Vieux-Port:
In its glory days of the 19th century, the Vieux-Port was one of the most important inland harbours in North America but it declined in the 1970s when the main shipyards shifted east. In 1992 this now-vacant space was renovated for public use with parks, a promenade, biking and jogging tracks.
There is still some evidence of what was here before the clean-up.
Place d'Armes
The focal point of Vieux-Montreal is Place d'Armes and here stands a century-old statue of Maisonneuve whose missionary zeal outraged the displaced Iriquois. The dog represents the animal who warned the French of an impending attack in 1644. Legend says that the ensuing battle ended when the supposedly unarmed Maisonneuve killed the Iriquois chief on this very spot.
Basilique Notre-Dame:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_Basilica_(Montreal)
A twin-towered, neo-Gothic Catholic cathedral in the centre of Place d'Armes, the Basilica is Montreal's grandest Catholic church. Originally built in the 17th century, a new building was commissioned in 1829 and splendidly redecorated in the 1870s.
Seminaire de St-Sulpice:
This mock-medieval seminary is generally considered to be Montreal's oldest building. It was founded in 1685 by the Paris-based Sulpicians Fathers, the priests who also run the basilica. Unfortunately it is not open to the public.
Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours:
The chapel dates from the earliest days of the colony and has long been the spiritual home of Quebec's sailors.The outstretched arms of the Virgin on the tower became a landmark for ships on the St Lawrence and, once safely landed, the mariners would endow the chapel with wooden votive lamps in the shape of ships.
Chateau Ramezay:
www.chateauramezay.qc.ca/en/
When Montreal's 11th governor, Claude de Ramezay, arrived in the city in 1702 he was homesick for Normandy and decided to build a residence that was reminiscent of the chateaux back home, with stone walls, dormer windows and copper roof.
Many of de Ramezay's governor successors lived here and the building also housed the West India Company.
