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It's become such a cliché to us: the Underground City. We snicker at out-of-towners who visit expecting to find some subterranean civilization, the lost city of Atlantis. It's just a network of underground passageways linking one department store to another, we say. But the underground city is much more than that.

It's over 30 kilometres of pedestrian walkways linking nine metro stations and four major retail meccas. With more than 150 points of entry, it allows thousands of students and office workers to go out to lunch in mid-winter without a coat, or cross the street without seeing the grey light of a rainy day. This subterranean labyrinth is the foundation of life in the city centre. From big business to high art, it has become an integral part of how we inhabit the downtown core.

"If you're going to appreciate what we lovingly refer to as the fabric of the city, then the fabric is everything. It's the road networks, the metro, the buildings, the sidewalks, it's everything," says Nancy Dunton, head of university and professional programs at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

Drapeau's Tunnel Vision
Our underground city began with the metro, which itself was born out of Place Ville-Marie (PVM). In 1962, I.M. Pei's Rockefeller Center-inspired skyscraper was the first of its kind in the city. A subterranean tunnel dating back to 1918 that ran under the structure spawned the underground maze that's become so familiar to us. Commercial spaces were carved out in the building's lower levels, and the tunnel was eventually used to connect PVM to the metro when it opened in 1966. Mayor Jean Drapeau had several prominent Quebec artists design permanent works to install in the metro stations, such as Jean-Paul Mousseau's enormous ceramic circles at Peel metro.

For many, genuine Montreal culture can be found walking along Ste-Catherine Street.

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Since then, nearly every major development has plugged into the underground network. Today, most people who work or study downtown use the underground city to get around. And, of course, there are those of us who frequent its passageways as part of our Saturday afternoon shopping excursions, an especially pleasant way to travel when temperatures are unforgiving and sidewalks are crammed with people and snow.

Subterranean Shopping
The notion of underground merchants might suggest dodgy black-market dealings to outsiders, but Montrealers know some of the city's best and most convenient shopping can be found on the subterranean retail trail that stretches from Les Cours Mont-Royal to Place de la Cathédrale.

Les Cours Mont-Royal, formerly the swank hotel that played host to every big band sensation of the '30s and '40s, has become a mini Rodeo Drive, filled with high-end designer brands like Armani and Dolce & Gabbana. The upper level features the only freestanding DKNY flagship store in the country.

Show Business District
Le Quartier des spectacles -- which stretches from City Councillors to Berri and Sherbrooke to René Lévesque -- encompasses around 30 performance venues, including the Musée d'art contemporain, Place des Arts and Théâtre St-Denis. The concept for the quarter recalls New York's Broadway or London's Theatreland, but also incorporates public art spaces to really promote the notion of a cultural hub. There are also plans to transform the Balmoral block across from Place des Arts into a colossal concert hall, housing both music and theatre conservatories.

Still, for many, genuine Montreal culture can be found walking along the city's main drag. Ste-Catherine Street is our Champs-Elysées, our Fifth Avenue. Lined with boutiques, strip clubs, restaurants and countless bars, it's the street most tourists make a beeline for the second they set foot in the city. It's also where most of us head for important shopping sprees or to catch a movie on a really big screen. It's one of the few places in the city where a 2 AM traffic jam isn't an anomaly. However, several times a year, Ste-Catherine Street is completely devoid of cars. Besides summer sidewalk sales, World Car Free Day clears Ste-Catherine Street between McGill College and St-Urbain on September 22. Like many of the cities participating in the initiative, Montreal's public transit system reported a significant increase in traffic on the day cars were banned from the downtown core. Perhaps this is the opportunity some of us have been waiting for to rediscover our famed underground network.