Montreal Magazine

Neighbourhoods: Old Montreal

Where New France meets SoHo
by Sophie Lorenzo

Odds are if you've been to Montreal, you've probably taken a spin through the old quarter. Perhaps you wandered a little between Nôtre-Dame Basilica and Place Jacques-Cartier and then called it a day. Until about five years ago, there weren't many other reasons to hang around.

Old Montreal was filled with tour groups looking for a dose of quaint architecture before making a pit stop at a dreadful overpriced restaurant and some souvenir shops. If you were a local, you ventured to "Le Vieux" only if you had guests in town, or wanted to take in the fireworks in summer or do a little skating in winter.

But around 1999, a high-tech boom in the city created a new multimedia district along the western edge of the old quarter. It was the polar opposite in location and vibe of the tourist mecca around Place Jacques-Cartier in the east. Design hotels started popping up on the western streets where tourists rarely bothered to tread, drawing younger visitors who were looking more for SoHo style than colonial cachet.

Locals started heading to these new digs for a bite or a drink after work. And, along with the weekly tide of tech workers and the residents of new condo developments, they helped redefine Old Montreal as an emerging neighbourhood. Soon, Prada loafers were dodging the horse manure on the cobblestone streets heading to the gourmet bakeries, cafés and designer boutiques that were replacing the fast-disappearing artist's lofts.

Today, there are two distinct zones to Vieux Montréal, and while one is ossified for tourists and the other is gentrified for scenesters, they're both worth a visit.

Design hotels started popping up on the western streets of Old Montreal, drawing younger visitors who were looking more for SoHo style than colonial cachet.

Cobblestone and Calèche
On the eastern end is the original tourist enclave and some of Montreal's oldest buildings. At the corner of rues Bonsecours and St-Paul, you'll find the Hostellerie Pierre du Calvet -- a 1725 home which now houses a historic inn and restaurant. Across the street stands the renovated Bonsecours Chapel, which was once at the edge of the city's stone fortifications. The imposing neoclassical Marché Bonsecours next door was Montreal's principal public market for over a century, and now houses local jewellery and crafts shops.

Heading west, you'll come to the cafés and restaurants of Place Jacques-Cartier. This is tourist central, but the 18^th- and 19^th-century buildings on the city's early market square deserve a look. On the northeastern side of the square is the Château Ramezay, the 1705 home of an early governor which now houses a museum about life in Nouvelle France.

Slip among the throngs of American and French visitors and head west along rue St-Paul for a few streets; the layout of narrow blocks here hasn't changed since the 18^th century. If you turn downhill to rue de la Commune and cross towards the water, you'll get a good look at the face of a major 19^th-century port - though the Montreal Science Centre on the quay does kill the historic mood a little. You can rent inline skates or bicycles from shops on the street and explore the promenade along the waterfront, or take the bike path west through the city's 19^th-century industrial district along the Lachine Canal.

Heading west along de la Commune, you'll find that the crowds start to thin as you come to the modern flat-iron building of Pointe-à-Callière. This is the spot where a wooden fort first staked out the city of Ville-Marie when it was founded in 1642. Today, an archeological museum excavates the city's past while presenting temporary exhibitions from around the world. The adjacent Place Royale fills with costumed interpreters and artisanal producers one weekend each August to commemorate the fur-trading fairs of the mid-1600s.

Hipster Central
Venture a block further west and you're approaching the outer limits of the touristic universe. This is Place d'Youville, the site of the city's first hospital and of Canada's short-lived second parliament. Today, it's home to the Centre d'histoire de Montréal - a museum which traces the city's development from colonial outpost to metropolis. The remains of some stately 18^th-century stables offer a tranquil courtyard, now part of Gibbys Restaurant.

At the western edge of the square is rue McGill (not to be confused with avenue McGill College downtown). This wide street was created when the city's stone fortifications were demolished in the 19^th century. The grand neoclassical buildings, which now house government departments, were built by railway barons. New cafés, like the gourmet food store-cum-bistro Le Cartet, dot the western side of the street.

If you hook back eastward along rue St-Paul you're in the epicenter of "new" Old Montreal. You'll pass gourmet bakery and divine lunch-spot Olive + Gourmando, along with hip clothing stores and gift shops ranging from the quirky to the exotic.

When you reach the converted loft space of the Java U Lounge, turn up rue St-Francois-Xavier and you'll eventually come to the Centaur Theatre, Montreal's oldest English-language theatre, housed in Canada's first stock exchange.

Make your way along rue Notre-Dame to Place d'Armes and you'll find a seemingly improbable concentration of the city's history and architecture. Cheek by jowl stand the 16^th-century Sulpician Seminary, the city's oldest building; the grand Gothic revival of the early 19^th-century Notre-Dame Basilica; the head office of the country's oldest bank, the temple-like Bank of Montreal; the city's first "skyscraper," the eight-storey New York Life Building; the Art Deco Aldred building and the sleek black 1960s high-rise of the National Bank of Canada.

By this point, you might be suffering from cobblestone overload. Your best bet? Head a few steps down rue St-Sulpice to the tranquil elegance of the Ming Tao Xuan teahouse to contemplate how it's Montreal's cosmopolitan glamour that has put the bloom back on its most historic district.

For more information visit www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca.

Best bets for... TIME TRAVELLING
Auberge Saint-Gabriel Restaurant 426, rue St-Gabriel Montreal, QC H2Y 2Z9 Phone: (514) 878-3561 Cabaret du roy (theme restaurant) Marché Bonsecours 363, rue de la Commune Est Montreal, QC H2Y 1H2 Phone: (514) 907-9000	Chez Queux 158, rue St-Paul Est Montreal, QC H2Y 1G6 Phone: (514) 866-5194 Gibbys Restaurant 298, place d'Youville Montreal, QC H2Y 2B6 Phone: (514) 282-1837	Restaurant Les filles du roi Hostellerie Pierre du Calvet 405, rue Bonsecours Montreal, QC H2Y 3C3 Phone: (514) 282-1725
HIGH-END CUISINE Toqué! 900, place Jean-Paul-Riopelle Montreal, QC H2Z 2B2 Phone: (514) 499-2084 Chez l'Epicier 311, rue St-Paul Est Montreal, QC H2Y 1H3 Phone: (866) 878-2232	Cube Hôtel St-Paul 355, rue McGill Montreal, QC H2Y 2E8 Phone: (514) 876-9874 Aix: Cuisine du terroir Hôtel Place d'Armes 711, côte de la Place d'Armes Montreal, QC H2Y 2X6 Phone: (514) 904-1201	Verses Hotel Nelligan 100, rue St-Paul Ouest Montreal, QC H2Y 1Z3 Phone: (514) 788-4000
LUNCH Cluny Artbar 257, rue Prince Montreal, QC H3C 2N4 Phone: (514) 866-1213 Le Cartet 106, rue McGill Montreal, QC H2Y 2E5 Phone: (514) 871-8887 Java U Lounge 191, rue St-Paul Ouest Montreal, QC H2Y 1Z5 Phone: (514) 849-8881	Olive + Gourmando 351, rue St-Paul Ouest Phone: (514) 350-1083 Quai Ouest 201, place d'Youville Montreal, QC H2Y 2B3 Phone: (514) 286-5223 Titanic 445, rue St-Pierre Montreal, QC H2Y 2M8 Phone: (514) 849-0894	Tokyo Sushibar 185, rue St-Paul Ouest Montreal, QC H2Y 1Z5 Phone: (514) 844-6695
TEA Dékadence 410, rue St-Pierre Montreal, QC H2Y 2M2 Phone: (514) 839-2912	Grand Salon de l'Hôtel St-James 355, rue St-Jacques Montreal, QC H2Y 1N9 Phone: (514) 841-3111	Ming Tao Xuan 451, rue St-SulpiceMontreal, QC H2Y 2V8 Phone: (514) 845-9448
TERRACES Aix La Terrasse Hôtel Place d'Armes 711, Côte de la Place d'Armes Montreal, QC H2Y 2X6 Phone: (514) 904-1201 Boris Bistro 465, rue McGill Montreal, QC H2Y 2H1 Phone: (514) 848-9575 Café des Eclusiers 333, rue de la Commune Ouest Montreal, QC H2Y 2E2 Phone: (514) 496-0762	Les Remparts Auberge du Vieux Port 97, rue De La Commune Est Montreal, QC H2Y 1J1 Phone: (514) 392-1649 Les Terasses Bonsecours 364, rue de la Commune Est (on the quay) Montreal, QC H3C 2W3 Phone: (514) 288-9407	Verses Sky Hotel Nelligan 106, rue St-Paul Ouest Montreal, QC H2Y 1Z3 Phone: (514) 788-4000 Version Laurent Godbout 295, rue St-Paul Est Montreal, QC H2Y 1H3 Phone: (514) 871-9135
SPAS Away Spa W Hotel 901, Square Victoria Montreal, QC H2Z 1R1 Phone: (514) 395-3160	Bodhi - Spa Urbain 351, rue St-Paul Ouest Montreal, QC H2Y 2A6 Phone: (514) 849-9930	Rainspa Hotel Place d'Armes 55, rue St-Jacques Montreal, QC H2Y 3X2 Phone: (514) 282-2727