Old Montreal

Old Montreal is where the city began and where most first visits should begin too. In 1642 a small band of French settlers led by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, with the nurse and administrator Jeanne Mance, founded Ville-Marie on a point of land beside the St. Lawrence, and the grid of narrow streets that grew around it is still here: roughly a square kilometre of grey-stone warehouses, merchants' houses, churches and squares between the river and the downtown towers. The essential route is short. Place d'Armes holds the statue of Maisonneuve and faces the twin towers of Notre-Dame Basilica, with the city's first skyscrapers and the oldest building in Montreal, the Saint-Sulpice seminary, on its edges. Rue Saint-Paul, among the oldest streets on the island, runs east past galleries, boutiques and restaurants to the long neoclassical front of Bonsecours Market and the small Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, the sailors' church. Place Jacques-Cartier slopes down from City Hall to the Old Port, lined with terraces and street performers in summer, with Nelson's Column at the top; the narrow lane of Rue Saint-Amable off the square fills with sketch artists in the warm months. The Chateau Ramezay, an early eighteenth-century governor's residence, now a museum, stands across from City Hall. Walking is free, the distances are small and the area is at its best early in the day or in the blue light of evening, when the lamps come on along the stone facades. The one thing a self-guided stroll cannot give you is the story, which is why the two-hour Original Old Montreal Walking Tour, run in English and French from the obelisk on Place d'Youville, is the link we recommend: it covers both the east and west halves of the old town in rain or shine, with free cancellation up to a day ahead. Pair it with the basilica, the Pointe-a-Calliere museum and a ride on the Grande Roue, all within a few minutes' walk.

The history explains the layout. Ville-Marie was founded as a religious mission, grew into the base of the French fur trade, and passed to Britain after the conquest of 1760; by the nineteenth century it was the commercial capital of Canada, and the banks, insurance houses and warehouses of that boom gave Old Montreal the solid stone streetscape it has today. When business moved uphill to the new downtown in the twentieth century, the old town slowly emptied and decayed, and it was only from the 1960s, when the area was protected as a historic district, that restoration brought it back to life. That is why so much of what you see is Victorian commercial architecture laid over a French colonial street plan, with a handful of older survivors: the seminary beside the basilica, the Chateau Ramezay and the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, whose site has held a chapel since the seventeenth century.

How to visit well: start at Place d'Armes in the morning, visit the basilica when it opens, then follow Rue Notre-Dame east past City Hall to the Chateau Ramezay and down through Place Jacques-Cartier to Rue Saint-Paul. Walk Saint-Paul west to Place Royale and the Pointe-a-Calliere museum, and finish on the waterfront promenade of the Old Port. If you prefer a guide, the Original Old Montreal Walking Tour meets at the obelisk on Place d'Youville, lasts about two hours and runs in English and French; arrive ten to fifteen minutes early. In the evening, Old Montreal is quieter than downtown and genuinely romantic, with the facades lit and the restaurants of Saint-Paul and the side streets busy but not loud. The cobblestones are uneven, so wear comfortable shoes, and expect hills between the river and Rue Notre-Dame.

Seasons change the experience completely. From late spring to early autumn the squares fill with terraces, buskers and cruise-ship crowds, and Place Jacques-Cartier becomes a slow-moving stream of visitors. In winter, the streets are calm, snow settles on the stone, and the old town has a hushed beauty that photographers love, though the wind off the river is sharp and the outdoor stalls disappear; plan indoor stops at the basilica, the museums and the cafes. The Place-d'Armes and Champ-de-Mars metro stations, both on the orange line, sit at the edge of the district, and downtown is a fifteen-minute walk or a short ride away. Old Montreal is also where some of the city's best boutique hotels are, so staying here puts the whole district on your doorstep.