What's New: An Online Update for Frommer's Montréal & Québec City

Positive trends continue their upward track in Québec and its two most fetching cities. Memories of the economic malaise of the last decade of the last century have faded, as employment rates escalate, construction booms, and the value of the Canadian dollar increases faster than it has in recent memory.

One of the raft of reasons for this rosy glow is a diminishing of the often volatile quest of nationalists for severing of Québec's ties with the rest of Canada. Out-migration of English-speaking Quebecers to other parts of the country has slowed, and the ever-sturdier economy has wrested the attention of most Francophones away from the revolutionary cries of the separatists, at least for the moment. The Quebecois are enjoying life.

So can visitors. While the value of the U.S. dollar continues to slide toward parity with its Canadian counterpart, it isn't there yet, and even at par, goods and services are generally less expensive north of the border. Quebec's ever-inventive marketers keep coming up with new events to celebrate. Coming up in January and February are Montréal's and Québec City's famed winter carnivals, but before then comes the Bal de Boys, a New Year's party for Montréal's vivacious gay community, and the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts kicks off its highly anticipated exhibition of ancient Egyptian art on loan from the British Museum.

The sugaring-off season usually starts in February and winds up in April. This annual ritual involves harvesting sap from maple trees and converting it to syrup and sugar products. The process is on display at over 400 sugar shacks -- individually called cabane à sucre or érablière -- many of which offer hearty country meals with live entertainment in addition to maple syrup. Dozens can be found within easy driving distance of both the capital and Montréal. Check out www.quebecweb.com and www.quebecregion.com/restaurants for suggestions.

Montreal Accommodations

Developers are eager to join the fevered rush to create beguiling boutique hotels. Joining the roster of worthies that already includes the hotels St-Paul (tel. 866/380-2202; www.hotelstpaul.com), Nelligan (tel. 877/788-2040; www.hotelnelligan.com), and St-James (tel.866/841-3111; www.hotellestjames.com), are the Hôtel Godin (tel. 866/744-6346; www.hotelgodin.com) and W Montréal (tel. 514/395-3100; www.whotels.com), the latest representative of the stylish W Hotels Worldwide. Where most of the honored boutique hostelries are situated in the old riverside quarter, the Godin chose to renovate a 1914 office building on rue Sherbrooke, between the downtown business and shopping district and the ultra-chic dining and club reaches of boulevard St-Laurent. Classified as an historic monument in 1990, its innovative design and materials remind some observers of the works of the visionary Catalan architect, Antoní Gaudí. Frequenters of hip luxury hotels know what to expect of W -- swank and surprises. In this entry, that includes 12-foot-high waterfalls in the lobby, a spa, four bars, and a restaurant, Otto, that is already making waves in this city of dedicated gourmands.

Montreal Dining

Speaking of fine dining, hotel restaurants that are not only expensive but actually worth the higher tabs are nothing new to Montréal. The long-established Beaver Club in the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth (tel. 800/441-1414) and such estimable recent entries as Renoir in the Sofitel (tel. 514/285-9000) and Les Remparts in the Auberge du Vieux Port (tel. 514/392-1649) set the bar high for the acclaimed newcomer Bront¿ (tel. 888/933-8111) in Le Meridien (which used to be the medium-rise annex of the Chateau Versailles). It's been described as "high-brow" but "casual" and the service "formal but welcoming". The boutique Hôtel Place d'Armes has substantially upgraded its own in-house dining with Aix Cuisine du Terroir (tel. 888/450-1887), featuring traditional country fare raised to contemporary levels. ("Terroir" refers not to what you might think, but, broadly speaking, to ingredients and dishes characteristic of the lands of the immediate region.) Loew's Hôtel Vogue recently introduced its new Ristorante Pappagallo (tel. 800/465-6654) to good reviews for its Mediterranean-inspired menu and setting, and Cube, in the Hôtel St-Paul (tel. 514/380-2222), is polishing its credentials with a new chef.

Another marked dining trend is the emergence of the gourmet BYOB restaurant. "Bring Your Own Booze" eateries have been on the Montréal scene for years, but nearly always involved downscale ethnic joints of little distinction. Restaurateur Marc-André Paradis is a leader in the movement, in the last year opening both A L'os (tel. 514/ 270-7055) and Les Infidèles (tel. 514/528-8555) in the hyper-hip Plateau Mont-Royal. Minimalist but snappy décor serves as the backdrop for contemporary takes on the Québecois bistro edibles.

Montreal Attractions

Winter doesn't shut the city down. To the contrary, Montrealers embrace the season, a pragmatic choice since they can only avoid it by their customary post-new year Florida vacations. Actually, that's not entirely accurate, since they can also spend their cold-weather months in the city below the city, la ville souterraine. In only twenty years, the underground pedestrian network has more than doubled its web to more than twenty miles of corridors. They link Métro stations, a half-dozen hotels, museums, and over 2,000 shops and 200 restos.

The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (tel. 514/285-2000; www.mmfa.qc.ca) kicks off its highly anticipated exhibition of ancient Egyptian art on loan from the British Museum this winter. The exhibit will run from January 27th to May 22, 2005.

Outdoors at street level skaters are accommodated on the huge outdoor Bonsecours skating rink in the Old Port and guided snowshoeing tours by lamplight on the Île Sainte-Hélène are rounded off with hot drinks beside a campfire.

After over three decades of only sporadic success and ever-decreasing attendance figures, the Montréal Expos and Major League Baseball have bowed to reality. The team has been moved to Washington, D.C., to be renamed -- tentatively -- the Washington Nationals.

Montreal After Dark

No Canadian city rocks on toward the dawn with the panache and sophistication of Montréal (Toronto shuts down its clubs and bars three hours before Montréal's prescribed closing). Keep an eye out for local appearances of representatives of the province's formidable music scene. Notice has been taken, for example, of the indie-rock band Arcade Fire (www.arcadefire.com), which released its debut album, Funeral, in October 2004.

Quebec City

Change occurs at a slower pace in the gracious provincial capital. Québec City is more distinctly Francophone and less multicultural than far larger Montréal. But don't doubt the sharp rivalry between them, felt more keenly, perhaps, by residents of this ancient town beside the St. Lawrence. Dining has become a major component of the inter-city competition. The capital lagged well behind its more frenetic and changeable big brother, with only two or three ambitious restaurants aspiring to gastronomical greatness towering above the welter of satisfying-to-barely-adequate bistros and wan ethnic emporia. Adventuresome young chefs and restaurateurs now are challenging the status quo. That eventuality was first evidenced by Yuzu (tel. 418/521-7253), whose wildly inventive dishes are based upon, but not confined to, the sushi/sashimi canon. The restaurant helped to draw attention to the emerging Saint-Roch quartier, well off the tourist track and on its way to becoming a Frenchified TriBeCa. A prime example is L'Utopie (tel. 418/523-7878), still wet behind the ears but opened just in time for inclusion in the current edition of Frommer's Montreal & Quebec City. Four young friends put together the money, courage, and culinary savvy to create an avant-garde environment that juxtaposes a copse of birch tree trunks with large, unconventional images set among sheets of metal and glass. We've yet to check out Que Sera Sera, but the buzz is positive.