Walking Tour 3

Plateau Mont-Royal

Start: The corner of avenue du Mont-Royal and rue St-Denis.

Finish: Square St-Louis or Parc LaFontaine.

Time: At least 2 hours, but allow more time if you want to linger in the shops, restaurants, or major park of this intriguing neighborhood.

Best Times: Monday through Saturday during the day, when the shops are open. Most of this area is at its liveliest on Saturday. For barhopping, evenings work well.

Worst Times: Sunday, if shopping is important to you, because many stores are closed.

This is essentially a window-shopping, browsing, and grazing tour, designed to provide a sampling of the sea of ethnicities that make up Plateau Mont-Royal, north of downtown Montréal and due east of Mont-Royal Park. The largely Francophone neighborhood has seen an unprecedented flourishing of restaurants, cafés, clubs, and shops in recent years. It's bounded on the south by rue Sherbrooke and on the north by boulevard St-Joseph, where the Mile End neighborhood begins and continues farther north, and on the east by avenue Papineau and on the west by boulevard St-Laurent. Monuments are few along these commercial avenues, and the residential side streets are filled with row houses that are home to students, young professionals, and immigrants old and new. This walk is a glance into the lives of both established and freshly minted Montréalers and the way they spend their leisure time. Be aware that stores and bistros open and close with considerable frequency in this neighborhood, so some of the highlights listed below may not exist when you visit.

To begin, take the Métro to the Mont-Royal station. Turn left out of the station and, walking west on avenue du Mont-Royal to St-Denis. Turn left again. On the left side of the street, at 4481 rue St-Denis, is:

1. Quai des Brumes

This popular jazz, blues, and beer gathering spot, offers live music most evenings, and even some afternoons. Its name means "Foggy Dock."

Continue down rue St-Denis, where you'll find a block of shops and cafés on two stories of the small buildings. Toward the end of the block, on the other side of the street, is no. 4380:

2. Champigny

A large bookstore with mostly French stock, it also carries travel guides and literature in English, as well as CDs, magazines, and newspapers from all over the world. Most of the books are upstairs. There's an extensive children's section, as well. The store is open daily from 9am until 10pm.

If you didn't cross over for Champigny, cross over at the next street corner. Continue on rue St-Denis and in the next block, at no. 4268, is:

3. Jacob Outlet

With pop music through the speakers and a steady stream of locals, this clothing store is an outlet to the popular Jacob chain (there's one next door). You'll find inexpensive T-shirts, denim jackets, and other casual clothes for the under-25 set.

A little farther, at no. 4246, is:

4. Zone

This shop is part of a small Montréal-based chain; there are two other stores in the city and one each in Québec and Ottawa. Its specialty is contemporary housewares, sleekly monochromatic and brightly hued.

Next door, at 4240 rue St-Denis, is the wonderfully cluttered:

5. Antiques Puces-Libre

Poke through three floors of 19th-century French-Canadian country collectibles here -- pine and oak furniture, lamps, clocks, vases, and the like.

Continue to rue Rachel, and cross to the left side of rue St-Denis. Continue south to no. 4159A for:

6. Fruits & Passion

This high-end Québec-based company has thousands of shops in Canada and outposts in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City, and Paris, but it has just begun to distribute in the U.S. and Europe. It uses "natural extracts" in a line of fruit-scented soaps and shampoos and actual foods. It also sells dog-care items, including its HOTdog Eau de toilette.

Just down the street, at 4117 rue St-Denis, is:

7. Artéfact

Québécois designers sell clothing and paintings at this bright little boutique, where a slip of a summer dress runs about C$250 (US$218/£107).

After that, find no. 4107:

8. Kaliyana

More women's clothes from a Canadian designer: This shop's natural fiber outfits are flowing, angular, and bordering on the avant-garde -- like an Asian-influenced Eileen Fisher. It also stocks contemporary footwear including Arche from France and Trippen from Germany.

A little farther down the block, at 4077 rue St-Denis, you'll come upon:

9. Senteurs de Provence

One of a small chain, this store displays hand-painted pottery and printed linens, as well as bath soaps, shower gels, and lotions of high order, all from France.

Shortly, stop in at no. 4067 and take a whiff of:

10. Lush

On the ground floor of one of the prettiest Queen Anne Victorian row houses on the street, Lush sells soaps presented and wrapped as if they were aromatic, bubble-gum-colored hunks of cheese.

At the corner of St-Denis and rue Duluth, you have options. If you want to spend some time at the city's grand Parc La Fontaine, turn left and walk east. If you want to skip the park, turn right and jump to no. 12.

Take a Break

Walking east on rue Duluth toward Parc La Fontaine, you'll pass the delectable Au Pied de Cochon at no. 536, at the corner of rue St-Hubert. It opens at 5pm every day but Monday, so if it's late afternoon consider making a stop for your big meal of the day. Maybe a bowl of poutine, the classic Québécois comfort food? Or one of the restaurant's seven variations of pork, perhaps?

11. Parc La Fontaine

Strolling this park, particularly if you're visiting on a warm day, is an enormously satisfying way to see Montréal at play. This northwestern end of La Fontaine is well-used by people (and puppies) of all ages. The two ponds are linked and turned into a skating rink in the winter (skate rentals available). In the summer, the 2,500-seat Théâtre de Verdure, near where rue Duluth runs into the park, is an open-air venue for dance, music, theater, and film.

If you're happy exploring the park, consider this tour done. The Sherbrooke Métro will be the closest if you leave the park on its west side. To continue the stroll, retrace your steps on rue Duluth heading west.

12. Rue Duluth

Along with several small antiques shops, this street is dotted with ever-changing Greek, Portuguese, Italian, North African, Malaysian, and Vietnamese eateries. Many of the restaurants state that you can "apportez votre vin" (bring your own wine). Some are fresh and attractive, others not.

Continue along rue Duluth until it arrives at the boulevard St-Laurent, the north-south thoroughfare that marks where the east side of the city ends and the west side begins. Turn left.

13. Boulevard St-Laurent

St-Laurent is so prominent in the cultural history of the city that it's known to Anglophones, Francophones, and Allophones alike simply as "The Main." Traditionally a beachhead for immigrants to the city, St-Laurent has increasingly become a street of chic bistros and clubs. The late-night section runs for several miles, roughly from rue Laurier in the north all the way down to rue Sherbrooke in the south. The bistro and club boom was fueled by low rents and the large number of industrial lofts in this area, a legacy of St-Laurent's heyday as a garment-manufacturing center. Today these cavernous spaces are places for the city's hipsters, professionals, artists, and guests to eat and play. Many spots have the life spans of fireflies, but some pound on for years.

At 3895 bd. St-Laurent you'll find:

14. Schwartz's

The language police insisted on the exterior sign with the French mouthful CHEZ SCHWARZ CHARCUTERIE HEBRAIQUE DE MONTRÉAL, but everyone just calls it Schwartz's. This narrow, no-frills Hebrew deli might appear completely unassuming, but it serves a product called smoked meat against which all other smoked meats must be measured. Vegetarians and those who require some distance from their neighbors' elbows will hate it.

Take a Break

Pop in to Schwartz's for some of its famous smoked meat. Plates are listed either as small (meaning large) or large (meaning humongous). Don't forget a side of fries and a couple of garlicky pickles.

Next, a few steps along at no. 3855, is:

15. La Vieille Europe

This "Old Europe" delicatessen sells aromatic coffee beans from around the world, plus sausages and meats, cheeses, and cooking utensils. Stock up here if you're thinking of a picnic in the next day or two.

Continue down boulevard St-Laurent 1 more block and turn left (east) into:

16. Rue Prince-Arthur

Named after Queen Victoria's third son, who was governor-general of Canada from 1911 to 1916, this pedestrian street is filled with bars and restaurants, most of which add more to the liveliness of the street than to the gastronomic reputation of the city. The older establishments go by such names as La Cabane Grecque, La Caverne Grec, Casa Grecque -- no doubt you will discern an emerging theme -- but the Greek stalwarts are being challenged by Latino and Asian newcomers. Their owners vie constantly with gimmicks to haul in passersby, including two-for-one drinks and dueling tables d'hôte prices that plummet to C$10 (US$8.70/£4.30) or lower for three courses. Beer and sangria are the popular drinks at the white resin tables and chairs set out along the sides of the street. In the warmer weather, mimes, vendors, street performers, and caricaturists also compete for the tourist dollar.

Five short blocks later, rue Prince-Arthur ends at:

17. Square St-Louis

This public garden plaza is framed by attractive row houses erected for well-to-do Francophones in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. People stretch out on the grass to take the sun, or sit bundled on benches willing March away. Among them are usually a few harmless derelicts. On occasional summer days, there are impromptu concerts. The square ends at rue St-Denis.

To pick up the Métro, cross rue St-Denis and walk east on rue des Malines. The Sherbrooke station is just ahead at the corner of rue Berri.