Shopping A-Z

Antiques

Antiques can be found along rue Sherbrooke near the Musée des Beaux-Arts and on the little side streets near the museum. More antiques and collectibles, in more than 50 tempting shops one after another, can be found along the lengthening "Antiques Alley" of rue Notre-Dame, especially concentrated between rue Guy and avenue Atwater.

Arts & Crafts

In warmer months, stroll Vieux-Montréal: Artists display and sell their unremarkable but nevertheless competent works along short rue St-Amable, just off Place Jacques-Cartier. From there, meander into a walkway called Le Jardin Amable to find a courtyard filled with kiosks stocked with eye-catching costume jewelry and items crafted in silver and gold.

Some of the best stores in Montréal are found in city museums. Tops among them are shops in Pointe-à-Callière (the Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History), which is in Vieux-Montréal; shops in the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée McCord, both on rue Sherbrooke in the center city; and the shop at the Musée d'Art Contemporain in the Place-des-Arts, on rue Ste-Catherine ouest, also downtown.

Books

Check out the shops in Vieux-Montréal's Pointe-à-Callière (the Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History) and downtown's Musée des Beaux-Arts, Musée McCord, and the Musée d'Art Contemporain; as is the case with arts and crafts, some of the best bookstores in Montréal are in these city museums.

Clothing for Men & Women

Montréal's long history as a center for the fur trade buttresses the many wholesale and retail furriers, which have outlets downtown and in Plateau Mont-Royal. Nowhere are fur shops more concentrated than on the "fur row" of rue Mayor, downtown between rue de Bleury and rue City Councillors.

Department Stores

Montréal's major downtown shopping emporia stretch along rue Ste-Catherine from rue Guy eastward to Carré Phillips at Aylmer (department store Holt Renfrew is north on rue Sherbrooke ouest, parallel). An excursion along the 12-block stretch of Ste-Catherine can keep a diligent shopper busy for hours, even days. Also look for these stores' branches in the underground city.

Edibles

The food markets described in "Picnic Fare" carry abundant assortments of cheeses, wines, and packaged food products that can serve as gifts or delicious reminders of your visit when you get home.

Wines & Spirits

Again, the food markets described in "Picnic Fare" carry a good variety of wines, which are also sold in supermarkets and convenience stores (along with beer).

Liquor and other spirits, on the other hand, can only be sold in stores operated by the provincial Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ). Though it was once as bureaucratic as most state-run agencies, successful upgrade efforts have made its stores more inviting and given differently named stores different personalities. The SAQ website, www.saq.com, has a ton of information about Québec wines and also lists all the area outlets. One of the largest is the downtown SAQ Selection at 440 bd. de Maisonneuve ouest west of rue de Bleury (tel. 514/873-2274), a virtual supermarket of wines and liquors, with thousands of labels. Prices run from C$10 (US$8.70/£4.30) to way, way up for some bordeaux vintages.

The downtown SAQ Signature at 677 Ste-Catherine west in the Complexe Les Ailes (tel. 514/282-9445) is one of SAQ's boutique shops, featuring a smaller selection of rarer wines, fine liquors, and gift items. Also downtown, the SAQ Express at 1108 rue Ste-Catherine ouest at the corner of rue Peel (tel. 514/861-7908) is less fancy and meant for quick in-and-out purchases; it's open daily and later than the other stores, 11am to 10pm.

The VQA logo, for Vintners Quality Alliance, is given to wines that meet the state's quality standards.

Québec's unique ice cider (cidre de glace), made from apples left on trees after the first frost, can be purchased in duty-free shops at the border in addition to the stores listed above. One top producer is Domaine Pinnacle, made about an hour and a half from the city and a regular gold medalist in international competitions.