Vieux-Montréal (Old Montréal)

The central plaza of Vieux-Montréal is Place Jacques-Cartier, and it's the focus of much activity in the warm months. The plaza has two repaved streets bracketing a center promenade that slopes down from rue Notre-Dame to the Old Port, with venerable stone buildings from the 1700s along both sides. Horse-drawn carriages that gather at the plaza's base, outdoor cafés, street performers, and flower sellers recall a Montréal of a century ago. Montréalers insist they would never go to a place so overrun by tourists -- which makes one wonder why so many of them do, in fact, congregate here. They take the sun and sip sangria on the bordering terraces just as much as visitors do, enjoying the unfolding pageant.

If this is your first trip to Montréal, consider starting with the walking tour for an overview of the neighborhood and its attractions. The walk leads past most of the sites listed here and can help you get your bearings. For further information about this quarter, log on to its official website at www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca.

Cirque du Soleil: Montréal's Hometown Circus

Cirque du Soleil began as street performance in Baie-St-Paul, a river town an hour north of Québec City. Stilt-walkers, fire-breathers, and musicians, the artists raised a small ruckus with one pure intention: to entertain. The troupe formally founded as Cirque du Soleil ("circus of the sun") in 1984.

With no animals, this circus has grown into a spectacle like no other. Using human-size gyroscopes, trampoline beds, trapezes suspended from massive chandeliers, and the like, Cirque creates worlds that are spooky, sensual, and otherworldly. Over 900 acrobats, contortionists, jugglers, clowns, dancers, and singers work for it, touring the world in companies simultaneously. Resident shows are established in Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida.

The company's offices are in Montréal in the northern Saint-Michel district, not far beyond the Mile End neighborhood. But they're not just offices: The Cirque has been developing a small campus of buildings in an industrial zone since 1997. All new artists come here to train for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months and live in residences on-site. The complex has acrobatic training rooms, a dance studio, production workshops to make the elaborate costumes and props, and a space large enough to erect a circus tent indoors. Some 1,600 staffers are employed at the Montréal facility, including 300 who work on costumes alone. The Cirque celebrates its 25th year in 2009.

Performances have taken place in Montréal from April to June in recent years, in the Cirque's signature yellow and blue tents that it erects temporarily on the Quays (piers) of Vieux-Port. Tickets aren't cheap -- they start at C$60 (US$52/£26) for adults -- but the effect is transporting. For more information, call tel. 800/361-4595 or visit www.cirquedusoleil.com.