One thing the province of Québec does exceptionally well is come up with citywide programs that foster community spirit. For instance, the annual Carnaval de Québec (January 28-February 13, 2011; www.carnaval.qc.ca) fans out across so many venues and neighborhoods in Québec City that its accompanying good cheer is virtually unavoidable for its 17-day duration. The 11-day Montréal High Lights festival (February 17-27, 2011; www.montrealenlumiere.com) also aims high, with 40 performances, extraordinary dining events, and an "all-nighter" that each year culminates in free breakfast for all. To participate is to feel a deep sense of community.
To that same end, throughout 2010 Montréal will host a wide range of exhibitions and activities around a somewhat unlikely theme: "Montréal, City of Glass" (in French: Montréal, Ville de Verre). The major show on Tiffany glass that was held February through May at the Musée des Beaux-Arts was only the tip of the glassy iceberg: there will be special exhibits at 20 other museums, including a show at the Centre des Sciences de Montréal on technological applications of glass and performances in Palais des Congrès, the convention center whose walls are a crazy quilt of candy-colored glass. Full details are available at www.villedeverre.org. Also check Tourisme Montréal for details -- a synopsis of events as details emerge is likely to be listed at www.tourisme-montreal.org/What-To-Do/Events/montreal-city-of-glass-2010.
After a year mourning the loss of the Grand Prix, the international auto race that for three days attracted more than 100,000 people to Montréal's racetrack (and to the city's hotels and restaurants), the city announced in November 2009 that it had a new financial agreement to bring the event back from 2010 to 2014. The Grand Prix generated some C$100 million in tourism in 2008 but left in 2009 when the city wouldn't meet the excessive financial demands of Formula One owners. Its return is welcome news. Information: www.formula1.com.
The profile of poutine, the Québec comfort food made from French fries, cheese curds, and gravy, continues to rise outside the province. The New York Times featured poutine and Frommer's favorite Restaurant La Banquise, 994 rue Rachel est; (tel. 514/525-2415; www.restolabanquise.com) in an autumn photo essay about Montréal and the Plateau neighborhood. Writer Calvin Trillin penned a 4-page essay in the November 23, 2009 issue of the New Yorker positing that the "national joke" may be becoming a national dish. It's the perfect symbol, he wrote, "for a country that prides itself on lumpy multiculturalism -- whatever impact it has on another point of pride, the national health-care system."
Planning a Trip to Montréal and Qu&eactue;bec City
Porter Airlines (www.flyporter.com) offers flights to Montréal, the ski region of Mont Tremblant north of Montréal, and Québec City from Boston, Chicago, Myrtle Beach, and New York/Newark.
New Restaurants in Montréal
- Hard Rock Cafe, 1458 rue Crescent, is CLOSED.
- Version Laurent Godbout, 295 rue St-Paul est; (tel 514/871-9135; www.version-restaurant.com) is now doing business as L'Autre Version. All contact info remains the same.
- Bixi (www.montreal.bixi.com), the bicycle-sharing program that debuted in May 2009, reopened for a second season on May 1 and will remain open through November. At its peak last year, the network had 5,000 bikes at 400 stations, and it offered its millionth trip in October. It was named finalist in a Corporate Citizen of the Year award program for its contribution to sustainable development.
- Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada (www.formula1.com) will return to Montréal in June 2010 after one year away. See details above.
- SSS, 71 rue St-Paul; (tel 418/692-1991; www.restaurantsss.com), a new casual dining spot owned by the folks behind Toast!, opened in November. The name is an acronym for Simple Snack Sympatique.
- Utopie, 226 1/2 rue St-Joseph est in the St-Roch neighborhood, is CLOSED. The adjacent sister venue, tapas and wine bar Le Cercle, 228 rue St-Joseph est, remains open.
- Aurora Borealis (www.lacaserne.net/index2.php/other_projects) an installation of shifting, multicolored light, has appeared nightly on the prominent grain silos in the Old Port since October 2009 and is slated to run after sunset through 2010 and beyond. It's the second such outdoor art project by Robert Lepage, who created the Image Mill, a moving-picture history of Québec City that was also projected on the silos, for the city's 400th anniversary in 2008.
- Verrerie La Mailloche, 58 rue Sous-le-Fort, the former glass-blowing demonstration studio at the beginning of the Lower Town tour, is CLOSED.
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