You know what every city needs? An environmentally-conscious community center with an adjacent eco-park, and a theater for year-round circus performances. Well, I'm joking, but the more I think about it, the more I believe it's true. Montreal has exactly such a place in TOHU, an utterly unique attraction in the neighborhood of St. Michel, which focuses on the environment, community, and circus culture in equal measure.
Founded in 1964, the Musée d'Art Contemporain was the first museum in Canada dedicated entirely to works of contemporary art. In 1991, the MAC moved into its new location on the Place des Arts, where it hosts exhibitions from the world's most famous contemporary artists.
This came as a surprise to me, but Montreal is apparently famous for its bagels. It makes sense, given the city's strong Jewish community, but still: when I think "bagels," New York is what comes to mind, not Montreal. That unconscious mental association might have changed forever, though, now that I've been introduced to the bagels of St-Viateur.
Constructed in 1844, the Bonsecours Market borders the old port of Montreal and the Notre Dame de Bon Secours church for which it's named. For most of its life, Marché Bonsecours was the city's main produce market. Today, you'll find clothing stores, restaurants and craft shops inside, as well as a textile museum.
Cutting straight across the Island of Montreal, Boulevard Saint Laurent is considered to be the dividing line between the city's French-speaking half on the east, and the English half to the west. Known colloquially as "The Main," the neighborhoods which line themselves along the boulevard, from north to south, are home to various populations of immigrants.
A mansion constructed in the early twentieth-century for two brothers, the Château Dufresne is found on the border of Montreal's Olympic Park. Although it looks like one massive residence from the outside, the chateau is actually comprised of two separate houses, one for each of the siblings, Oscar and Marius.
Downtown Montreal's Rue Crescent extends for just three blocks, from René Levesque in the south to Sherbrooke Avenue in the north, but a lot is packed into its small area. Bars, clubs, restaurants, and a line-up of quaint Victorian houses make Crescent one of the city's most attractive streets. We took an initial tour on one of the first sunny afternoons of spring, and couldn't believe the number of other people who'd had the same idea.
It might not surprise you to learn which group of immigrants built Saint Patrick's Basilica. It was the Irish, who began arriving to Canada in the early nineteenth century. Set atop a hill in downtown Montreal, the imposing Gothic Revival church was completed in 1847.
