Montreal – Europe Without the Jetlag – City of Festivals, Shopping, Nightlife, Restaurants

Montreal – city of cafes, restaurants, shops of all kinds and from all over the world. Montreal – city of festivals from Jazz Festival to Comedy Festival to several film festivals.

Montreal stayed pretty well unchanged in one important way. It was one of the safest cities in North America in the 1950s – and that is unchanged. It is still one of the safest cities, where one can walk almost everywhere at any time of night or day.

There are museums, festivals, conferences – and so many ongoing things. Montreal has become a city of villages – with a village being a small area with lots of restaurants, shops, nightlife. The Plateau. The Quartier Latin – or in English, the Latin Quarter. Mile End. The Saint Denis area. The Golden Mile – which is the old downtown area. Old Montreal. The Monkland Village.

And also the Gay Village. In terms of valuing diversity, Montreal was proud to host the first gay Olympics in 2006 – and participants (who wore tags identifying them) were warmly welcomed by Montrealers.

As for Montreal, city of villages, even the suburbs are developing villages. So, for example, the suburb, Pierrefonds, has the Pierrefonds Village.

Montreal also has loads of malls for those who like malls, but more and more Montrealers are heading for their favorite villages – though the malls are extremely welcome, especially during the hottest and coldest times.

Montreal also has an excellent public transportation system (including a metro) and miles of indoor connections, especially downtown.

There’s a lot else, of course -

such as, in the summer, weekly fireworks displays from countries around the world that attract hundreds of thousands of people;

4 large universities, 2 English and 2 French;

a mountain in the middle of the city, Mont Royal, that has stayed undeveloped and that offers miles of walking, biking and in winter, cross-country skiing;

the Lachine Canal, a revitalized area which again offers miles of walking and roller-blading all the way from Old Montreal outward to Lachine, LaSalle and Dorval, with restaurants in some parts along the way;

Park Lafontaine right between the Plateau and the Latin Quarter, with its small lake where one can go rowing, its petting zoo, and its performances in the summer months (ballet, music).

The list goes on and on. Concerts, theatre, ballet, opera, touring Broadway shows.

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