1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (127 page)

Twelve thousand people showed up for the first Montreal International Jazz Festival in 1979; now more than two million attend.

Held annually since 1979, the festival attracts an audience of 2 million music lovers, and brings together some 2,000 world-class musicians from more than 20 countries. Recent years have shown participation by internationally renowned performers ranging from such jazz stalwarts as Wynton Marsalis and Tony Bennett, to k.d. lang, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, and Prince, with visits by France’s Orchestre National de Jazz and George Thorogood thrown in for good measure.

W
HERE
: various venues in downtown Montreal. Tel 888-515-0515 or 514-871-1881;
www.montrealjazzfest.com
.
W
HEN
: late June–early July.

Fireworks, Film, and a Good Laugh

Montreal, Quebec

Although similar in size and prosperity to a number of other large urban centers, Montreal has a unique, buoyant spirit. This city loves a festival, as its reputation as Canada’s “capital of festivals” makes clear.

By far the most important on the roster is the Montreal International Jazz Festival, one of the world’s biggest and best (see previous page). Fast on its heels and starting out with a bang—quite literally—is the Montreal International Fireworks Competition lighting up the city’s skies from mid-June through July. National teams of fireworks designers from around the world send off their biggest, newest, and most revolutionary creations into the Montreal night to the accompaniment of brilliant musical arrangements. Founded in 1985, the event draws around 2.3 million spectators annually. The culmination of the festival—the largest of its kind in the world—is the awarding of the gold Jupiter, the festival’s top prize and the highest achievement in the pyrotechnics industry.

In late August and early September, the World Film Festival brings together more than 400 international films. Founded in 1977, the designation as a “world” festival is taken seriously, with entries from more than 70 countries and a growing number of them world premieres.

The Just for Laughs Festival is the world’s largest and most prestigious comedy event. Each July, more than 1,000 comedians from 19 countries come to Montreal for the 11-day festival, cracking up audiences at over 2,000 shows and performances.

Other standouts of Montreal’s summer lineup include Les FrancoFolies de Montréal, celebrating French music from around the world; the Montreal Celtic Festival, showcasing Celtic music, dance, storytelling, art, and traditional food and drink; and the Festival
Nuits d’Afrique, promoting music of the African diaspora with indoor and outdoor concerts that really get the city in party mode.

W
HERE
: various venues around Montreal.
Visitor info:
Tel 888-363-7777 or 514-873-2015;
www.tourism-montreal.org
.
I
NTERNATIONAL
F
IREWORKS
C
OMPETITION
: Tel 514-397-2000;
www.internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com
.
When:
mid-June–July, usually on Sat and Wed evenings.
W
ORLD
F
ILM
F
ESTIVAL
: Tel 514-848-3883;
www.ffm-montreal.org
.
When:
12 days in late Aug–early Sept.
J
UST FOR
L
AUGHS
F
ESTIVAL
: Tel 888-244-3155 or 514-845-3155;
www.hahaha.com
.
When:
11 days in mid-July.
L
ES
F
RANCO
-F
OLIES
D
E
M
ONTREAL
: Tel 800-361-4595 or 514-790-1245;
www.francofolies.com
.
When:
10 days in late July–early Aug.
M
ONTREAL
C
ELTIC
F
ESTIVAL
: Tel 514-481-3471;
www.montrealcelticfestival.com
.
When:
4 days in mid-Aug.
F
ESTIVAL
N
UITS D
’A
FRIQUE
: Tel 514-499-9239;
www.festivalnuitsdafrique.com
.
When:
11 days in mid-July.

The Montreal International Fireworks Competition’s pyrotechnics are considered the best in the world.

Dining Par Excellence in Montreal

Montreal, Quebec

Since 1993, chef Normand Laprise has presided over the kitchen at Toqué!, almost unanimously acclaimed as Montreal’s top contemporary French restaurant. Then, in 2004, Toqué! up and moved from its original spot
into a new location between downtown and its former venue in Vieux-Montréal. The new, coolly chic dining room is much quieter and less crowded than the previous, but the cuisine remains as excellent as ever.

With the philosophy of showcasing Quebec products and using only the freshest regional and seasonal foods to best reveal their natural textures and tastes, Laprise was on the cutting edge when he first opened Toqué! The menu is constantly changing, reflecting the long-standing relationships Laprise has built with local farmers, artisanal cheese makers, fruit growers, and fishermen who provide him with the freshest and rarest raw materials. A seasonal menu may include Nova Scotia princess scallops with olive oil, yellow pepper juice, and strawberry mousse. Laprise also offers a special gourmet menu, seven courses designed to be eaten as a series of taste and textural discoveries. Even with food this dazzling, the service is friendly and unpretentious. It’s little wonder that Laprise has been credited with single-handedly raising the standard of food in Montreal, and then taking it a little further.

W
HERE
: 900, Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle. Tel 514-499-2084;
www.restaurant-toque.com
.
C
OST
: dinner US$53/C$60; 7-course gourmet menu US$75/C$84; 2-course lunch menu US$34/C$38, served starting Dec 7 till Christmas.
W
HEN
: dinner, closed Sun–Mon.

Paris Without Jet Lag

Montreal, Quebec

Montreal got its start in 1642, when a group of French missionaries led by Paul de Chomedey arrived by river and set up camp, intent on converting the local Iroquois to Christianity. By 1759, after the British
defeated the French for the rule of Canada, Montreal was centered along a narrow stretch of headland above the busy port on the St. Lawrence River. Today, this is Montreal’s old city center, better known as Vieux-Montréal or Old Montreal, and despite almost 250 years of British rule and the influence of
anglais-
speaking Canada and the United States all around, it remains a bastion of French diaspora culture—in its architecture, its cuisine, and its palpable joie de vivre.

For much of the 20th century, the historic buildings and cobblestone streets of Vieux-Montréal slumbered in disrepair. Today, after being rediscovered and renovated as a hot spot of nightlife, café culture, and tourism, Vieux-Montréal preserves its 18th- and 19th-century atmosphere so well that it’s commonly used by American and Canadian film crews as a stand-in location for Europe.

Place Jacques-Cartier is the epicenter of Montreal summer life, with its street performers, cafés, flower merchants, and a line of horse-drawn calèches offering carriage rides back in time. Place d’Armes is another popular gathering spot, with views onto some of the city’s most beautiful and historic sites, including the 1824 Basilica of Notre Dame, with its stunningly rich interior, and the adjacent Sulpician Seminary, Montreal’s oldest building, dating to 1685. Rue St-Paul is Montreal’s oldest, a winding street lined by gaslights and early 19th-century storefronts, many now housing art galleries and boutiques. Along the riverfront, the Vieux Port has been transformed from a gritty warehouse district into a promenade full of parks, exhibition spaces, skating rinks, and playgrounds.

A Montreal splash of opulence arrived in 2003 with the opening of the Hotel Le St-James, an 1879 former merchant’s bank of exceptional architecture reincarnated as a very posh gentlemen’s-club–like boutique hotel. For a fraction of the price, check in at the always popular Auberge Les Passants du Sans Soucy, a former fur warehouse built in 1723, now converted into a delightful B&B whose nine rooms—with their stone walls, beamed ceilings, polished wood floors, and traditional Quebecois furniture—are veritable time machines, but with all the modern comforts.

For a quick bite, head north of the Old Quarter and join
tout Montréal
at L’Express, one of the most popular spots in town for authentic French bistro fare and atmosphere.

Exposed limestone and brick structures line the streets of Vieux-Montréal, one of the oldest urban areas in North America.

W
HERE
: bounded on the north by Rue St-Antoine, on the south by the St. Lawrence River, and on the east and west by Rue Berri
and Rue McGill;
www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca
.
H
OTEL
L
E
S
T
-J
AMES
: Tel 866-841-3111 or 514-841-3111;
www.hotellestjames.com
.
Cost:
from US$351/C$400.
A
UBERGE
L
ES
P
ASSANTS DU
S
ANS
S
OUCY
: Tel 514-842-2634;
www.lesanssoucy.com
.
Cost:
from US$110/C$125 (off-peak), from US$123/C$140 (peak).
L’E
XPRESS
: Tel 514-845-5333.
Cost:
dinner US$22/C$25.
B
EST TIMES
: Feb–Mar for the High Lights Winter Festival (
www.montrealhighlights.com
); mid-June–early Sept for summer festivals (see p. 1016); June–Sept for weather.

Lake Life, à la Québec

North Hatley, Quebec

The beautiful Lake Massawippi, a narrow, 10-mile-long glacier-dug lake flanked by dense hardwood forests, is nestled among the hills of Quebec’s Eastern Townships (see p. 1012) and the border of New England. At the
turn of the 20th century, the lake was a favorite vacation destination for wealthy families seeking a break from summer ennui, providing the kind of swimming, boating, and fishing holidays that induce sepia-toned memories of the Good Old Days. The beauty of its autumn colors was no less irresistible. Today, Lake Massawippi (an Abenaki name meaning “deep waters”) is still an idyllic place, seemingly far from the stress of modern life, with friendly small lakeside resorts, gallery-filled villages, fine golf courses, and excellent restaurants, all exuding an inimitable mix of Quebecois charm and New England culture.

At the north tip of Lake Massawippi is North Hatley, a charming village built in the New England style, with tree-lined streets, white picket fences, and brightly painted clapboard homes. When train lines linked North Hatley to the cities of the U.S. East Coast in the 1880s, America’s captains of industry built grand lakefront estates here as summer retreats. Today many of these imposing homes have been converted to small boutique hotels and country inns.

Built in 1899, Hovey Manor is reminiscent of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, with a broad, white-columned veranda. It sits amid 25 hillside acres and features English-style gardens sloping down to two small lake beaches. The inn’s 40 guest rooms (many with fireplaces and balconies) are sumptuously furnished in a style that blends discreet luxury with rustic coziness. The wood-beamed carriage house is now a comfortable country pub pouring local ales and ciders. Diners can enjoy award-winning Quebecois fine dining and the acclaimed wine cellar on the garden terrace or beside the inn’s fireplace.