Old Montreal in Montreal

12 March 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Notre-Dame Basilica © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-4.0

Notre-Dame Basilica © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-4.0

Old Montreal (French: Vieux-Montréal) is a historic neighbourhood within the municipality of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Home to the Old Port of Montreal, the neighbourhood is bordered on the west by McGill Street, on the north by Ruelle des Fortifications, on the east by rue Saint-André, and on the south by the Saint Lawrence River. Following recent amendments, the neighbourhood has expanded to include the Rue des Soeurs Grises in the west, Saint Antoine Street in the north, and Saint Hubert Street in the east.   read more…

Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel in Montreal

16 January 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  6 minutes

© DXR/cc-by-sa-4.0

© DXR/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel (chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, “Our Lady of Good Help”) is a church in the district of Old Montreal in Montreal, Quebec. One of the oldest churches in Montreal, it was built in 1771 over the ruins of an earlier chapel. The church is located at 400 Saint Paul Street East at Bonsecours Street, just north of the Bonsecours Market in the borough of Ville-Marie (Champ-de-Mars metro station).   read more…

Bonsecours Market in Montreal

5 January 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Gribeco/cc-by-2.5

© Gribeco/cc-by-2.5

Bonsecours Market (French: Marché Bonsecours), at 350 rue Saint-Paul in Old Montreal, is a two-story domed public market. For more than 100 years, it was the main public market in the Montreal area. It also briefly accommodated the Parliament of United Canada for one session in 1849. Named for the adjacent Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, it opened in 1847. During 1849 the building was used for the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. The market’s design was influenced by Dublin‘s Customs House. Bonsecours Market was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1984.   read more…

Old Port of Montreal

30 March 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Clock Tower © Concierge.2C/cc-by-sa-3.0

Clock Tower © Concierge.2C/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Old Port of Montreal (Vieux-Port de Montréal) is the historic port of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Located in Old Montreal, it stretches for over 2 km (1.2 mi) along the Saint Lawrence River. It was used as early as 1611, when French fur traders used it as a trading post. In 1976, Montreal’s Port activities were moved east to the present Port of Montreal in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.   read more…

Montreal in Quebec

15 September 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  23 minutes

Old port of Montreal by night © flickr.com - Mickael Pollard/cc-by-sa-2.0

Old port of Montreal by night © flickr.com – Mickael Pollard/cc-by-sa-2.0

Montreal is the most populous municipality in the province of Quebec and the second-most populous in Canada. Originally called Ville-Marie, or “City of Mary”, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal. The city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. Montreal had a population of 1.7 million. Montreal’s metropolitan area had a population of 4.1 million and a population of 2 million in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city, 60.5% of Montrealers speak French at home, 21.2% speak English and 19.8% speak neither. Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris.   read more…

Montreal International Jazz Festival in Canada

26 February 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Jocelynhade/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Jocelynhade/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM) (English: Montreal International Jazz Festival) is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world’s largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 artists from 30-odd countries, more than 650 concerts (including 450 free outdoor performances), and welcomes close to 2.5 million visitors (34% of whom are tourists) as well as 400 accredited journalists. The festival takes place at 10 free outdoor stages and 10 indoor concert halls.   read more…

The Underground City of Montreal

24 April 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Complexe Les Ailes © Oleksandr

Complexe Les Ailes © Oleksandr

Montreal’s Underground City (officially RÉSO or La Ville Souterraine) is the set of interconnected complexes (both above and below ground) in and around Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is also known as the indoor city (ville intérieure), and is one of the largest underground complexes in the world.   read more…

The Creative Cities Network

2 June 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

© UNESCO / Graz

© UNESCO / Graz

The Creative Cities Network is a project under the patronage of UNESCO. With the aim of celebrating and maintaining cultural diversity, the alliance formed by member cities share their experiences in promoting the local heritage, as well as discuss plans on how to cope with the influx of globalization. The Creative Cities Network aims to find and enrich a member city’s cultural identity in the midst of a growing trend towards internationalism.   read more…

The Great Lakes of North America

28 November 2011 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Downtown Chicago from the lakefront © J. Crocker

Downtown Chicago from the lakefront © J. Crocker

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume behind Baikal in Russia. The total surface is 208,610 km2 (80,545 sq mi), and the total volume is 22,560 km3 (5,412 cu mi) The lakes are sometimes referred to as the North Coast or “Third Coast” by some citizens of the United States. The Great Lakes hold 21% of the world’s surface fresh water.   read more…

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