A CHARMING, wooden manor house with bold sweeping front steps, pillars, and carved curlicues is the grandest old house in this pretty riverside town. It is the centerpiece of Domaine Joly-De-Lotbinière, a stunning estate built in 1851 by the local squire (seigneur). The house is surrounded by banks of geraniums and terraces of walnut trees [...]

SNUG IN THE crook of mountains on the western shore of the Saguenay, Chicoutimi is one of northern Quebec’s most expansive towns, despite its modest population. The cultural and economic center of the Saguenay region, Chicoutimi’s waterfront district has now been restored. A stroll along the riverside offers good views of the surrounding mountains and [...]

THE SAGUENAY River flows through the world’s southernmost natural fjord. This was formed from a retreating glacier splitting a deep crack in the Earth’s crust during the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago.

LINED WITH boutiques, the old streets of this little town make a gentle start to exploring the local stretch of the St. Lawrence River. In 1600, French traders picked the village as the site of the first fur-trading post in Canada, noticing that for generations native Indians had held meetings here to trade and parley.

THE CHARLEVOIX coast runs 200 km (130 miles) along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, from Sainte-Annede-Beaupré in the west to the mouth of the Saguenay. A UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve because of its fine examples of boreal forest, the area is a slim band of flowery rural beauty on the southern edge [...]

LOCATED 7 kilometres (4.5 miles) east of Quebec City, Montmorency Falls is Quebec’s most celebrated waterfall. Higher than Niagara Falls, the cascade is created as the Montmorency River empties out into the St. Lawrence River – a total of 30 m (100 ft) higher than the 56-metre (175-ft) plunge of Niagara Falls from the Niagara River [...]

ONE OF CANADA’S most sacred places, the shrine to the mother of the Virgin Mary was originally built in the 17th century. In 1650 a group of sailors who landed here after surviving a shipwreck vowed to build a chapel in honour of Saint Anne, the patron saint of those in shipwrecks.

THIS ISOLATED little fragment of New France at first appears lost among the apartment buildings of working class Pointe-Saint-Charles. It was a farm when the formidable Marguerite Bourgeoys, Montreal’s first schoolteacher and now a canonized saint, bought it in 1668 as a residence for the religious order she had founded in 1655.

THIS 116-ha (286-acre) wedge of land encircled by the St. Lawrence Seaway did not exist until 1967, when it was created with rock excavated for the Montreal métro system. It shared Expo ’67 with Ile-Sainte-Hélène, and today the two islands constitute the Parc-des-Iles.

THIS SMALL forested island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River has played a major role in Montreal’s emergence as a modern city. Originally named after Samuel de  Champlain’s wife, Ile-Sainte-Hélène was the site of Expo ’67, the world fair that brought millions of visitors to the city in the summer of 1967.

MONTREAL’S botanical garden is among the largest in the world, a fine accomplishment for this northern city with a brutal climate. Its 75-ha (182-acre) enclose 30 outdoor gardens, 10 greenhouses, a “courtyard of the senses” in which blind interpreters help visitors discover the touch and smell of exotic flowers, and a bug-shaped Insectarium full of [...]

DESIGNED FOR the 1976 Olympic Games, Montreal’s Olympic Park showpieces a number of stunning modern buildings. Paris architect Roger Taillibert created the Stadium, now known to many Montrealers as “The Big Owe,” a reference not only to its round shape but the Can$695 million it cost to build. The stadium, seating 56,000, is used today [...]

THE STEEP GREEN bump that rises above the city center is only 234 m (767 ft) high, but Montrealers call it simply ‘‘the mountain’’ or ‘‘la montagne.’’ Jacques Cartier gave the peak its name when he visited in 1535 and it, in turn, gave its name to the city.

EVERY YEAR, two million pilgrims climb the 300 steps to the entrance of this enormous church on their knees. Their devotion would no doubt please Brother André (1845–1937), the truly remarkable man responsible for building this shrine to the husband of the Virgin Mary.

IN THE LATTER HALF of the 19th century, Montreal was one of the most important cities in the British Empire. Its traders and industrialists controlled about 70 percent of Canada’s wealth, and many built themselves fine homes on the slopes of Mont Royal in an area that became known as the Golden, or Square, Mile.

VISITORS ENTER through an unobtrusive glass door in an almost windowless façade of gray limestone that fronts this large U-shaped building. Well-lit exhibition rooms house a series of regular exhibits in rotation.

WHEN MONTREAL’S first Catholic cathedral burned down in 1852, Bishop Ignace Bourget decided to demonstrate the importance of the Catholic Church in Canada by building a new one in a district dominated at the time by the English Protestant commercial elite.

THESE TWO open squares create a green oasis in central downtown Montreal. On the north side of Boulevard René-Lévesque, statues including Canada’s first French-Canadian prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, share the shade of Square Dorchester’s trees with a war memorial.

 
WHEN MONTREAL OPENED its first métro (or subway) lines in 1966, it inadvertently created a whole new layer of urban life – the Underground City. It is theoretically possible to lead a rich life in Montreal without once stepping outside.

ARCHITECT Frank Wills completed Christ Church in 1859 as the seat of the Anglican bishop of Montreal. This graceful Gothic limestone building, with a triple portal and a tall slender spire, has exterior walls decorated with gargoyles.