Floornature

The multiethnic charm of the “Metropole”, the French nickname for Montreal: the world’s third largest Francophone city after Paris and Kinshasa (Congo), Canada’s answer to New York.
Located where the St. Lawrence and Outaouais Rivers come together, surrounded by 70 or so islands, the majority of which are uninhabited, the city and its inhabitants initially remind us of Mordecai Richler’s novel Barney’s Version. A lively, cordial city where everyone loves Celine Dion, Montreal was designated a Unesco “City of design” in 2006, the only North American city and the third city in the world – after Buenos Aires and Berlin – to be awarded the honour. Fun or joie de vivre is the city’s leitmotif, and it’s contagious and dramatic. Districts such as the Village are a concentrate of fun, contrasting with the Mont Royal district with its bookshops and artists, or Chinatown with its colourful gates. But Montreal is above all a city of d'art and design galleries: alternative in the Village, touristy in Old Montreal and absolutely experimental in the Golden Square Mile, with a scientific district around the Olympic Stadium that hosted the 1976 Games, containing the world’s tallest leaning tower, and on the island of Sainte-Helene, home to the Biosphere presented to the public at Expo 67 as part of the American pavilion and now an interpretative museum on the St. Lawrence River.
Glass and steel skyscrapers appear behind historical buildings and big public areas such as the International District, a modern urban space on the edge of the old town with buildings such as the Palais des Congres de Montreal, the Convention Centre, with its coloured glass in which light makes the floor into a true kaleidoscope. And amidst the glass and stone buildings we find the OACI building with the Tour de la Bourse, a towering skyscraper designed by architects Pier Luigi Nervi and Luigi Moretti still considered a masterpiece of the international style in design.

Another essential destination is the Grande Bibliotheque du Québec opened in 2005, designed by Patkau Architects and Croft-Pelletier. The 33 thousand square metre space contains a large collection of rare editions, multimedia documents, prints and maps with access to 4 million documents and 1 million books.  It’s not just a place of culture, but also a multipurpose space with an auditorium, exhibition halls, a coffee shop and a restaurant. Other cultural spots of interest in Vieux-Montreal  include Pointe à Calliere Museum of History and Archaeology and above all the Canadian Architecture Centre, designed by Peter Rose and Phyllis Lambert in 1989 in the post-modern style. Another building well worth seeing is Habitat 67, designed by Moshe Safdie, a three-dimensional spatial structure combining residential, commercial and service functions. As we stroll through the city we discover small and large businesses in the fashion, dining and hotellerie sectors and the designer interiors of the Eaton’s department store or Place Montreal Trust with more than 100 boutiques and multiethnic restaurants.

In the area to the south of Place Royale is hotel Gault, a true boutique hotel. It has cement walls and floor and tall columns of white cast iron and steel walls around the bookshop, all in minimalist style, in both the public areas and the 30 rooms for guests. An alternative is the St. Paul Hotel in fascinating Vieux-Montreal, located in a building dating back to 1900 with a monumental translucent alabaster fireplace in the lobby. Or Hotel Le Place D'Armes , the legendary Le St James  or, on a less grandiose scale, the more recent Opus. 
And for lunch or dinner? An easy choice: stop at the Cluny Art Bar in the former Darling Foundry, restored in 2002. Its dramatic minimalism is underlined by huge opaque windows that let in a seductive light, all at a reasonable price. For dinner, go to the Cartet, a little restaurant downtown whose regular clients include Brad Pitt and Angelina; Jolie. The main shopping district is Rue Sainte Catherine and the underground city, a refuge in winter months when the temperature is well below zero. In spring the people of Montreal, who love music, get together on Sundays on Mont Royal, in a huge park with trees, footpaths and beautiful views over the city. At the top they all dance to the rhythm of the drums to celebrate… what? “Life, music, art... and design”, all concentrated in a North American city offering a very high quality of life.

Cintya Concari