Old Montreal (Vieux-Montréal)

Montreal began here. In 1642 a small group of French settlers led by Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, founded the mission of Ville-Marie on the bank of the St. Lawrence River, and the district that grew around it is now Vieux-Montréal. The stone buildings that give the quarter its look mostly date from the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was the commercial centre of a fur-trading and later banking city. It was designated a historic district in 1964 and has been carefully preserved since.

Visitors do best on foot, and the best way to start is to drift without a plan, letting the narrow streets lead from one square to the next. Rue Saint-Paul, among the oldest streets in the city, is a cobbled run of boutiques, galleries and restaurants in old warehouses, with iron balconies above many doors. Place Jacques-Cartier, a sloping square lined with terraces, fills with street performers and flower sellers in summer. At the top of the square stands the Hôtel de Ville, the city hall, and nearby is Château Ramezay, an early governor's residence that now operates as a museum.

Bonsecours Market is the building with the silver dome, a Neoclassical hall from the 1840s that now houses boutiques and event space. The Notre-Dame Basilica faces Place d'Armes and is the area's best-known interior. Pointe-à-Callière, the city's archaeology and history museum, sits near the spot where the first settlers came ashore, and below street level you can walk through ruins that tell the story of the earliest settlement. Rue Saint-Jacques, once the Wall Street of Canada, is lined with grand bank buildings.

Old Montreal ranks among the oldest settled districts in North America, and its Old Port stretches along the riverfront and offers a very different mood, with open promenades, bike paths, a 60-metre observation wheel, the Montreal Science Centre and seasonal beach installations. In winter the quarter turns quiet and candlelit, with skating and holiday markets, and the cafés fill with people warming up between walks. Many of the old warehouses now hold hotels, so it is also an atmospheric place to stay.

Metro stations at Place-d'Armes and Champ-de-Mars sit at the edge of the district, so access is simple. It suits couples, history lovers and photographers, and it is best explored in the morning or at dusk, when the stone glows and the crowds thin.