Walking Tour: Downtown

Start: Bonaventure Métro stop

Finish: Musée McCord

Time: 1 1/2 hours

Best Times: Weekdays in the morning or after 2pm, when the streets hum with big-city vibrancy but aren't too crowded.

Worst Times: Weekdays from noon to 2pm, when the streets, stores, and restaurants are crowded with businesspeople on lunch-break errands; Monday, when museums are closed; and Sunday, when most stores are closed and the area is virtually deserted (museums, however, are open).

After a tour of Vieux-Montréal, a look around the heart of the new 20th-century city will highlight the ample contrast between these two areas. To see the city at its contemporary best, take the Métro to the Bonaventure stop and start this tour.

Take the Métro to the Bonaventure stop. Emerging from that station, the dramatic skyscraper immediately to the west is:

1. 1000 rue de la Gauchetière

This recent contribution to the already memorable skyline is easily identified by its copper-and-blue pyramidal top, which rises to the maximum height permitted by the municipal building code. Inside, past an atrium planted with live trees, is a huge indoor skating rink bordered by cafes with seating for more than 1,500 spectators.

Walk west for one block on rue de la Gauchetière. On the left is:

2. Le Marriott Château Champlain

The hotel's distinctive facade of half-moon windows inspired its nickname: the "cheese grater."

Turn right on rue Peel, walking north. When you hit bd. René-Lévesque, bear right and you'll arrive at:

3. Square Dorchester

The square's tall old trees and benches invite lunchtime brown-baggers. This used to be called Dominion Square, but it was renamed for Baron Dorchester, an early English governor, when the adjacent street, once named for him, was changed to boulevard René-Lévesque. Along the east side of the square is the Sun Life Insurance building, built in three stages between 1914 and 1931, and the tallest building in Québec from 1931 until the skyscraper boom of the post-World War II era. This is a gathering point for tour buses and calèches (horse-drawn carriages). In winter, the calèche drivers replace their carriages with sleighs and give rides around the top of Mont-Royal.

At the northeast corner of the square is the main office of:

4. Infotouriste

Many useful maps and brochures are in stock here, most of them free for the taking. Visitors can ask questions of bilingual attendants, purchase tour tickets, change money, make hotel reservations, connect with the Internet, and rent a car.

From that office, go back to the other end of the square and turn left (east) on:

5. Boulevard René-Lévesque

Formerly Dorchester Boulevard, this primary street was renamed in 1988 following the death of René-Lévesque, the Parti Québécois leader who led the movement in favor of Québec independence and the use of the French language. Boulevard René-Lévesque is the city's broadest downtown thoroughfare, and the one with the fastest traffic.

On the right is the:

6. Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde (Mary Queen of the World Cathedral)

Built between 1875 and 1894 as the headquarters for Montréal's Roman Catholic bishop, the cathedral is a copy of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, built to roughly one-quarter scale. The statue in front of the cathedral is of Bishop Ignace Bourget (1799-1885), the force behind the construction of the basilica. It was sculpted in 1903 by Louis-Philippe Hébert, who is also responsible for the statue of de Maisonneuve in the Place d'Armes in Vieux-Montréal.

Continue past the cathedral and cross rue Mansfield, and you will see:

7. Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth (Le Reine Elizabeth)

Opened in 1958, Montréal's largest hotel stands above Gare Centrale, the main railroad station, making it most convenient for people arriving by train. It also has direct access to the underground city, and buses leave for Dorval and Mirabel airports from here.

Across boulevard René-Lévesque from Fairmont Le Reine Elizabeth hotel is:

8. Place Ville-Marie

Known as PVM to Montréalers, this massive structure was the gem of the postwar urban redevelopment efforts in Montréal. The skyscraper, with its cross-shaped floor plan, was designed by I. M. Pei. It is meant to recall Cartier's cross, planted on Mont Royal to claim the island for France, and for de Maisonneuve's first little settlement, Ville-Marie. The complex, completed in 1962, has a fountain in its plaza called Feminine Landscape (1972), executed by Toronto artist Gerald Gladstone.

At the end of the hotel, turn left along rue Université, crossing boulevard René-Lévesque and walking 2 blocks to rue Ste-Catherine. Turn right on rue Ste-Catherine and walk past av. Union, where you'll see:

9. Carré Phillips

This plaza contains a statue of Edward VII and, during much of the year, a farm stand selling Québec maple products.

Over to the left, across rue Ste-Catherine, is:

10. Cathédrale Christ Church

Built from 1856 to 1859, this neo-Gothic building is the seat of the Anglican bishop of Montréal. The church garden is modeled on a medieval European cloister. The cathedral donated the land on which place de la Cathédrale and the shopping complex underneath it, Promenades de la Cathédrale, were built, in return for eventual ownership of the skyscraper and the underground complex. All those subterranean corridors and levels have caused some to dub it the "floating" or "flying" church.

Turn left on:

11.Rue Ste-Catherine

Head west through the center of Montréal's shopping district. Many of Montréal's department stores are along here, including, to the right of the church, La Baie (or "The Bay," short for Hudson's Bay Company, successor to the famous fur-trapping firm). Movie houses, cafes, and shops line rue Ste-Catherine for several blocks.

At the corner of rue de la Montagne is:

12. Ogilvy

This is the most vibrant of a classy breed of department store that appears to be fading from the scene. Founded in 1866, it strives to maintain its upmarket stature by blending tradition with tasteful marketing strategies. Its Christmas windows are eagerly awaited each year. A bagpiper announces the noon hour.

Continue 1 more block to:

13. Rue Crescent

This and nearby streets are the locus of the center-city social and dining district, largely yuppie Anglo in character, if not necessarily in strict demographics. Pricey boutiques, inexpensive pizza joints, upscale restaurants, and dozens of bars and dance clubs draw enthusiastic, stylish consumers looking to spend money, find love or undemanding lust, and party the night away. This center of gilded youth and glamour was once a run-down slum area slated for demolition. Luckily, buyers with a good aesthetic sense saw the possibilities of these late-19th-century row houses and brought them back to life.

Turn right on rue Crescent and:

Take a Break

Lively spots for coffee or snacks are abundant along rue Crescent. Thursday's (no. 1449, in L'Hôtel de la Montagne) is one, if you can find a seat on the balcony, or walk a little farther up rue Crescent and get a sidewalk table at Sir Winston Churchill Pub (no. 1459).

Continue up rue Crescent, past boulevard de Maisonneuve, to the corner of rues Crescent and Sherbrooke. On this left corner, and on the opposite side of Sherbrooke, is the:

14. Musée des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts)

This is Canada's oldest and Montréal's most prominent museum. The modern annex was added in 1991 and is connected to the original stately Beaux Arts building (1912) across the way by an underground tunnel that doubles as a gallery. Both buildings are made of Vermont marble.

Turn right on rue Sherbrooke, passing, at the next corner, the Holt Renfrew department store, identified on its marquee only as HOLTS. Continue on rue Sherbrooke, passing, on the right, the:

15. Maison Alcan

This structure has been frequently lauded for its incorporation of 19th-century houses into its late-20th-century facade. Step inside the lobby to see the results, especially over to the right.

Walk 4 more blocks in the same direction. On the opposite side of rue Sherbrooke is the entrance to:

16. McGill University

The gate is usually open to this, Canada's most prestigious university. Step inside and see, just to the left, a large stone that marks the site of the Amerindian Horchelaga settlement that existed here before the arrival of the Europeans.

Also on the campus is the:

17. Musée Redpath

Housed in a building dating from 1882, this museum's main draw is its Egyptian antiquities collection, the second largest of its kind in Canada.

Opposite the university, and just half a block south of rue Sherbrooke, on the left, is a cream-colored resin sculpture called:

18. The Illuminated Crowd (1979)

Raymond Mason's sculpture is frequently photographed and widely admired for its evocation of the human condition, although its detractors find it sentimental and obvious. Circle it at leisure and then return to rue Sherbrooke, turning right.

One block east on rue Sherbrooke is the:

19. Musée McCord

This private museum of Canadian history first opened in 1921 and was substantially renovated and expanded in 1992. Named for its founder, David Ross McCord (1844-1930), the McCord has an eclectic and often eccentric collection of 80,000 artifacts. Furniture, clothing, china, silver, paintings, photographs, and folk art reveal elements of city and rural life from the 18th to the 20th century. Amerindians are represented in the First Nations room.