Walking Tour: Plateau Mont-Royal

Start: The corner of avenue du Mont-Royal and rue St-Denis

Finish: Square St-Louis

Time: At least 2 hours, but allow more time to linger in and explore this intriguing neighborhood

Best Times: Monday through Saturday during the day, when the shops are open. Boulevard St-Laurent is at its liveliest on Saturday. For barhopping, evenings work well.

Worst Times: Sunday, when most stores are closed, if shopping is important to you.

This is essentially a window-shopping, browsing, and grazing tour, designed to provide a sampling of the sea of ethnicities that make up Plateau Mont-Royal, north of downtown Montréal and due east of Mont-Royal Park. The neighborhood, which in recent years has seen an unprecedented flourishing of restaurants, cafes, clubs, and shops, is bounded on the south by rue Sherbrooke, on the north by boulevard St-Joseph, on the east by avenue Papineau, and on the west by rue St-Dominique. Monuments and obligatory sights are few along these commercial avenues, and the residential side streets are filled with row houses that are home to students, young professionals, and immigrants old and new. This walk is a glance into the lives of both established and freshly-minted Montréalers and the way they spend their leisure time. Be aware that stores and bistros open and close with considerable frequency in this neighborhood, so some of the highlights listed below may not exist when you visit.

To begin, take the Métro to the Mont-Royal station. There's a fruit stand in front of the Métro station. Turn left, walking west on avenue du Mont-Royal to St-Denis. Turn left. On the left side of the street, at 4481 rue St-Denis, is:

1. Quai des Brumes

This popular gathering spot for jazz, blues, and beer offers live music most evenings, and even some afternoons. Its name means "Foggy Dock."

Go back to the corner and cross the street to 4430 St-Denis, where you'll find:

2. Requin Chagrin

Check out this retro shop with a good selection of secondhand clothing.

Walk farther along at St-Denis to no. 4380:

3. Champigny

A large bookstore with mostly French stock, it also carries travel guides and literature in English, as well as CDs, magazines, and newspapers in many languages from all over the world. Most of the books are upstairs. There's an extensive children's section. The bookstore is open daily until midnight.

Continue down the right side of St-Denis to no. 4338:

4. Côté Sud

Here you'll find shelves of distinctive glassware, plus cooking and dining implements, including chef's knives, flatware, china, and related items, such as aluminum canisters and candles. They fill two floors of connecting buildings.

Keep walking down St-Denis and:

Take a Break

At 4325 rue St-Denis, Fonduementale specializes in (guess what?) fondue -- fondues as appetizers, as main courses, as desserts. Excess is not without its virtues. The turn-of-the-20th-century house has a terrace in front and a garden.

Not far down the street, at no. 4306, is:

5. Départ en Mer

A nautical theme prevails at this store, with brass navigation instruments, bells, fisherman shirts, and a variety of ship models ranging in price from a handful of loonies to several hundred dollars. Most of the merchandise is produced in France.

Continue down rue St-Denis to no. 4246:

6. Zone

This shop purveys contemporary housewares, most of them sleekly monochromatic, and some brightly hued.

Next door, at 4240 rue St-Denis, is the wonderfully cluttered:

7. Antiques Puces-Libre

This store offers three floors of 19th-century French-Canadian country collectibles -- pine and oak furniture, lamps, clocks, vases, and much more.

Continue to rue Rachel, cross to the left side of the street and continue south to 4159A rue St-Denis, where you'll find:

8. Fruits & Passion

This company uses "natural extracts" to fabricate their undeniably appealing soaps, aromatherapy, sunscreens, moisturizers . . . and, in the back, olive oils, balsamic vinegars, chutneys, and honey.

Just down the street, at 4117 rue St-Denis, is:

9. Artefact

Québecois designers and artists display (and sell) clothing and paintings at this shop.

After that, look for no. 4107:

10. Kaliyana

This stores sells loose and comfortable clothing by a Czech-born designer who uses hand-printed fabrics.

Next, at 4077 rue St-Denis, you'll come upon:

11. Senteurs de Provence

One of a small chain, this store displays hand-painted pottery and printed linens, as well as bath soaps, shower gels, and lotions of high order, all from France.

At the corner of St-Denis and rue Duluth, cross over and walk right (west) along:

12. Rue Duluth

This street is dotted with ever-changing Greek, Portuguese, Italian, North African, Malaysian, and Vietnamese eateries, as well as several small antique shops.

Continue along rue Duluth until it arrives at the boulevard St-Laurent, a north-south thoroughfare that's so prominent in the cultural history of the city that it's known to Anglophones, Francophones, and Allophones alike simply as "The Main."

Turn left on:

13. Boulevard St-Laurent

Traditionally a beachhead for immigrants to Montréal, St-Laurent has increasingly become a street of chic bistros and clubs. The late-night section runs for several miles, roughly from rue Laurier all the way down to rue Sherbrooke. This bistro and club boom was fueled by low rents and the large number of industrial lofts in this area, a legacy of St-Laurent's heyday as a garment-manufacturing center. Today these cavernous spaces have been converted into restaurants and clubs, many of which have the life spans of fireflies, but some of which pound on for years.

At 3895 bd. St-Laurent you'll find:

14. Schwartz's

The language police insisted on the exterior sign with the French mouthful CHEZ SCHWARZ CHARCUTERIE HEBRAIQUE DE MONTREAL, but everyone just calls it Schwartz's. This narrow, no-frills deli serves smoked meat against which all other smoked meats must be measured. Vegetarians and those who require some distance from their neighbors' elbows will hate it.

Take a Break

Pop in to Schwartz's for some of their famous smoked meat.

Next, a few steps along at no. 3855, is:

15. La Vieille Europe

The "Old Europe" delicatessen sells aromatic coffee beans from many nations, plus sausages and meats, cheeses, and cooking utensils.

At no. 3643 you'll find:

16. Le Swimming

Here, you'll find a bar downstairs and an upstairs hall with a dozen pool tables.

Continue down boulevard St-Laurent and turn left (east) into:

17. Rue Prince-Arthur

Named after Queen Victoria's third son, who was governor-general of Canada from 1911 to 1916, this is a pedestrian street filled with bars and restaurants, most of which add more to the liveliness of the street than to the gastronomic reputation of the city. The older establishments go by such names as La Caverne Grecque, La Gourmet Grec, Cabane Grecque -- no doubt you will discern an emerging theme -- but are being challenged by Latino and Asian newcomers. Their owners vie constantly with gimmicks to haul in passersby, including two-drinks-for-the-price-of-one specials and dueling table d'hôte prices that plummet to C$8 (US$5.70) or lower for three courses. Beer and sangria are the popular drinks at the white resin tables and chairs set out along the sides of the street. Mimes, vendors, street performers, and caricaturists also compete for the tourist dollar.

Five blocks along, rue Prince-Arthur ends at:

18. Square St-Louis

This public garden plaza is framed by attractive row houses erected for well-to-do Francophones in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. People stretch out on the grass to take the sun or sit bundled on benches willing March away. Among them are usually a few harmless derelicts and street people. On occasional summer days, there are impromptu concerts. The square ends at rue St-Denis.

From here, bear left onto rue Cherrier to catch the Métro at the Sherbrooke station, less than half a block away.