Thrilling Cities: Montréal
I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to some particularly beautiful locations. The Caribbean is my favourite (I’m a sucker for sandy beaches and azure water – particularly in frozen winters), and Hawaii might have been the most beautiful in terms of an isolated paradise. Alaska is definitely the cleanest and purist nature that I’ve been immersed.
As far as cities go there are, without question, two that top my list which are far in away ahead of anything that could ever be ranked third (and I’ve yet to find a city worthy enough to seize my attention to be awarded third place). They are Chicago and Montréal.
It is next to impossible to move Chicago out of its #1 ranking. From food, culture, sports, and metropolitan atmosphere. Navy Pier, Deep Dish Pizza, the Sears Tower (I will not stop calling it that), and Michigan Avenue complete with the aroma of Doublecheezborgers from Billy Goat’s. Throw in frustrated conversations in taverns and street corners about da Cubs and Bears and the shoreline of Lake Michigan stands as an edifice of how to build a city with all the necessary community elements, but without the stale and indifferent social interactions one receives in other cities. Chicago stands as an example that an immense sprawling metropolitan area doesn’t have to be rude. Take note Five Boroughs!
I never really had a #2 on my list until the last decade when I finally made it to Montréal, and it was instantly that I realized I had to add a second city to my snobbish subjective ranking. Like the Midway, Montréal also contains all the necessary elements, but has also added its own unique flavour to the melting pot to make it an intriguing destination all its own. It retains that metropolitan feel, though smaller than other cities like Chicago, but still expansive compared to others. There is that continued North American melting pot of different cultures, but obviously bound together by both English and Quebecois influences that only enhances it from other regions of Canada. Wait staff speaking English at one table; then French moving to the customers sitting adjacent. Montréal was once described to me as the most European North American City, and over the years I’ve found that to be true.
The culinary is varied, and there is of course as many places that serve poutine as there are chicken wings in Buffalo, but the steakhouses are second to none. Vieux-Port’s, Gibby’s, and others put anything in Texas to shame. There are the sunsets along the St. Lawrence River (I’ve only ever visited in July and never had to endure cold and harsh winters – but I suspect they are no different than any other northern city in January), and the Fall Foliage is the same as everywhere else in the northeast – stark and bright. Of course there’s the Cirque du Soleil, and the Just For Laughs comedy festival. If only Les Expos would return! (In truth I think they were ahead of their time, and Canada’s second baseball team would have fair much better today, and were simply a casualty of the greed associated with the 1994 MLB strike.)
Growing up Montréal was always this mystical city in a globe to me watching the domination of the NHL Canadiens through snowy televisions never quite getting the 1970s rabbit ears just right. The language and culture and commentary was different than anything I had experienced in my home town, and that’s what made it intriguing. As I said it wasn’t until the last decade, as an adult, that I was able to finally make the trek. The city didn’t disappoint. I’m grateful to be able to visit again in 2023.
If you have a favorite city, or city ranking, please share in the comments below.