"Montréal" Montreal by seagoingJLW

Montreal is the largest city in Québec and the second largest in Canada. Its population is 3.359.000. The entire island of Montreal became a single municipality on January 1, 2002.

The climate is variable with cold winters and hot summers. The average temperature in January is from 10 to 25 degrees F and in July from 65 to 80 degrees F.

In general stores are open from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday to Wednesday, from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm on Thursday and Friday and from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturday.

There are few signs in English because of Québec's language laws. In the major tourist areas, however, English is spoken.

Looking Down from Mt. Royal

Montreal was founded by the French in 1642. It is named for Mount Royal. It is located on Montreal Island in the Hochelaga Archipelago. The Ottawa River flows into the St. Lawrence right there. There are more than 320 islands and islets.

The city proper covers 68 square miles, but the Metropolitan area, covering 1554 square miles, includes 102 municipalities. East Montreal is French speaking and West Montreal is anglophone.

For most of Montreal's history nearly all of the people were of English or French descent. Today, one sixth of the population has come from elsewhere. Fifty nine percent are wholly French. Five point five percent are British or mixed French. Other Europeans make up 14.2%, mostly Italian, followe by Jewish, Greek and Portugese.

Jacques Cartier was the first European to see the island of Montreal. It was in 1535, but the official founding date of Ville-Marie (now Montreal) is May 18, 1642 when Jeanne Mance and Paul de Chomedey Sieur de Maisonneuve came ashore with 40 colonists. They drove out the Iroquois.

This photo shows Montreal as seen from Mt. Royal.

• Pros:There's lots to do. It's great to walk around.
• Cons:French is the language here. Practice your French before you come.
• In a nutshell:C'est mangnifique.