Montreal!

http://www.logement.umontreal.ca/eng/temporaire.htm

oh merci mille fois

neighbourhoods:

you want
"the plateau mont-royal"
"little/petite italie"
"mile end"

avoid:

"downtown"
"ville st laurent"
"NDG" (ndg is nice but not the best for tourists)
"st henri" (ditto)
laval/lachine/lasalle/south shore/west island

consider:
Old Montreal - super touristy, a little far from the realer/fun stuff, but pretty

def stay away from downtown - common mistake

xpost: although most of those seem to be defunct, at least internet-wise. except the university one that's femmes seulement. but good start for leads apart from hostel sites

ta sean & slocki

almost got offended re: avoid St Henri but then I saw the reason why and realized it was totally true

Are there advantages to moving to St-Henri? I live in the Plateau and trying to find an apartment that isn't crumbling is getting me down. Plus I'm tired of students, fixies, and tourists.

I love living in St. Henri, but a lot of my friends also live between 1-3 blocks away from me so I have that bias.

Apartments are cheaper, and often nicer (in my experience) -- windows built after the great war, even floors, etc. Too many places in the Plateau at my rent level are just absolute holes.

There's less "to do" but where I live, the metro is a 3-minute walk. And Place St. H metro is only one stop away from the "main strip" of Metro stops. Even if there's not much "to do" it means that you can get almost anywhere, at almost any time (I'm only about a 15-20 minute walk from Atwater metro, so even night buses aren't the hugest problem, as long as I can get one there). It also makes getting to work easier because I'm no longer relying on busses at 7am on a winter Tuesday.

I also fell in with a group of locals with whom I play baseball every Sunday in the summer, and I'd rather do that than eat brunch anyway.

The biggest pain is that it is pretty tough to get to the plateau/mile end/little italy/parc ex/etc from St.H, but to be honest, I've kind of stopped going anyway... I'm increasingly becoming a "hang out at a buddy's house" dude and there are all sorts of buddies in the Hen.

There are still students but far fewer. There are still fixies but they're avoidable. There are NO tourists because who would visit St. Henri? And there's the canal, which, in the summer, is an A+ place to drink in public.

Also, Verdun is pretty accessible, which I've also learned lately has a shockingly awesome amount of stuff in it.

Verdun is coming along nicely. I lived there 2 years and how much it got better while I was there was fun to watch.
That being said, the inevitable and slow gentrification is sad, Verdun was the only place that positively reminded me of the Plateau in the mid 90s, which was a little before it became the bobo paradise it is today.

St Henri is my favorite neighborhood in the city! If only for the canal! I would move there if I didn't already owned something great in Petite Patrie.

Anyone been to Chihuly's expo at the MBAM? I haven't but I would recommend it to anyone visiting Montreal. That and the Centre Canadien d'Architecture.

i've lived in st henri for 3 years and am moving on july 1st to lil italy. i think everything will said about it is true, to varying degrees (apartments aren't that nice imo). worst thing about the neighborhood u should be prepared for is there's nothing to do, nowhere nice to buy cheap groceries, very few good places to eat out. all that shit has gotten to me. i have mixed feelings about gentrification in the neighborhood, since a lot of the places that are now "yuppie" businesses were previously abandoned buildings, but it is a very stark contrast, between like those old quebecois diners and, like, designer pastry shop, with nothing really in the middle ground between the two.

also will there's a nightbus from atwater that goes along st jacques to lansdowne, usually timed pretty well with 356 for a connection

love little italy

Little Italy and environs is really great. A variety of cheap groceries are on the doorstep, there are a few places to drink (e.g. the inestimable Vices et Versa), and a ton of places to eat (neighbourhood is so thriving nobody even considers resorting to the tired molotovbait Italian restos on St-Laurent). If you include "the western parts of Rosemont" and Parc Ex and "the area around the [Jean-Talon] station" I have eaten things including pljeskavica (Serbian burger! Real one!), four or five Salvadorean places, the best hipster BBQ in the city, all the Viet and Indian places, Santa Barbara, Alep (big and little), etc. etc. I'm probably forgetting so many things, but there's a ton of great fast food type options as well...

What you miss is some of the great residential streets like you get in Plateau and (I imagine) St-Henri, or the natural features of either. The "built" aspects of Little Italy and environs are an eyesore.

That may be true of St Laurent and neighbouring streets, but just a little further into Rosemont are some of the nicest residential streets in the city, imo. Just as nice as the plateau, but often in better shape.

Love both Alep!

Yeah the Aleps are dope

def agree w/ flopson re: the restaurants and especially the groceries. i try to buy groceries near work on the way home, otherwise it's the shitty iga for me. at least in the summer/fall my work does one of those weekly produce things. Gotta disagree on the apt quality though, some of them are definitely holes yes but I would say among my pals there's like a 50/50 split of nice places vs. not so nice places (as compared to about 0/100 for my Plateau friends and myself when I lived there). If you look long enough you'll find a nice place (especially in the stretch btwn home depot and tobacco lofts, below the highway and above notre dame -- it seems less easy once you get west of courcelle).

st henri is kinda ugly though, doesn't really have that over little italy.

is royale really the best bbq in the city? moreso than black strap? i've only eaten at strap 2ce and royale 1ce and... I can't choose. yet. but also i was with someone who didn't eat red meat wheni went to royale so i didn't get to have the brisket, which i am still sour about!

:( I want to go to Alep :(

Hey I want to go Montreal in mid-late August. I'll be driving there! What things shall I do? Should I get a haircut first?

i don't know what to suggest when people come to town. it's nice to just mooch around & get bagels & eat at kazu if you want a meal & just yomp about i think. there's a mountain. i would be pro- august-fappin', though think i might be tied up w/visitors in aug

there are a lot of super picturesque barber shops btw, so you could save a haircut for when you're here. the only thing that could fuck this up is if you lack french & are afraid to instruct in english.

Hey I want to go Montreal in mid-late August. I'll be driving there! What things shall I do? Should I get a haircut first?

― J'ackHughes (admrl), Wednesday, June 19, 2013 11:20 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

when? i'm away 22-31. you shouldnt come then.

i am fucking ready for vacation

I was planning on getting a haircut (& dye) in Mtl tbh, maybe better wait til TO.

"Bleu. Eh, et snippe... içi?"

It is our 10th wedding anniversary in late August and Montreal seemed suitable, mais je parle Francais comme une vache Espagnole. Which is to say, I get by ok.

you'll be fine.

Maybe we go early August? I dunno. How is driving over the border from the United States (just to the South of Canada)?

driving to South Canada is pretty easy, there's a busy border crossing but a much less busy one close by, i'll try and find out where it is

(just to the South of Canada)

lol

it's fine. getting back into the States is tough but into Canada's pretty breezy ime

I'm sure I've told in these parts how I tried to cross the Niagara border with fellow ILXer Chuck Tatum and forgot my passport. Now I am dinged every time I pass through Canada and detained. And they are always horrible to me - I thought Canadians were meant to be like super nice! Not border guards

border guards have infinite power over you basically so they are more likely to feel like gods and thus be bad

I'm pretty sure I hear them call themselves "border gods" when they talk about their jobs

everyone just assumes it was a slight mispronunciation

but i know what they said

considering a visit around July 23ish

would people be up for a FAP on the 3rd or 4th of July?

(is there anything exciting I should stay into the weekend for? otherwise planning on moving on to TO for w/e bcz a friend has just moved there and is working already)

[mh come up early!]

thunderstorms bring no relief here, huh

Loooved swimming at Parc Jarry on that one sunny day though

So far I'm impressed with the pools in this city

would people be up for a FAP on the 3rd or 4th of July?

(is there anything exciting I should stay into the weekend for? otherwise planning on moving on to TO for w/e bcz a friend has just moved there and is working already)

[mh come up early!]

― pink, fleshy, and gleeful (sic), Friday, June 21, 2013 8:24 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i would like to meet montreal ilxors and other ilxors. we don't have specific plans for any of the days we're there, but meeting during the day or for dinner would make things a lot easier for us than some night-time bar activity.

i might be super busy but i also might be able to hang on the 3rd/4th, my ilxmail mail works last time i checked

day or dinner suits me fine

n/a, sorry, i've been super busy and not looking at ilx!
i'll fb a link to my things to do column for the upcoming week when it's posted on thursday
jazz fest does start on friday though... lots of free outdoor stuff. only caveat is that it's downtown and it can get crowded later in the day. depends on how you're feeling about people and "jazz" i suppose.
here's hoping it doesn't thunderstorm and rain while you're here as much as it's been doing lately.

also, i am into going for dinner! :)

that's cool - we don't have much of an agenda at all other than having fun and being on vacation. thanks!

It is our 10th wedding anniversary in late August and Montreal seemed suitable, mais je parle Francais comme une vache Espagnole. Which is to say, I get by ok.

― J'ackHughes (admrl), Wednesday, June 19, 2013 2:03 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Montreal must be a popular anniversary destination--the bf and I have been making it the destination for our anniversary trip (late June/early July) for a few years now but he's got a summer job this year that makes it impossible. I'm secretly more bummed about this than I'm letting on.

i love how many gardens planted lilies, here

96% sure I won't be in Montreal until a bit or a bunch later now - realised it'd be 4th July and that might be amusing to stay in USA for...

but you'll miss canada day (july 1)

(there isn't much canada day stuff in montreal)

due to the anti-Anglo moving day conspiracy, I hear

(joeks)