The International District is much more than simply a transition between the downtown core and Old Montreal – it’s a burgeoning neighbourhood where a few fortunate residents have found an epitomizing expression of urban living. With its rooftop terraces, exquisite restaurants, boutique hotel lounges and a relaxed-yet-sophisticated café and casual dining scene, this village-within-a-city is a vault of best-kept secrets and the very soul of discretion.

Square Victoria

Stretching North-South from Viger to St. Jacques streets, bordered by office towers and skyscrapers, among them Montreal’s World Trade Centre and the W Hotel. The north end of the Square is a welcoming agora lined with green spaces, benches and fountains, and featuring Montreal’s most Parisian metro, by Hector Guimard. A statue of Queen Victoria presides at the head of a raised garden of trees that spill into another bench-lined plaza with fountains running through it.

Every day of the week, the square is alive with people – residents walking their pets, businesspeople on their lunch breaks, children playing in the fountains, teens skateboarding around the sculpture and visitors taking it all in.

Place Jean-Paul Riopelle

Just East of the action of Square Victoria is a second, smaller square of park benches interspersed with trees, grass, ambient lights and mist-releasing grates, named after the artist who created La Joute, the kinetic Riopelle Fountain. A few minutes before every half hour, the artwork begins a mesmerizing sequence that incorporates water, mist and fire.

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