Parc Jean-Drapeau and the Biosphere

Two Islands In The St Lawrence Holding The Surviving Structures Of Expo 67, Including Buckminster Fuller'S Geodesic Dome Now The Biosphere Environment Museum And The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve · Montreal, Quebec

EXPO 67 WAS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL WORLD'S FAIR OF THE CENTURY and Montreal built two islands in the St Lawrence to hold it - enlarging Ile Sainte-Helene and creating Ile Notre-Dame outright from rock excavated for the metro. Most of the pavilions are gone. What survives is remarkable: BUCKMINSTER FULLER'S GEODESIC DOME, built as the United States pavilion, whose acrylic skin burned away in a 1976 fire leaving the bare steel lattice standing - it is now the BIOSPHERE, a museum about the environment, and the skeleton is more striking than the original. Alexander Calder's Trois Disques stands nearby. The islands also hold the CIRCUIT GILLES VILLENEUVE, which is a public road and cycle route for most of the year and a Formula One track for one weekend in June, an Olympic rowing basin, a beach, and the best skyline view in the city.

Ile Sainte-Helene and Ile Notre-Dame, Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

THE ISLANDS ARE A PUBLIC PARK, OPEN ALL YEAR AND FREE - there is no gate. WHAT HAS HOURS AND PRICES IS INSIDE: THE BIOSPHERE is a ticketed museum with its own opening days, typically closed one day a week and with adult admission in the CAD 15-25 range; LA RONDE, the amusement park, operates seasonally and is priced and ticketed entirely separately. THE CIRCUIT GILLES VILLENEUVE IS OPEN TO CYCLISTS AND WALKERS most of the year and closes around the GRAND PRIX IN JUNE, when the islands are ticketed, packed and effectively a different place - AVOID THAT WEEKEND unless it is why you are coming. The beach at Ile Notre-Dame operates in summer with its own admission. Jean-Drapeau metro station is on the island itself, which is the easiest arrival in Montreal.

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