Plateau Mont-Royal and Mile End

The Residential Districts That Define Montreal'S Character; Exterior Spiral Staircases, Painted Triplexes, The City'S Mural Festival, And The Two Rival Bagel Bakeries That Have Argued Since The 1950s · Montreal, Quebec

The Plateau and Mile End are not attractions; they are where a large number of Montrealers live, and they are the single best explanation of what the city actually is. THE EXTERIOR SPIRAL STAIRCASES are the signature - wrought-iron flights curling from the pavement to second and third storeys, a nineteenth-century response to a bylaw about setbacks that accidentally produced the streetscape a whole city is recognised by. The triplexes behind them are painted in colours no other Canadian city permits itself. MILE END, to the north, was Jewish, then Greek and Portuguese, and is now also the neighbourhood of Ubisoft and a great many studios - and it is where the BAGEL ARGUMENT lives: ST-VIATEUR AND FAIRMOUNT ARE TWO BLOCKS APART, both wood-fired, both open around the clock, and Montrealers have taken sides since the 1950s. The mural festival has painted the walls every summer since 2013.

Boulevard Saint-Laurent and avenue du Mont-Royal, Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

THESE ARE PUBLIC STREETS AND RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBOURHOODS - no gate, no admission, no closing time. INDIVIDUAL BUSINESSES KEEP THEIR OWN HOURS and they vary widely: the bagel bakeries on Saint-Viateur and Fairmount run essentially AROUND THE CLOCK, the cafes open early, the restaurants and bars run late, and a number of shops CLOSE ON MONDAYS. THE MURAL FESTIVAL runs for about ten days in JUNE along boulevard Saint-Laurent, which is closed to traffic for it and is the liveliest the district gets. QUEBEC'S MOVING DAY falls on 1 JULY and the Plateau is its epicentre - the streets fill with furniture and it is either a spectacle or an obstruction depending on your plans. Mont-Royal, Laurier and Rosemont metro stations all serve the area.

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