Want to travel Canada? Montreal delivers luxury, glam and whimsy

Calgary Herald

23-06-2025

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Montreal's Golden Square Mile is the launch pad to the city's wistful, whimsical sensory encounters — and Barbie like you've never seen.
In the heart of the area is the Four Seasons Hotel Montreal: luxury base camp. From the rosé-hued velvet wallpaper in the reception lobby, to the cheeky photos of — and taken by — Margaret Trudeau that line the walls of the third-floor hallways of the lounge and Marcus restaurant, this five-star hotel is not one to satisfy decor requirements with the generic. Instead, there are ever-changing art installations on each floor, and whimsical touches, such as a crystal infinity crab sculpture that marks the entrance to the adjoining Holt Renfrew Ogilvy store.
Executive chef Jason Morris helms the Four Seasons Marcus restaurant and is renowned for elevating Canadian cuisine. On this night, he's creating a personal six-course menu, served with wine pairings. This chef counter tasting experience — a concept popular in Asian markets — must be reserved and typically has the diner, or diners, at the bar with a front-row seat, but it can be reserved for as many as 12 people. From a bar stool at the counter, it's a culinary performance as Morris crafts each dish, such as a creamy potato latke topped with two types of caviar; sustainably caught tuna with Quebec horseradish cream; and cod with white asparagus and Champagne sauce.
'The kitchen is the stage everyone can see, it's like a performance,' says Richard Feldman, the restaurant's general manger.
Need to get in touch with your chill side? Head to the Guerlain Spa Care and its Kneipp hydrotherapy, one of the oldest forms of treatment using hot and cold water and a reflexology path and one which is rarely found in North American spas. Start with dipping your feet into the hot bath that features a bed of smooth stones on which to carefully walk, before moving to the cold plunge. A gingerly walk on the reflexology path stimulates blood flow and boosts the immune system with a Zen-like calm.
History through art and architecture
The Four Seasons abuts Crescent Street, home to the iconic 21-storey wall mural — titled Tower of Songs — of the late Leonard Cohen, one of two murals honouring the Canadian singer and songwriter. Cohen often referred to himself as neither a Canadian, nor a Quebecer, but a Montrealer. You can sit in the Four Seasons' dining room with Cohen for company as he looks down through the windows.
Within walking distance is Les Quartiers du Canal, which includes the up-and-coming Griffintown neighbourhood, Little Burgundy and Saint-Henri and is peppered with artistic murals, and 18th century architecture along the Lachine Canal. You can tour these neighbourhoods in an afternoon without breaking a sweat.
Griffintown borders the canal on the south, and a biking and walking path snakes through a picturesque neighbourhood dotted with cafés, shops and antique stores. A favourite restaurant for locals is Nora Gray, ranked as one of Canada's 100 best with its take on southern Italian cuisine.
And they serve ramps — an exciting surprise. Ramps are a delicacy unique to Eastern Canada and the U.S. and related to the wild onion and garlic family, or perhaps a cousin to spring onions and leeks. You can't buy this delicacy at a grocery store because it takes seven years for a ramp rhizome to become a shoot. Ramps' pungent, garlicky flavour is prized among chefs, and their appearance on menus heralds spring.
Next to Griffintown is Little Burgundy, which was home to Black English-speaking residents, most of whom were labourers and sleeping car porters on railway lines and was known as Harlem of the North in the 1920s. The late jazz pianist Oscar Peterson was raised in Little Burgundy and a three-storey mural honours him and his contribution to jazz, as does another mural of Oliver Jones. Montreal's murals are stunning — all 3,500 of them and counting.
Take a stroll over to the Atwater Market, housed in an art deco building from 1933 in Saint-Henri — another jewel in Montreal's crown of architectural enchantments. You could try to find some ramps, but local chefs will likely beat you to it. Nearby is the Atwater Cocktail Club — a very cool neighbourhood speakeasy-style bar whose entrance is from an alley on Atwater Avenue. The bar is dark and cosy but with shiny, banquets: brasserie style with sophistication.
All dressed up
The McCord Stewart Museum, a walk of less than 10 minutes from the hotel, is renowned for documenting the city's social history.
Costume Balls, Dressing History, 1870-1927, is a sassy exhibit of more than 40 costumes that runs until Aug. 17 and tracks the lavish parties and skating carnivals of the city's elite. The costumes were created — or were ancestral outfits brought out to vamp at these events — more than a century before selfies took over this performance art.
The crowning costume riff is at Expo Barbie, the largest permanent Barbie exhibit in the world with more than 1,000 dolls — and it's just three blocks from the hotel. The exhibit is the creation of a member of a company that owns Les Cours Mont-Royal mall, in which all the Barbies make their home. Admission is free.
This is not everyday Barbie, but a glam gal in custom couture gowns and sometimes not even as herself: she is Jennifer Lopez Barbie; she is Rose, from the Titanic movie, Barbie; Mulder and Scully Barbie from the X Files; and Barbie decked out in Vera Wang and Armani, and then putting in an appearance with Daniel Craig, James Bond style. She also undertakes the cutest shilling for brands such as Coca-Cola, Pottery Barn and Ferrari that any mortal woman would be hard pressed to pull off.
Go Barbie. Go Montreal.