The historic centre of Montreal, Vieux-Port is home to some of the city's most antiquated buildings and picturesque streets. Along the waters of the St. Lawrence River, the bank of Old Port features museums, festivals, food stalls, and outdoor athletics, a celebrated part of the city that explodes into fireworks displays on warm summer nights. At its centre, street performers and artists compete with sprawling restaurant terraces for space along Jacques-Cartier Square, while the cobbled streets of Rue St. Paul and Rue Notre-Dame offer a reprieve of quiet galleries and atmospheric wine bars. Horse-drawn carriages are not an uncommon part of traffic, and the narrows they traverse are lined with boutiques, crêperies, and poutine shops enshrined in buildings of stone and wooden lattices. Here you can evoke Montreal's past with a traditional cooking lesson or historical tour, then enjoy its artistic present with live music and theatre.

The bar-none entertainment district for music and arts, Quartier des Spectacles is an interactive playground that delights the senses. It totals over 30 performance halls, with the vibrant Place des Festivals at its heart. The outdoor event space features glowing towers, glass edifices, and granite-lined bike paths, and hosts annual festivals, concerts, and comedy nights. The cinema, theatres, and exhibition centres are entwined with external art projects, exemplified at Montreal's Contemporary Art Museum and appearing along every walkway of the Promenade des Artistes in the form of sculpture and public works, from digitally-enhanced swingsets to glowing fountains. Design, performance, and alternative music come together here, a stone's throw from the lively Latin Quarter along Rue Saint-Denis, the quintessential after-party spot for dinner and a drink following a day of jazz, poetry and play.