First Impressions of Montreal, Canada 

What are your favorite places in Montreal?

The balcony and staircase are the soul of Montreal architecture . When you do have a staycation it is called ' balconville'

Old Montréal, Outremont and the mountain, Mile-end, le Plateau and Lafontaine park, Little Italy and Jean-Talon market, Sainte-Hélène island, Lakeshore from Verdun to Sainte-Anne-de Bellevue...

I really enjoyed this video and hearing your observations on a city I have visited many times. Montreal was Canada's largest and most important city - housing head offices of many large corporations and banks. Sadly, the people of Quebec elected a separatist provincial government in 1976 causing a huge migration of capital and English speakers out of the province. If you compare the skylines and development in Montreal with Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary - you can see how that political turmoil caused several decades of economic stagnation (and turned Toronto into the fourth largest city in North America - ahead of Chicago but behind CDMX, NYC and LA), One comment about the parking - I get the idea of no parking on weekday mornings to open up an extra driving lane for the morning commute (we do that too). But good luck trying to figure out Montreal parking - there are so many rules and exceptions. For example - some streets have no parking on garbage pick up days - and then there are snow days. Montreal gets a massive amount of snow (much more than Toronto or New York) - if a plow pushes snow onto your car .. good luck digging it out.. Thank you and I am looking forward to the next one!

Good walk in Montreal and that market was very clean! Love when cities support recreation for its residence. P.S. What does a man needs to be happy? Canal infrastructure for kayaking!)

I couldn't agree with you more about having a separate bike lane. I love riding mine, yet some don't announce when they're passing on the left. I've seen kids jumping around and almost get hit.

The blue fire hydrants do not have any water in them. They are a dry system. In case of a fire in the tunnel, a fire truck on the surface would connect to a red hydrant like normal and then pump the water into the blue one. Below, in the tunnel, the fire hoses etc.. would then be supplied with water to fight the fire. Dry systems like this are common in Canada because the static water in the pipes could freeze in the winter since the tunnel and the platforms are not heated. I don't think they have ever been used in an actual fire though.

Old Montréal, Outremont and the mountain, Mile-end, Le Plateau and Lafontaine park, Little Italy and Jean-Talon market, Sainte-Hélène island, Lakeshore from Verdun to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue...