Taking the kids: Montreal offers European flavor closer to home

(Tribune Media Services) -- The blackboard menu is in French and all around the little cafe, people are chattering in French, nibbling on croissants and sipping café au lait. But we're a lot closer to home than Paris.

Welcome to Montreal, just a scant hour-long flight or a 370-mile drive from New York, or an hour's drive from the border of Vermont. Most everyone, it seems, speaks English, as well as French, so there's no need for my 16-year-old daughter, Melanie, to practice her French, she says happily.

Another plus: Though there are no bargains here for Americans anymore now that the Canadian "loonie" is about the same value as a U.S. dollar (the strongest the Canadian dollar has been in more than 30 years), at least we can soak up the foreign ambiance without spending as much as we would in Europe where the dollar is so weak against the Euro. Especially this time of year, you can find hotel rooms starting at $135 a night (www.findyourmontreal.com).

Mel and I have come to Montreal for a mother-daughter weekend getaway and a look at McGill University, one of four in this oh-so-cosmopolitan city, which visitors can't help but love. Even our taxi drivers wax eloquent about their city -- the restaurants! (There are more than 6,000 offering everything from French to Ethiopian to Montreal's famous bagels.) The museums! (There are more than 30. Visit www.museemontreal.org for the Montreal Museums Pass.) The theater, dance companies and festivals that go on all year! (There are more than 90, including the popular la Fete des Neiges de Montreal in January.) The shopping! (Simons, www.simons.ca, on Montreal's famous Ste-Catherine Street, we discover, is a good bet for young fashionistas on a budget. Such a clean city! So many parks; there are 1,009 of them and scores of green spaces.

Let's not forget the 21-mile Underground Pedestrian Network that connects everything from metro stations to restaurants to skating rinks, office buildings, hospitals, libraries and nearly 1,000 retail shops.

Mel and I are ensconced in one of the city's many boutique hotels, the 59-room HotelXIX Siecle (www.hotelxixsiecle.com), which was built in a 19th-century bank building just a short walk from the historic cobble-stoned streets of the Old Port on the St. Lawrence River where this city began. And I love that breakfast is included.

I promise Mel if she goes with me to the Pointe-a-Calliere, the Montreal museum of Archeology and History (www.pacmuseum.qc.ca) that tells the story of this city from its first Native-American settlers -- our next stop will be Ste-Catherine Street where she can shop till she drops at street level and at the three interconnected malls underground.

She liked the museum more than she expected -- thanks to the terrific multimedia show and its excellent introduction to Montreal, from the first North Americans to the arrival of French settlers in 1642 -- right at this spot -- and then later, the British. The museum is actually built atop authentic archaeological remains, enabling visitors to take an underground archaeological tour. Models set in the floor reveal how Place Royale evolved through the centuries and the exhibits include displays of artifacts found here, including dice, crockery, old combs and beer caps. Virtual historic figures also pop up to chat about their era. Even kids who hate museums can't help but be intrigued -- and leave with a much better understanding of the cultures that have melded to make this city what it is today.

We walk down the touristy, but charming, Rue St. Paul past cafes, galleries and souvenir shops housed in the centuries-old buildings. In the Place Jacques-Cartier, everyone lingers at the outdoor cafes as artists display their wares and musicians play. We can't believe we're just a short flight from home ... but in such a different world. It is near here that Cirque du Soleil -- headquartered in Montreal -- performs in the summer.

I could have spent all afternoon at a cafe people-watching, but Mel reminds me it's time to live up to my end of the bargain. She's been fighting a cold but suddenly perks up in the shops on Ste-Catherine Street. And I'm relieved to see that the prices aren't bad. We wander at will -- a sunglass store here, a shoe store there, a store full of the latest sweaters, another of dresses -- and check out the underground shops -- some 300 in three interconnected malls.

Everyone tells us we shouldn't leave Montreal without eating bagels, so the next morning we stop at St-Viateur Bagel (www.stviateurbagel.com), which is credited with "inventing" the Montreal bagel and has been turning out 1,000 of them a day for 50 years. What's the difference between a Montreal bagel and one found anyplace else? The bagels here are made with honey and then baked in a wood-fired oven. My arm gets tired just watching the bagel maker putting long rows of the bagels in and out of the oven. They are terrific -- and so is lunch at the popular St-Viateur Bagel Cafe where there are so many choices, it's hard to decide what to have on our bagel.

Montreal, we learn, is also known for its seven outdoor markets, all celebrating their 75th anniversary. On a busy Sunday morning, we stop at one of the biggest, the Jean-Talon Market in Montreal's Little Italy, and find it crowded with families. Our guide, Celine Bernier, tells us the market is this crowded every day, and I can see why -- the produce looks too pretty to eat. There are bright red peppers, crisp apples, all kinds of cheeses (there are 350 cheeses made in Quebec), breads, tomatoes and squash, wide varieties of olive oil and spices, pastries and chocolate and every conceivable kind of maple product. It's always fun to introduce kids to a new culture at an outdoor market, but it's a pleasure not to have to struggle with a language barrier since people here seem to switch effortlessly between French and English.

Our student guide at McGill University is a senior from Connecticut who couldn't be more enthusiastic about Montreal.

Us too. Next time we'll just have to stay longer. E-mail to a friend

(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.)

Copyright 2009 EILEEN OGINTZ, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

All About Montreal • Tourism