Montreal in Winter is just as beautiful, but the weather makes for an entirely different experience that many tourists avoid. Still, thousands of others make the trip in Winter and have an unforgettable experience. So what is there to do in Montreal in Winter? Here’s my personal list:

• Walk the streets: Admittedly, this is a chilling experience, but if you’re made of hardy stock, there’s no reason why you can’t bundle up and get outdoors to see the city. Recommended walks include rue St Paul and nearby streets in the Old City; St Catherine, either downtown or the Gay Village; the Plateau along St Laurent; Little Italy and Jean-Talon Market. That’s enough to get you on your way.
• Walk the Underground City: In my opinion, this is more exciting as a concept than an executed activity. I can say that it’s kind of fun, especially the first time you do it, and it has two distinct advantages: first it get you places, and second, it’s warm.
• Climb Mont Royal: It ain’t a climb, it’s an easy saunter. But it leads to a beautiful overlook, giving you a view of much of the city. Dress warmly, don’t rush it, check out the sledding locals as you near the top, and at the Kondiaronk Belvedere at the overlook, buy a cup of hot chocolate and warm up while you check out the city before you start the trip back.
• Shop: Well, duh. You’ll find all the larger stores and chains on St Catherine, and if you walk in the Plateau, you’ll run into all kinds of fun boutique shops.
• Go to a Museum: there are too many to list, but allow me to note my own favorites. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal is on the Place des Arts on St Catherine downtown; Musée des beaux-arts is on Sherbrooke near downtown; Pointe-à-Callière is a great museum on Montreal archeology, located in the Old City on Place Royale.
• Visit Notre Dame Cathedral: the basilica is stunning, and there are regular 20-minute guided tours.
• Hang out at Jean-Talon Market: it’s open every day.
• See Cirque de Soleil: it’s pure escapism and lots of fun.

This list is JUST a beginning. Tourisme Montréal has a much more complete listing of events and ideas. What do you like to do in Montreal on your Winter trip?

… and much of Canada, of course.

This was one of the more welcome stories of the week, especially for the thousands of tourists who visit cities like Montreal and Toronto every year – many for the first time. There’s nothing like being able to get a sense of a place before you go there, and with mobile devices like the iPhone and Android-based phones, you can easily access street views while you’re out and about.

If you’re like me, it’s a fun way to take a little walking tour of your favorite city, and that’s what I’ve been doing over the past few days since launch – virtually walking down the streets of the Old City, Little Italy, the Gay Village, and the Plateau.

The screenshots? Rue Notre Dame in front of the Basilica; Avenue Pins, looking at Laloux; St Catherine looking at Place des Arts.

This weekend, he’ll be calling restaurants to line up reservations, while I choose a handful of things we might do while we’re there.

We’ve been to Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal before, but there’s an exhibition on rock and roll that could be fun. There’s also a Warhol exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts that looks good. As far as historic tours go, we’ve had Chateau Ramezay on the list for a couple of years, but at the top of my personal list is the Margeuerite Bourgeoys Museum at Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secoures Chapel. There have been some amazing archeological finds underneath the church and you can walk amongst them. After touring Pointe-à-Callière Museum last year, which has excellent walking tour of some of the oldest ruins of Montreal in the basement, I’m excited to see what’s beneath the chapel.

We’re firmly of the opinion that one planned activity (besides dinner) is plenty, so a couple museum visits over 8 days seems a good balance.

We eliminated shopping from last year’s trip – the first time we’d done that. But I think we’ll spend a couple hours scouting for bargains here and there, and doing so is even easier now that many stores and chains roll out “Boxing Week” rather than “Boxing Day” sales.

We’re coffee people, all four of us on this year’s trip, so there will be at least a couple stops at Cafe Myriade to sample what locals have been raving about in the weeks since it opened. Cafe Veritas is near the auberge where we stay, so we’ll go there, as well.

Three weeks out, that’s the extent of our planning. Our transportation to Montreal is the cheapest it’s been in at least 3 years; the Loonie will possibly give us our best value in 3 years; and the weather – well who the heck knows? Regardless, as the Thanksgiving holiday becomes history, we have Montreal on our minds.

Many structures have stood on the site of the present day museum, and excavations beneath the site have uncovered layer upon layer of history, from the old fortifications to foundations of buildings, to the first graveyard of Montreal. The underground excavations are arranged as a fascinating tour that extends beyond the museum itself, under the street to the nearby Place Royale, the 19th century customs house, now renovated as a souvenir shop for the museum.

What makes it even more interesting is that the archaeological work continues, there have been new discoveries, and the tour will grow over time to include part of Montreal’s old storm water system.

The museum also includes temporary exhibits – the current exhibit looks at the politically tempestuous period of Quebec (and Canadian) history in the late 1830′s, leading up the burning of the Parliament building in Montreal.

A few notes about the museum: there’s a video presentation that presents a brief, stylized history of Montreal. But “stylized” is certainly the word for it. If you have a very basic understanding of the development of Montreal, it might be best to skip it because the target audience seems to be schoolchildren. It’s not terrible, it’s just a bit juvenile.

The tour is a lot of fun, although I would say that because guided tours are only available at specific times, you may find yourself encountering artifacts or portions of the excavation that aren’t explained as well as you’d hope. I’ve done a fair amount of reading about Old Montreal but I found I was often struggling to “connect the dots” with what I was seeing. That said, there’s signage with a certain level of detail. If you’re like me and you’re obsessed with Old Montreal, then get a good history book to fill in the blanks, or take the guided tour.

Tour info, museum prices, and hours are here. Anyone interested in history will find this an enjoyable visit.

AppleInsider reports that the new store will be downtown (1321 St Catherine Ouest) in a storefront currently occupied by MENS. They’ll vacate in November, at which point the site will undergo heavy renovations to accommodate cool features like the glass-enclosed staircase… opening sometime early in 2008, one would assume.

When we’re there next, I’ll try to grab some pictures of the renovation project.