Other interesting facts about Montreal
- Montreal is a multicultural city with a great variety of ethnic groups and cultures; apart from the French and the English descendants, the city is the home of Italian, Irish, Jewish, Chinese, German, Arab, Portuguese, Greek, Hispanic, Haitian and Indian communities.
- Montreal has the fourth Francophone population of the world after Paris, Kinshasa (capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Abidjan (former capital of Côte d’Ivoir).
- According to different statistics, between 25% and 50% of Montreal’s population are descendants of two or more ethnic groups. Also, 20% of the population of the city consists of habitants that weren’t born in it.
- Montreal is frequently referred to as a bilingual city. French is the official language, but there’s a big part of the population that has English or another language as mother tongue. The city’s signs are both in French (always first and with bigger characters as obliged by law) and English.
- In the Island of Montreal (not just the metropolitan area but the whole city of Montreal), 53% of the population is Francophone, 29% is allophone (people who don’t have French or English as their mother tongue) and 18% is Anglophone. However, almost all citizens have basic knowledge of, at least, one of the two major languages, and most of the allophones have English or French as their second language. The city is also bilingual because over 53% of the population speaks both French and English; there’s just a 29% that speaks only French and a 13% that speaks only English.
- There are other languages that are also widely spoken in the city of Montreal: Greek, Italian, Arab, Spanish, Hindi and Portuguese.
-Important companies such as Air Canada, IBM Canada and Bombardier have their head offices in Montreal.
- Thousands of international students choose Montreal as the place to learn and study English and French because of the great cultural environment of the city and because they can practice two languages at a time.
- Montreal’s population is one of the world’s best educated: it has the highest college student concentration per capita of North America. It has four universities (two Francophone and two Anglophone). McGill and Concordia universities are known internationally for their academic excellence and have a very respected name.
- Montreal is a centre of high-tech industry, especially in the areas of medicine, and the pharmaceutical, textile and aerospace manufacturing industries. In the city they also produce electronics, industrial food and transport and telecommunication equipments. It is a centre of cigar processing.
- Montreal hosts very important international events such as the Montreal International Jazz Festival, which is one of the world’s major jazz festivals; the Just For Laughs festival, which is one of the world’s major humor festivals; and the Canadian Grand Prix.
- The Vieux-Montreal, which is the old city, is a European style and beautiful area that has many great restaurants and bars, and, also, the Notre-Dame Basilica, which attracts many tourists.
- The Old Port of Montreal is the second major port of Canada after the Vancouver port and one of the main ports of North America. It mobilizes over 23 million tons of cargo annually.
Things to do in Montreal. Places to visit.
The Vieux-Montreal: This is the Old Montreal, the old part of the city that has a European environment with narrow streets of stone and many small French, Italian and international food restaurants surrounded by the magic of the Saint Lawrence river. It’s a great place to walk and take lots of pictures, and you can also ice skate on the river in winter in the middle of a wonderful outdoors space.
Notre-Dame Basilica: It’s located in the Old Montreal and it’s a church that has a very beautiful Gothic architecture, one of the most dramatic in the world. Pope John Paul II gave the church the status of Basilica during a visit to the city in 1982.
Mount Royal Park: Mont-Royal is the French name of this downtown located mountain that is the main park of Montreal and that presents the most beautiful view of the city from its top. Either in winter, summer, autumn or spring, this wonderful mountain is always full of people that walk to the top taking pictures, exercising and walking their dogs. The park has more than 200 hectares and is one of the main touristic attractions of the city.
Olympic Stadium of Montreal: It was built to host the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. When you visit the stadium you can also visit “La Tour de Montréal”, which is the world’s tallest inclined tower at 175 meters and allows people to go up and have a wonderful view of the city.
Montreal Biodome: This building was built as a velodrome for the 1976 Summer Olympics but was then, in 1992, transformed into a museum of the American nature that’s divided into four natural ecosystems of the Americas: the Tropical Forest, which is a replica of the South American rain forest; the Saint Lawrence Marine Ecosystem, which exhibits the estuary habitat that can be found in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence; the Laurentian Forest, which is a replica of the North American wilderness; and the polar area, which has both the Arctic and the Antarctic zone. The Montreal Biodome
Tam-Tams: The African tradition of the Tam-Tams (African drummers) is recreated every Sunday, from May to September, in the Mount Royal Park, where thousands of drum players, dancers, artists, vendors and visitors are gathered to have fun and eat under the sun in an event that is the biggest of its kind in the world.
Montreal Botanical Garden: This botanical garden is located next to the Olympic Stadium and is the second biggest of the world after the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, of London. This huge area has several thematic gardens such as the Chinese Garden, the Japanese Garden, the First Nations Garden and the Alpine Garden. It is one of the main touristic attractions of Montreal.
Montreal Insectarium: This is a scientific, cultural and educational insect museum that exhibits live and dead insects from all around the world and receives over 400.000 visitors annually. It’s the major insectarium of America and one of the most important and largest in the world. The insectarium building has the shape of an insect, which can be seen from the observatory of the Olympic Stadium.
Montreal Planetarium: Montreal’s Planetarium has been visited by over six million spectators and has produced more than 250 shows. This was the first public planetarium in Canada and, with space for 375 people, is still the largest of the country. It has a “Star Theatre” in which take place lots of presentations in English and French.
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: The “Musee des Beaux-Arts” is the biggest museum of Montreal and the oldest of Canada (1860). The museum often presents different exhibitions of international art collections of other important museums of the world.
Jean-Talon market: The “Marché Jean-Talon” is a public farmer’s market located in the Little Italy district of Montreal. This is a special place where farmers sell delicious fruits and artisans offer their products, and it has also grown to expand its offer to sea food, bakery and more…It is open all year around but from June to October you can find more than 300 farmers selling their products under the sun.
Museum of Archeology and History of Montreal: It is called the “Pointe-à-Callière” museum and is a National Historic Site since 1998. It has been visited by over 4.5 million spectators.
St. Joseph’s Oratory: This basilica is located to the North of Mount Royal Park and is dedicated to Saint Joseph. It has beautiful architecture and many people pray going up the stairs on their knees for a special request to God or to thank him. More than two million visitors and pilgrims arrive to the oratory ever year.
Montreal Casino: This famous casino is one of the largest in the world and the largest in Canada. It’s located on the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal. It’s a wonderful building and is open 24 hours a day.
La Ronde amusement park: La Ronde is the second largest amusement park in Canada and is operated by Six Flags. It opens from May until September. It’s located in Saint Helen’s Island and it hosts the world’s most important (unofficially) international fireworks competition, L’International des Feux Loto-Québec.