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Artifact A souvenir from the fi eld
p Perhaps better known for its poutine, Montreal is secretly home to a delicious variety of petite bagels. St-Viateur and Fairmount bakeries churn them out piping hot.
p , y elicious variety of petite bagels. St-Viateur and Fairmount bakeries churn them out piping hot.
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FEATURES
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AHHH...
A visit to Bangkok’s famed S Medical Spa By Lawrence Osborne
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THERE WON’T BE BLOOD
A new type of bullfi ght spares the bull. By Edward Lewine
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3PD: MONTREAL
See Canada’s feisty Francophone gem. By Maura Egan
1. THE SPA AT FOUR
SEASONS RESORT
BORA BORA
BORA BORA, FRENCH POLYNESIA // Part of a chain of tiny islands in the South Pacifi c, Bora Bora brings new meaning to getting away from it all. Honeymooners and the very privileged jet in for the ultimate in luxurious escape and Robinson Crusoe fantasy. Topping it all off is the Kahaia Haven Ritual. Priced at 30,000 French Pacifi c Francs (about $360), the couples treatment incorporates black pearl powder and Tahitian vanilla, said to be the best and most fragrant in the world.
AHHH...
THE WORLD’S MOST OUTRAGEOUSLY RELAXING SPAS
As a rule, it’s pretty hard to fi nd a bad spa treatment—but lots of fun to try. Spas specialize in coddling us and indulging our whims, and in recent years the fi eld has reached hedonistic new heights. As a result, there’s more relaxing to do than ever, and so little time! In an effort to help you narrow down the many options for self-indulgence, we’ve traversed the globe to bring you the most interesting and decadent treatments at the most exquisite spas on earth. (Tough job, but someone’s got to do it.) What sets these palaces of pampering apart is the way they incorporate local customs and ingredients—offering wraps, rubs and scrubs to make you feel brand new. Enjoy.
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2. LES SOURCES DE CAUDALIE
BORDEAUX, FRANCE // At the handsome cedarwood spa at Les Sources, nestled amid acres of rolling vineyards, the local vintages are put to more decadent uses than simple drinking. A day begins with a bath in a wine barrel fi lled with crushed grapes. Then, as a part of the Honey and Wine Wrap ($87), oenophiles are slathered in hot wine yeast and essential oils. As the sun goes down, refreshed bons vivants celebrate the power of the polyphenol with a delicious grand cru. The age-defying Madonna is reportedly a fan. 3. SPA AT THE MANDARIN ORIENTAL
NEW YORK CITY // Masters and mistresses of the universe ascend to the 35th fl oor of this swank hotel, retreating to its well-appointed spa for billion-dollar views and custom treatments. A blissful two-hour Signature Therapy ($450) begins with a survey that’s only slightly less probing than an IRS audit. The payoff is a no-holds-barred massage tailored to your particular woes, accompanied by showstopping vistas of Central Park. It’s good to be king.
It Fortunately, you don’t actually have to suff er to enjoy such synergies. Spas that mix ardent pampering with more elaborate dermatological treatments and even surgical procedures are already a growing trend in the U.S., where there
It was while I was lying in Bumrungrad International Hospital years ago, dying from an infl ammation of the epiglottis, that I fi rst discovered the inimitable Thai genius for mixing medicine with pleasure. My fi ve-star hospital off ered massage, gourmet sushi and liposuction, and there were moments when I pondered indulging in all three at once. Cured of my ailment a few days later, I was almost sorry to be discharged. are 1,800 such facilities and several state legislatures looking to regulate the industry. So-called medical spas can provide a lucrative sideline for doctors increasingly looking for revenue streams that don’t involve haggling with insurance companies, and at the same time off er beleagured patrons a one-stop wellness shop. Bangkok’s wildly popular medical spas fuse these elements with a generous dollop of Eastern religion. One late autumn morning, slightly worse for wear after an overindulgent dinner party the night before at the home of a Thai prince, I stumble into one of these establishments, the S Medical Spa, with the intention of setting myself right. Just four years old, S, the trendy brainchild of Dr. Pakpilai Thavisin, has already established itself as perhaps the leading
IN TREATMENT TRAVEL WRITER LAWRENCE OSBORNE TAKES A BREATHER AT BANGKOK’S ACCLAIMED S MEDICAL SPA. medical spa in Southeast Asia, rivaling the luxurious Chiva-Som in Hua Hin. Situated on Wireless Road, next to the Nai Lert Park hotel, the low white structures of the spa share the hotel’s lavish gardens, which are famous for their stone lingams—or symbolic phalluses—left over from a previous age. (Every garden should have a few.) Huge kapok trees pressing against the windows create a mood of jungle luxury. Coming into Dr. Thavisin’s temple of healing is like stepping into a gentle future in which doctors coddle and pamper us and where healing is a consumer experience on par with gourmet shopping and mani-pedis. The only shame is that one can’t get a bypass done here, or a liver transplant. Colonic irrigation, yes. “Art and Science” is the spa’s motto.
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4. THERME VALS
VALS, SWITZERLAND // South of Zurich, high in the Swiss Alps, the traditional baths at Vals were redesigned by Peter Zumthor in 1996, and the resulting spaces make guests feel as if they’ve helicoptered into a Bond fi lm (Daniel Craig era). Owing to the resort village’s middleclass roots, the treatments in this concrete and quartzite cathedral tend toward functional—think a 50-minute Lymphatic Drainage Massage (not for the faint of heart), at $158. Just lie back and contemplate modernist architecture. 5. MAYFLOWER INN & SPA
WASHINGTON, CONNECTICUT // There’s a reason Park Avenue grand dames and Greenwich society hostesses look so well rested (and it’s not what you think). At the utterly tasteful Relais and Châteux property Mayfl ower Inn, the debutante set tops off days fi lled with horseback riding and doubles tennis with the Mayfl ower Magnetic Facial ($180), 60 blissful minutes of dermatological witchcraft said to reduce infl ammation and stimulate circulation. After decades of attending those nightly fundraiser galas, it’s just the trick.
There are four resident doctors and acupuncturists, as well as dietitians and nurses. There’s a nutritionally approved restaurant on the ground fl oor, serving “S-Lite Spa Cuisine,” and a lobby that looks like that of a boutique hotel, with Naugahyde armchairs, bubbling fi sh tanks (though, oddly, no fi sh) and elegant fl oors decorated with colored crystals. Dressed like a runway model, and speaking fl awless English, Dr. Thavisin herself ushers me upstairs to her offi ce with a regal energy, her excellent jewelry glittering.
“We’re a new kind of clinic, I suppose,” she explains. “A fusion of a spa and a hospital. What we do here is use medically proven techniques for getting you back to your youth. Doesn’t everyone want to get back to their youth?” As we walk past treatment
THE BIG CHILL From left, getting a rubdown; a staff member with fresh towels; the chicly designed lobby
TEA TIME Blue Pea Flower tea is a house favorite at S Medical Spa. 61
6. THE SPA AT ENCANTADO
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO // Guests at the newest Auberge resort, which sits at an altitude of 7,000 feet in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, might feel as scaly as lizards in this arid climate. That condition is easily remedied at the resort’s airy adobe spa. You’ll start with a complimentary Purifi cation Ritual—an exfoliation with cactus-fi ber cloth, a soak and a cup of sage tea. Then it gets tastier, with treatments such as the Blue Corn and Honey Renewal ($245), a vigorous 90-minute body scrub. Bonus points for the creative use of nachos—well, blue corn—for exfoliation. 7. THE LAKEHOUSE SPA, LAKE AUSTIN SPA RESORT
AUSTIN, TEXAS // Desert roses and travel-weary golf buffs pad about in plush robes at this country-chic resort on the shores of Lake Austin. After debating the merits of local BBQ joints (a passion-stirring and exhausting pursuit), it’s time to unwind with the grand 110-minute Tour of Texas treatment ($315). Start with a prickly pear scrub, then move on to a sunburn-soothing aloe vera wrap before you “strike oil” during a massage with, you guessed it, warm essential oils.
suites fi lled with hydrotherapy equipment, a pharmacy and a Botox room, I think, Some of it.... “We use everything from the West and the East,” the doctor continues. “We stimulate your lymphatic system. We improve your circulation. Botox, massage, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, ultrasound—you name it, we combine it. Then we move on to the skin treatments. I began as a dermatologist, so we are peerless on that front. I can make
anyone’s skin look like a teenager’s.”
Thavisin branched into holistic medicine after she lost her brother to cancer several years ago. The conventional treatments he received struck her as woefully inadequate, and she became determined to invent her own synthesis of approaches.
Since teenage skin wouldn’t really suit me, I opt for an in-house diagnostics test known as a BEM, or Bio-Energy Medicine, which involves applying sensors to my head, wrists and ankles. The sensors are hooked up to a small, box-shaped machine called a Quantum Xrroid Interface System that supposedly measures “bio-energetic forces.” True, these forces are not yet recognized by the serious scientifi c community, but what do they know?
If I have this right, the machine scans all 200 trillion cells in the body, measuring one’s vitamin levels, amino acids, natural sugars, toxins, hormone levels, muscle tone, disease, bacteria, molds, fungi and viruses. Following the scan, the system wants to know more. “Is sex drive defi cient?” the computer wonders. “Is there an emotional link
to confl ict with modern society?”
Certainly not, I reply, then reluctantly plead guilty to the second count.
“Your energy fl ow is quite good,” the
THE DOCTOR IS IN From left, S Medical Spa’s reception area; Dr. Pakpilai Thavisin; a hydrotherapy pool
8. WILLOW STREAM AT FAIRMONT MAYAKOBA
RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO // On the east coast of Mexico, the azure sea and a salt-rimmed margarita are never far off. If that’s not enough to restore your spirit, the spa at this oceanfront resort offers a taste of the region’s Mayan roots (without the human sacrifi ce). During the 90-minute Cha Chac Rain Ritual ($229), named for the Mayan god of rain, a blessing is recited and incense burned. Then guests are wrapped in cornmeal and oats and left to dry before rinsing off in a rain shower. 63
9. THE ALLISON INN AND SPA
NEWBERG, OREGON // Nestled in the wine country of Willamette Valley, the Allison Inn and Spa—the creation of philanthropist Joan Austin—is the most anticipated opening in the Pacifi c Northwest in years. Built in the style of a WPA lodge rendered luxurious and surrounded by tall fi rs, rolling vineyards and hazelnut orchards, the cozy inn serves top-end farm-to-table cuisine, and the spa features state-of-theart massage, steam baths and “pinotherapy,” which uses the Willamette’s pinot grapes to create anti-aging treatments.
doctor tells me when the test is done. “But you are too mentally active.”
It can’t be denied that doses of Thailand—even muggy, traffi c-cursed Bangkok—seem to have a miraculous eff ect upon my usually dismal blood-pressure scores. (My typical in-country regimen of daily two-hour foot massages might have something to do with it.) My BEM results also reveal a few respiratory problems and indicate likely exposure to motor oil and grain mill dust. My “possible most stressed organ”?
“Frontal lobe, brain.”
I opt for an S massage treatment, the well-named Cool Guy Massage, which turns out to be a massage so powerful, so hypnosis-inducing that I wonder where it’s been all my life. It’s administered by a man (unusual for Thailand), a deep-tissue probing followed by a lighter surface rubdown.
As I lie there watching the banyans dripping with monsoon rain, no longer in the slightest bit stressed, I feel the force of the Thai saying (repeated in every tourist brochure) “Mai pen rai.” “Never mind” is the common rendering, but a more apt translation would be “Que sera sera.”
“I can’t quite imagine Congress passing massage funds,” I tell her.
Veteran travel writer LAWRENCE OSBORNE has surprisingly supple insteps.
BY EDWARD LEWINE
ILLUSTRATIONS BY SEAN MCCABE THERE WON’T BE BLOOD
SOME THINK BULLFIGHTING IS BRUTAL. OTHERS FIND IT BEAUTIFUL. NOW ONE LAS VEGAS PROMOTER IS PUSHING A KINDER, GENTLER VERSION OF THE TRADITIONAL SPECTACLE, SUBSTITUTING VELCRO FOR COLD, HARD STEEL.
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2010 65
THE BULL
bursts out of the corral like a snorting runaway semi, 1,000 pounds of muscle and bad attitude topped with horns. The matador—a slender Spaniard in a spangled orange suit—strides out to meet it. We’re not in Madrid or Tijuana, but the indoor rodeo stadium at the South Point, a hotel and casino off the Las Vegas Strip, and this is Vegas’ latest attraction: a bloodless bullfi ght, meaning no assailing the bull with swords or spears the way bullfi ghters usually do, no “death in the afternoon,” as Hemingway put it.
Advantage Ferdinand.
Without having been weakened by the gory stabbing that bulls suff er in traditional fi ghts, the beast is free to do what it wants. Evidently, what it wants more than anything is to hook its left horn around the nearly helpless matador’s legs and jerk the poor fellow skyward. I’m impressed. At the bare minimum this is more interesting than, say, a kick line of Elvis impersonators. The crowd—many from corrida-loving countries such as Mexico and Portugal, along with a handful of curiosity seekers who’ve pried themselves from the gaming fl oor—is sparse, scattered throughout the 4,400seat arena. But this is a bold new idea, and a new frontier for bullfi ghting. Sometimes it takes a while for bold ideas to catch on.
Three twentysomething guys are perched on seats near me, washing down popcorn with bottles of suds. “That dude’s insane,” one of them observes, as the matador, who has just come crashing to the ground, staggers to his feet in obvious agony and lurches back toward the bull for another go.
The fi ght ends around 10 p.m. As the crowd fi les out, the man behind the event, a large, baby-faced 48-yearold named Pedro Haces Barba (though he goes by Don Bull), sits in the grandstand, sipping a tumbler of tequila. He operates more than a dozen bullrings in Mexico, but he always wanted to break into the American market. So in the spring of 2009, he approached Michael Gaughan, owner of the South Point Casino, about doing a continuing series of monthly bullfi ghts in the facility’s rodeo arena. The idea was to sign up the best Spanish and Mexican matadors—which he did— and market the bullfi ghts as an elite event with special VIP seats going for hundreds of dollars. Together they’d fi nance the events, and before long...olé!
The spectacle of bullfi ghting in Vegas may not be drawing the big crowds yet, but it does make a certain kind of sense—and with the right marketing, it just might work. After all, visitors to Sin City have been lining up to see Siegfried & Roy don spangled suits and tangle with dangerous wild animals for years.
Consider Don Bull’s Las Vegas bullfi ghts the sport’s “soft” opening in America. Sure, there are dozens of small-time bloodless bullfi ghts held in the country each year, put on mostly by central California’s Portuguese community. But those are held with little fanfare and zero press. What makes these Vegas bullfi ghts diff erent is they are being widely advertised, off ered as a monthly attraction in America’s entertainment capital and starring top matadors.
Not unexpectedly, these bloodless bullfi ghts have stirred up controversy. Animal activists have protested that even without the evident cruelty, the Vegas events exploit the bulls. But the most vocal protests have come from the bullfi ghting community itself, which complains that the fi ghts aren’t cruel enough. The bullfi ghting press has described bloodless bullfi ghting as a buff oonery, and consequently some of the big stars who initially agreed to appear—Don Bull’s prize acquisitions— have withdrawn.
“I think this is a defi nite step toward the disappearance of bullfi ghting within the next ten to fi fteen years,” the renowned French bullfi ghting promoter Simón Casas told the Spanish press. “The danger here is that you have big stars taking part in what amounts to a pantomime of a real bullfi ght.”
To understand what he means, it helps to know what a “real” bullfi ght is. Firstly, it is not a sport; no one who loves it pretends it is. In fact, a bullfi ght is a spectacle in which six bulls are ritually dispatched. It unfolds in three acts, with several main players. The bull charges a padded horse, and a mounted picador spears the bull’s neck; bandilleros then place three pairs of barbed darts in the bull’s back; fi nally, the matador emerges and uses his cape to “dance” with the bull before killing it with a sword.
Afi cionados say bullfi ghting is an intricate brush with death for both the bull and the bullfi ghter, and a crucible that reveals the qualities of an animal bred for fearlessness. To them, the violence isn’t gratuitous. Charging the horse and facing the spear reveal the bull’s bravery. The fi ghters use the spears and banderillas to lower the bull’s neck and slow it down so the matador can “dance” with it. The bull is killed,
In the Las Vegas corrida, the bull has a Velcro patch glued to its back. There’s no horse, no spear, no barbed banderillas. TO SOME, THE SPECTACLE VIOLATES THE VERY ESSENCE OF BULLFIGHTING.
they say, because it has learned the trick of the cape and can never again appear in a bullfi ght.
Even so, bullfi ghting is in no danger of dying out. There are twice as many corridas per year in Spain and France as there were 40 years ago. European bullfi ghts alone generate billions every year, and the tradition continues to thrive in Central and South America. Mostly, what has changed is the scope and volume of anti-bullfi ghting protests, especially in western Europe.
The Spanish government recently removed live corridas from state television for the fi rst time since TV was invented. Calls to ban bullfi ghting and end agricultural subsidies to bull breeders have become an annual ritual in the European Parliament. There’s a growing movement afoot to ban bullfi ghting in the Spanish region of Catalonia and its capital, Barcelona.
THE TENSION OVER THE
LAS VEGAS bullfi ghts has played out against this backdrop. Is Don Bull the savior of bullfi ghting or the herald of its demise? In Vegas, the bull has a Velcro patch glued to its back. There’s no horse, no spear, no barbed banderillas. The matador—who puts himself at risk, since the bull is never speared—“kills” his prey symbolically. In short, Don Bull’s spectacle violates the very essence of bullfi ghting: It removes the crucible of bravery—at least for the animal.
Bullfi ghting advocates worry that what Don Bull is trying to do—somehow render bullfi ghting acceptable outside the Spanish-speaking world—will actually achieve the opposite. Without the drama of the dance, the advocates argue, what’s the point?
This was the note sounded by Spanish star matador Julian Lopez, El Juli, when he announced he’d be withdrawing from the Vegas bullfi ghts.
“When they fi rst put me under contract, they assured me this would be the fi rst step to implanting the full Spanish bullfi ght in America,” El Juli told the bullfi ghting website Burladero.com. “It hasn’t worked out that way.” He was disappointed by the bloodlessness, he explained, which he didn’t fi nd to be at all “Spanish.”
Nonetheless, fans who attended the fi rst four Vegas bullfi ghts were pleased with what they saw. The matadors were legit stars and the bulls were brave specimens from the ranch of Manuel Costa in Los Banos, California, the most respected breeder on American soil. “Don Bull put on as good a bullfi ght as you can in Las Vegas,” says Lydia Ackerman, 61, a New Yorker who attends corridas all over the world.
Only a handful of people have shown up; and the corridas scheduled for December were canceled. A notice on the Don Bull website says bullfi ghts for 2010 are “being prepared,” but Gaughan worries about about the project’s future. “We put on a great show,” he says. “But we’ve each lost at least a hundred thousand dollars. I’m not sure how much longer this can go on.”
One group who’d like to keep it going are the Spanish matadors. They were well paid, to the tune of $50,000 each, and Vegas is a convenient stop between regular seasons in Mexico and Spain.
It’s 10:15 a.m. on the day after the bullfi ght, and matador Juan José Padilla, a Spaniard known as the “Cyclone from Jerez,” has been up all night playing blackjack. He’s the one who was tossed by the bull, and I can see he is still in considerable pain. But despite having fl own from Spain to risk his life in front of just a few hundred people, Padilla is smiling.
He wins $50 in chips, puff s his gigantic cigar and rattles off something in a thick southern-Spanish accent to the dealer. The dealer looks at me, uncomprehending. “He just told you he loves you,” I tell her. “And he loves Las Vegas.”
WHO’S THE BOSS? Pedro “Don Bull” Haces Barba on the Strip with his prized matadors
EDWARD LEWINE is the author of Death and the Sun: A Matador’s Season in the Heart of Spain.
Three Perfect Days MONTREAL
Once a remote fur-trading post, Montreal is now a thriving modern city brimming
with Old World charm. BY MAURA EGAN // PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER FRANK EDWARDS
70 DAY ONE Pedaling through the Old Port
72 DAY TWO Seeing Canada’s fi nest fi ne art
76 DAY THREE Hiking through the park
CANADIAN GOTHIC Opposite, Notre-Dame Basilica; this page, clockwise from above, the Montreal skyline, XO Restaurant at Hotel Le StJames, and the hotel spa YOU MAY WANT TO PRACTICE YOUR FRENCH IN MONTREAL, the second-largest French-speaking city in the world, but don’t worry—it won’t be on the test. Most residents speak English. That’s the nature of this beguiling Quebecois city. It’s an anything-goes, old-meets-new kind of place. Modern glass skyscrapers edge up against 18th century Beaux Arts buildings, and the old town’s European grandeur is balanced out by funky new cafés, a thriving university scene and booming nightclubs in up-and-coming neighborhoods like Mile End and the Plateau. The city abounds with examples of thoughtful urban planning, including underground shopping malls, for those cold winters, and lush parks in which to enjoy the summers. But visitors can still glimpse an earlier time, especially among the canals and warehouses lining the St. Lawrence River. Montreal is a city of distinct neighborhoods and fi ercely proud character. There’s no better way to see it than strolling its narrow streets. You’ll uncover upscale boutiques and historic sites, often right next door to each other, and breathe in the heady aroma of french fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds, the ingredients of poutine, Montreal’s signature dish, which is served in even the swankiest joint. It may not sound so appealing, but it’s quite good. And yes, it will be on the test.
1DAY ONE Wake up in a four-poster bed at the very posh Hotel Le St-James (1) feeling like an Industrial-era trade baron. The St. James is in the former Merchants Bank, in what was once the hub of the city’s fur trade. As soon as you step outside, you picture 19th century tycoons parading by the imposing limestone façades whose grand columns line Rue Saint-Jacques. In fact, you notice a bit of swagger in your own step. But before you leave the hotel, put on your Sunday best, because you’re off to church. And not just any church. The Notre-Dame Basilica (2), a fi ve-block stroll from the hotel, rivals the great cathedrals of Europe. Established in 1829, the church was built by an Irish Protestant architect imported from New York. He converted to Catholicism on his deathbed, perhaps so that he could be buried in his creation. Montreal was once a very Catholic city— count the steeples dotting the skyline—with the clergy having as much infl uence as elected offi cials. Like hairstyles, hemlines and pop music, that all changed in the ’60s, when the Quiet Revolution led to the secularization of government and education.
BILLY MAVREAS
OWNER, GALERIE MONASTIRAKI // Riddell Fishing Tackle & Appliances has always been a source of fascination for me. It’s a messy little joint crammed full of trophies and talismans made and collected by George Riddell, an avid fi sherman and luremaker who opened the place in the ’60s.
MIDCENTURY
MADNESS // Indulge your vintage cravings. // The furniture stores on Amherst Street in the city’s Gay Village are a gold mine for midcentury fi nds. Start out at Jack’s, the biggest dealer on the stretch, where you can pick up pottery in neon colors, Danish credenzas and vintage rotary phones and television sets. Cité Deco stocks glamorous lucite desks and coffee tables, as well as whimsical pop art paintings. Montreal
Moderne focuses on teak and rosewood pieces, including wall units and dining tables. The prices are reasonable, and the quality of the pieces runs from good to mint. And while an Arne Jacobsen egg chair might be too cumbersome to lug back in your suitcase, most of the store owners are fl exible with shipping fees. Just browsing? You might enjoy watching employees carefully restore the pieces’ original grandeur. From the church, walk toward Place Jacques-Cartier (3)—a pedestrian square that was once the entrance to the city’s port, now thick with street performers and souvenir shops—and wander the cobbled alleyways off Rue Saint-Paul. Amid 18th century stone buildings such as the Chateau Ramezay, a former governor’s mansion that now serves as a repository of Quebec history, you’ll fi nd lofts for a growing creative class. Be sure to stop by the three-year-old DHC/ART Foundation of Contemporary Art (4). Local visionary Phoebe Greenberg has created a platform for Canadian and international talent to stage exhibitions, workshops and lectures. After you’ve had your fi ll of highbrow culture, relax at Cluny Artbar (5), a former warehouse that’s been converted into a café. Take a seat at one of the establishment’s communal tables and order yourself a smoked salmon panino and extra-leaded espresso. You’ll need the fuel for zipping around Montreal’s Old Port in some the city’s many bicycle lanes—just swipe your credit card at one of the 300 Bixi (think “bike” meets “taxi”) cycle-sharing kiosks all over town (open May through November). Wending your way along the Lachine Canal (6), lined with ferry terminals, quays and a huge concrete silo, you’ll get a glimpse of the city’s industrial past. Across the river, you spot Habitat 67. Designed for Expo 67, Montreal’s world’s fair, as a prototype for aff ordable housing, the structure looks like something dreamed up by Antoni Gaudí and built with Legos. You continue pedaling along the leafy Rue Notre-Dame and pass through Antiques Alley to Marché Atwater (7), a European-style foodmarket housed in an Art Deco building, complete with charcuteries, cheese shops and fl ower stalls. After a serious afternoon of bike riding and window shopping, you’ll want to sit down for a proper meal. Restaurateurs Frédéric Morin, Allison Cunningham and David McMillan have turned the neighborhood known as Little Burgundy into a culinary mecca. Settle on Joe Beef, the name of which belies the upscale fare inside, where you order such classics as Dungeness crab and seared scallops. The menu changes often, but the dishes are simple and bold, so the seafood fl avors shine through. Before you call it a night, head to Altitude 737 (8). In a city known for megaclubs, this is the swankiest, an ideal place to hobnob with Montreal’s most glamorous residents, enjoy a champagne cocktail and take in views of the city.
2DAY TWO Now that you’ve gotten the lay of the land, it’s time to indulge in the city’s cultural off erings. Grab breakfast at Olive + Gourmando (1) then board the STM, Montreal’s effi cient public system, at Victoria Square and ride three stops to the Canadian Centre for Architecture (2). This 30-year-old museum is housed in a 19th century graystone mansion straight out of a romantic novel, which has been expanded with surprisingly harmonious slick limestone façades. Its founder and consulting
RETRO CURRENT Habitat 67, top, and Grand Central antiques shop
HERE’S THE BEEF Clockwise from top left, Schwartz’s deli and its legendary smoked meat sandwich, Daniel Roberge in Zephyr Art Gallery, and the view on Rue Notre-Dame
CHOP SHOP // Pig out at one of Montreal’s hottest restaurants. // Au Pied de Cochon is a carnivore’s paradise. The restaurant, which opened on a side street in the Plateau district back in 2004, has lured meat lovers (including chef Anthony Bourdain) from around the globe for artery-clogging dishes such as pig trotter salad and steak tartare. Chef and owner Martin Picard has developed bad-boy status in the culinary world with his unshaven
look and larger-than-life personality. Though the dining room, with its wood burning fi replace, is quite serene, Picard is pumping out sinful dishes including 10 different preparations for foie gras—on hamburger, on pizza and, naturally, as a topping for the local specialty, poutine. If you can’t get enough of Picard’s gut-busting cuisine, head just north of the city, into the Laurentian Mountains, to his Cabane À Sucre (Sugar Shack), a cozy restaurant where the chef dishes up everything from buckwheat pancakes to fried lobster during the maple syrup–tapping season, typically mid-March to mid-April.
ADAM GOLLNER, AUTHOR OF THE FRUIT HUNTERS In the Plateau and Mile End, there are alleys bursting with fruit trees and stands selling reproductions of Goya prints. Those alleys are reminders that revelations lurk all around.
FRESH PAINT Museum of Fine Arts
architect, Phyllis Lambert studied under Mies Van der Rohe and has made the center one of the country’s most important cultural institutions, with a vast archive of architectural sketches, photographs and models dating back the Renaissance. After wandering the halls and taking in the archives of Ernest Cormier, the city’s preeminent architect of the early 20th century, enjoy a 10-minute stroll along Rue Sherbrooke, one of the city’s swankiest thoroughfares, which leads to The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (3), a neoclassical structure that sits regally among boutiques and blue-chip galleries. There are pieces by Rembrandt, Monet and Picasso within, but you’re more interested in the homegrown talent. The dark, moody portraits by Frederick Simpson Coburn (1871–1960), who grew up just south of the city, evoke the Dutch masters, while Quebecois painter Marc-Aurèle Fortin (1888–1970) created watercolor landscapes inspired by French Impressionism. Before you hop over to the modern annex across the street, take a whirl through the decorative arts section, which features an eclectic mix of furniture, textiles and other objects, from a Marius Plamondon stained-glass window to an amorphous fan, courtesy of Maarten Baas. Next, take a cab across town to explore the Plateau district (4). A working-class neighborhood in the ’60s and ’70s, the Plateau has become a magnet for creative types, who live and work alongside a mix of Italian, Portuguese and Greek communities. This is also the epicenter of Montreal’s Francophone population, particularly along the Rue Saint-Denis. The bustling street is crammed with shops, jazz clubs, cafés and friperies (vintage clothing stores carrying, among other things, an impressive stock of ’70s skiwear). You can only wander so long, though, before you work up an appetite.
L’Express (5) is a classic brasserie that feels as if it’s been airlifted from Paris; it’s outfi tted with a gleaming zinc bar, bow-tied waiters and a black-and-white tiled fl oor. The food is sturdy bistro fare—croque monsieur, steak frites—but the real draw is jumbo cornichons and grainy mustard that come with every order. After an espresso, detour off Rue Saint-Denis and wander through some of the residential neighborhoods lined with Victorian row houses, many featuring mansard roofs and the peculiar spiral exterior staircases unique to Montreal (evidently, recently arrived immigrants wanted front doors to call their own, even if they were in secondfl oor apartments). Invigorated by the walk, you’re ready to see another side of the city’s nightlife. You
THE RIVER WILD A surfer on the St. Lawrence, below, and Les Commissaires
duck into Casa del Popolo (6), an unassuming vegetarian restaurant that doubles as a stage for the area’s promising young musical talent, and order a pint of Belle Gueule ale, one of the strong local brews. You may also want to check out La Sala Rossa, Casa’s sister joint across the street. Started as a cultural center by the city’s left-wing Jewish community back in the ’30s, La Sala Rossa hosts acts ranging from fl amenco performers to freestyle breakdancers. Given the strong beer, a midnight snack seems prudent. For an inexpensive serving of poutine, you walk 15 minutes to Resto la Banquise (7), a 24-hour diner. Meanwhile, die-hard carnivores will line up at Schwartz’s on Rue Saint-Laurent, an old-style Jewish deli with heaping portions of viande fumée, a.k.a. “smoked meat” (just don’t call it pastrami).
3DAY THREE You had a late night, so you sleep in—but not so much that you miss out on a stroll through the Mile End neighborhood (1), the latest bastion of bohemia to sprout up in this fast-evolving city. Here you’ll fi nd Commissaires, a gallery-boutique hybrid featuring limited-edition designs by local artists as well as themed exhibitions. In a tiny new bookshop, Drawn & Quarterly (2), the retail outlet of the infl uential comic book and graphic novel publisher, you can easily spend several hours perusing everything from the latest Masterpiece Comics to a variety of art zines. Pick up an armful of reading material and head to one of the numerous independent coff ee shops in the area. Café Olympico (3) brews high-grade espresso for Italian old-timers and twentysomethings alike, who jostle for elbow room at the bar. Try to score one of the nicked wooden tables and settle in with your latte and The Walrus, Canada’s answer to The Atlantic. Next on the agenda is sampling a legendary Montreal bagel, a species of bagel that polarizes connoisseurs (they’re sweeter, chewier and less doughy than their New York counterparts). Though locals will go on about the diff erences at the nearby joints, St-Viateur and Fairmount, both of these holes in the wall churn them out piping hot. Why not try both? Walk it all off with a sunset tour of Parc du Mont-Royal (4), the city’s main park, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the architect of New York’s Central Park. At this time of year, you’ll see lots of cross-country skiers, while in the spring and summer, joggers and bikers predominate. After you huff and puff to the top of “la montagne,” as Montrealers call it (although to be honest, it’s not much more than a hill), you look down at all the charming rues and alleyways you’ve meandered for the past few days. It’s a beautiful sight in any language.
BOARDING PASS
Montreal just has that certain je ne sais quoi, non? United can get you there from dozens of cities across the U.S. and around the globe. New Yorker MAURA EGAN thinks Montreal bagels are some of the best in the world.
ALEXEI PERRY
VOCALIST, HANDSOME FURS // Niu Kee is a Szechuan restaurant that plays Beijing opera and fi lls nearby blocks with the fragrance of “fl ower” pepper.
2 1 3
Rue St.-Denis6 Avenue Du Mont-Royal E.4
7
Avenue Du Parc 5
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8 Autoroute Bonaventure 1Rue Sherbrooke O.Boulevard Rene-Autoroute Ville-Marie 5 4 2
3 1
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St. Lawrence River Ile Sainte Helene
Port Victoria
0 5 Miles 7
MONTREAL
NEW YORK
THOSE THREE PERFECT DAYS
DAY ONE (1) Hotel Le St-James 355 Rue Saint-Jacques.; Tel: 514-841-3111 (2) Notre-Dame Basilica 110 Rue Notre-Dame Ouest; Tel: 514-842-2925 (3) Place Jacques-Cartier Near Place Jacques-Cartier on Rue de la Commune (4) DHC/Art Foundation for Contemporary Art 451-468 Rue Saint-Jean; Tel: 514-849-3742 (5) Cluny Artbar 257 Rue Prince; Tel: 514-866-1213 (6) Lachine Canal (7) Marché Atwater 138 Ave. Atwater; Tel: 514-937-7754 (8) Altitude 737 1 Place Ville-Marie; Tel: 514-397-0737
DAY TWO (1) Olive + Gourmando 351 Rue Saint-Paul Ouest; Tel: 514-650-1083 (2) Canadian Centre for Architecture 1920 Rue Baile; Tel: 514-939-7026 (3) The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 1380 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest; Tel: 514-285-2000 (4) Plateau district Rue Saint-Denis (5) L’Express 3927 Rue Staint-Denis; Tel: 514-845-5333 (6) Casa del Popolo 4873 Boul. Saint-Laurent; Tel: 514-284-3804 (7) Resto la Banquise 994 Rue Rachel East; Tel: 514-525-2415
DAY THREE (1) Mile End neighborhood Boul. Saint-Laurent at Ave du Mont-Royal (2) Drawn & Quarterly 211 Rue Bernard Ouest (3) Café Olympico 124 Rue Saint-Viateur Ouest (4) Parc du Mont Royal
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A seat map diagram of a United A320 showing Economy Plus seating near the front of the Economy cabin.
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