Montreal has unbelievably good Falafel and Shawarma places everywhere.
There are also very good sandwich places, with some even baking the bread fresh (pain maison). And then somewhat similar food, kebab sandwiches and rice, Persian style.
Most of visit in Montreal is exploring and finding these kind of food places – sandwiches and rice dishes. Nothing like this available back home, away from Montreal.
Falafel Blvd
On Ste Catherine, near Rue Guy.
Falafel Blvd falafel sandwich
Mezzmiz
On Crescent, near Ste Catherine.
Mezzmizz Chicken Shawarma
Tesfa
Great falafel and chicken. Mediterranean cuisine fused with bold East African spices at TESFA in Plateau Montreal. Ave Papineau near Ave Mont Royal.
TESFA Falafel plate and Chicken Sandwich
Dunya
Unlike the normal falafel or meat with veggies, this one has meat and fries. But excellent, and very crowded most of the time, very popular. Also has soft-serve ice-cream.
On Sherbrooke St, near St Laurent.
Dunya – Chicken Shawarma Sandwich with side of hummus tub
Sumac
In St Henri neighborhood, on Rue Notre-Dame (a bit of a walk westwards from Atwater market).
Sumac: Chicken Shawarma Sandwich.
Boustan (some locations)
This chain is all over the city. Some locations are good: Crescent St, near Atwater Metro, Ste Catherine @ St Laurent. Chicken is usually better than beef (can be dry) or falafel. Very popular and crowded at rush hours.
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Montreal Jazz Festival
June 25 to July 4
Louis Cole Big BandFun! high-energy electro-funk LeenalchiSouth Korean pop rock band, bass-driven, and unique vocal stylings inspired by traditional Korean pansori story-telling. Angine de Poitrinedrums and dual-neck guitar. space-time voyagers Klek and Khn de Poitrine. Main stage, huge block, all full. Overflow stage also full! Very popular. TODOnext TODOnext TODOnext TODOnext TODOnext
Schedule for Montreal Jazz Fest June 25-July 4, 2026.Site map for Montreal Jazz Festival 2026, Quartier des Spectacles.
Francos de Montreal
I only saw a fraction of the concerts. Not enough time and cannot stand for more than an hour at a time! Of the ones I saw, these were fantastic, and there are video snippets in the playlist above. All in French, which I do not speak, but the music is all understandable and fun.
Grand EugèneQuebecois duo ZélieFrench singer Ariane RoyQuébécois singer St GraalFrench singer Ariane MoffatQuébécois singer. Having heard her Je rentre à Montréal, Je reviens à Montréal song umpteen times, I knew who she was, and her live act was through the roof fantastic! Many songs were remixed with electo-pop notes, and it was just the thing the large crowd at the festival wanted, singing and jumping all along. Great show.
Site map showing the multiple stage areas for the Francos de Montreal festival.The main stage all empty early in the morning. Packed solid for the shows at night.
Bixi and Metro – Getting Around
Even if you are staying just a few days, the Bixi monthly plan is worth it. It is better than fixed monthly since it is on a rolling 30 day period instead of from 1 to end of month. And in 2026 it is just $24. Do make sure you figure out the map, the app, and how to correctly return a bike.
STM metro monthly pass is only from start to end of month, not a rolling period. 3 days or weekend or weekly Mon-Sun pass makes more sense for tourists.
2026 Grand Minuit de Montréal at the Jacques-Cartier Pier.
Welcoming 2026 at Montreal’s biggest, free New Year’s Eve outdoor music event. Snowy cold -17C (0F) conditions, not a problem.
Three videos, all before the fireworks:
This video is around 9PM. Crowds just staring to come in, but at this time, easy to walk close to the main stage on the jutting Pier.
At 10:40PM mark, stage area mostly filled in, crowds still pouring in.
Around 11PM it was very difficult to enter the Pier and crowds were filling in back to Rue de le Commune and the Place-Jacques-Cartier block and Rue Notre-Dame.
2025-December-31: 2026 Grand Minuit de Montréal at the Jacques-Cartier Pier from 7:30 PM, with live music from 7:30PM to 2AM. The stage was located on the Jacques-Cartier Pier in the Old Port of Montreal, and a large TV screen broadcast set up on Place Jacques-Cartier.
Huge crowds by midnight fireworks event. Free event and excellent crowd control, though between 11PM and 2AM, prepare for long lines and major delays getting back on the metro. I left at 11:30PM this year, to avoid the huge hour slong-wait out in the cold outside Champ-de-Mars station after the fireworks!
The outdoor site also had restrooms. There was also a small ticketed area available with more facilities.
Montreal, is just an amazing city, with all its public events, all through the year.
The schedule (from the grandminuit.ca website. captured here since that site will stop working soon):
7:30pm: Doors open 7:30pm: DJ Tupi Collective 9pm: Qualité Motel 10:30pm: Special Medley (Patrick Watson, Kloô Pelgag, Anachnid, Boogàt, Pierre Kwenders, The Brooks, Joseph Sarenhes, Naya Ali, Sarahmee and more… Midnight: Fireworks 00:10am: High Klassified 1am: Nana Zen 2am : End of the event
Street food from a takeout counter on Ave Fairmount corner of St-Laurent Blvd, next to Fairmount Bagels.
Also sell homemade tomato sauce at the takeout counter for famous gnocchi. There are benches on the street, or can eat standing up from the container! Even on cold days, good to eat. Very popular place so at peak tourists times there can be a long line.
2025: $5 Gnocchi with tomato sauce $5, good enough portion. Extras: chili flakes to spice it up $0.50, and cheese $1.
2025: Pasta sauces: $10 for regular La Salsa Della Nonna and $11 for spicy Peperoncino 750ml jar. The spicy sauce with fresh hot peppers is extremely spicy!
Street ViewStreet ViewMenu and CounterPasta Sauces
Took me 3 hr 15 minutes for this bike ride. From Lionel-Groulx metro to Pont Champlain and then from Brossard to Longueuil and then on Jacques-Cartier Bridge back to Montreal and up to Petite-Italie Mozart and Boul Laurent street corner.
Mileage unclear. Maps route below says 27 km but actual ride Maps Timeline said 38 km. The latter does include around 30 minutes of wrong turns to finally get from Atwater St to the start of Pont Champlain, around 1-2 km of extra distance.
There are no good directions on the bike paths showing how to get to start of the bridges. Google maps does a decent job but following it can be difficult since it is not always clear and requires extra biking around some turns. It is most complicated getting on to Pont Champlain from Montreal.
Pont Champlain bike path has easy gradual slope. There are a handful of great lookout points.
Jacques-Cartier has a bit more steeper paths. There are two bridges here, two sections. There is only one lookout point and it is at the intersection of the road going to the St Helen’s Island.
Nuns Island bike path
Pont Champlain view of the bridge cable stays and concrete towers.
Pont Champlain bike path. View of downtown Montreal.
From Jacques-Cartier bridge bike path. View of the steel beams.
From Jacques-Cartier bridge bike path. View of a lighthouse and Biosphere on Parc Jean-Drapeau in Île Sainte-Hélène. Montreal.
Alps are melting. First week of March in 2025 was still good skiing even at lower elevations where the sides of trails was all bare grass.
The temperature was above freezing even at night but still the snow was very nice and powder soft at the higher elevations and most everywhere in the morning. Noon and later lower parts of trails got clumpy.
Intermediate skier here. Blue trails and a few Red trails.
Morzine and Avoriaz ski areas are part of the huge Portes du Soleil 12-ski-resorts ski area.
The single ski resort have their own passes, and sufficiently large for at least intermediate skiers to spend at least a couple of days each on them.
Two things I learned: pay careful attention to the trail maps. Lifts and trails to crisscross so have to pay close attention to arrows on them to figure out how to get where you want to go.
Keep enough time for the last run in case you miss a turn and risk ending up far from where you wanted to go.
Also, the trails are very long – compared to what I’m used to in most of the East Coast USA.
Avoriaz
This starts at 1800m and goes above 2000m and snow is more guaranteed.
Great snow, great skiing. Town is also nice – car free. I’m more partial to Morzine though.
Walking on snowy streets is not that much fun to do all the time.
Also Morzine is bigger and much more lively.
Avoriaz Mossettes lift. Starts in France and goes to Switzerland at the top.
Avoriaz trails crossing going opposite ways and the tunnel.
Avoriaz Fornet trail.
Vast Avoriaz Ski Area. View of Cubore lift at far end.
Avoriaz Arare Trail. Ski marker numbers decrease down the trail.
Morzine
Morzine and Les Gets (le jeh) ski resort.
Lively town, lot of restaurants, and can also get to Avoriaz easily starting with the Super Morzine gondola.
Morzine town center. Bustling Thu/Fri. Quiet Sat/Sun.
Top of Pleney Gondola. Morzine.
Morzine, top of Nauchets.
Nice Morzine trail but grass right at edge.
Geneva
The Morzine ski area in France is a easy 90 minute ride by road from Geneva.
All shops close very early by 7PM. And Sunday is especially all very quiet.
Geneva has a fantastic public transportation systems. Stay anywhere and use public transportation.
Even the airport is accessible by train in under 15 minutes from the city.
Every direction from Geneva ends up at French border?! France all around.
Geneva Mouettes (boat) at Molard stop. Goes to Pâquis on opposite bank.
Hot summer. Find a nice public pool, go when it is not crowded. Avoid hot afternoon sun! There is a minor charge for the large Parc Jean-Drapeau pool (and beach) and totally worth it. Easy access from the metro to this Aquatic Complex.
Bixi monthly pass this year was just $20 and even though bike availability and dock availability was not good, most of the time it was usable so worth getting it.
Quebec has a nice bike trail system: La Route Verte.
Montreal biking, especially in Verdun, means great views riding along the St Lawrence river.
This post is about a ride from Verdun Beach to Estacade du Pont Champlain and Chemin de la Petite Voie du Fleuve.
It crosses two bridges over the St Lawrence river.
La Route Verte 5 from Verdun Beach is the starting point for this bike ride going north and east.
Then to Route Verte 1 and Nun’s Island (Île-Des-Sœurs) bridge bikeway. This runs along side highway Rt 15.
Then cross the island bikeway to get to the 2.3 km Estacade du Pont Champlain.
That ends in Chemin de la Petite Voie du Fleuve which is a long thin strip of land in the river and has bikeable non-paved gravel bike paths. That part of the land only accessible by the bike path!
The above round-trip path is around 11km. That can be easily extended before the start or after the end to cover 30km or more.
The effort required is low – mostly flat path with elevations around bridge entry points.
From the Montreal city bridges web site: Looking for an exceptional view of the St. Lawrence River? During the day and evening, cyclists and pedestrians can take the 2-km bicycle path over the Estacade from Île des Sœurs to the seaway dike bicycle path network.
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Night ride
Summer days are hot so good to ride at night. Clear moonlight and street light offer good views, but a couple of important points to note. Bugs! So many, in some parts of the ride. Should wear clear or night-lens closed eyewear to avoid bugs getting into eyes. And keep mouth closed.
And on the night of Fri Aug 5 2022, at 9pm, a long stretch of the Estacade was being used by birds! Lots of birds. Biking through them was scary – they would fly at you but go over your head.
On the Chemin de la Petite Voie du Fleuve end of the Estacade also got covered by many cobwebs! No spiders though (I think, I hope), thankfully.
Still all worth it – the views are great and the night was cool at 75F/23C. Only saw a couple of other riders and people walking at that time.
Should also try this in winter months. The trail is open April through December, so November would be a good bug-free time for night rides before it closes.
Parc René Lévesque
Another good ride on the south side from Verdun is to the Parc René Lévesque.
Two options: ride via Bd LaSalle next to the river, or the bike path along the Lachine Canal. This is around 10km one way.
7hr stopover 840am to 340pm at CDG airport. What to do in that period, can a 2 hour or so period be spent in the city?
Wanted to explore a place or two near RER B train station, someplace with a quick return to CDG airport.
Planned ahead and had only a very small light carry-on.
Easy to see signs for RER B after baggage exit at CDG airport. Also says Paris by Train.
40 minutes to Les Halles-Chatelet, good place to explore.
Was there by 1030am. Then took metro yellow line 1, after a long corridor walk, requires exit and reentry. Ticket 1-5 zone tickete mobilis day pass until midnight best option. Went to Champs-Elysees. Nothing but big palaces and museums there. No street shops or food, so not something on top of my list.
Better to hang out around Chatelet metro. Can keep circling many small and major streets there. Easy to spend 1-3+ hours. Many eateries, big and small. And many shops. Also fantastic architecture – houses as well as big buildings and churches and small parks. And of course, the river Seine, great views from bridges.
If you like busy city streets and cityscapes, hanging around this area will be better than the main tourist spots such as Champs-Elysees or Eiffel tower.
I was first going to a large market, but the keys ones I looked at were closed when I was visiting.
Monday afternoon security was fast. Does take 30 minutes to get from RER B station to other terminals such as L, which requires taking the automated train. Look carefully before entering security that it is correct gate: K L M in terminal 2E.
Study metro map well. While Chatelet area has many metro entrances – underground entrances from street level labeled Metro or Metropolitan – they may be other metro stations such as Hotel de ville. Fine to enter there, just take train line 1 to Chatelet for RER B.
I had a small hiccup using zone 1-5 tickete mobilis. It was read correctly at CDG airport, but would not let me exit at Chatelet Les Halles! Titre illisible. I thought it meant invalid ticket and needed more zones, but no. Google translate, using pre downloaded French, said it meant unreadable title. Luckily, found a manned services booth at that large station, even with no French, I was able to explain the issue and they gave me replacement ticket. That worked fine for rest of day, multiple trips. Mobilis day pass for zones 1-5 valid until midnight cost €17.80. Chip-enabled credit card from USA was accepted at vending machines.
I was in town from 10:30am to 12:15pm. Back to CDG station by 1:05pm.
Reached gate by 1:45pm, so was pretty fast through immigration and security Monday afternoon, no lines, but heard this can be much slower at CDG, so should give it 30+ minutes more.
Tour la Nuit is the Montreal Night Bike Ride event.
It is part of the Go Bike Montréal Festival (GVO – Go Velo MTL) which ran from May 26-June 2 (2019).
Friday May 31 2019 was the Tour La Nuit biking event, a 21 km course in downtown Montreal, on regular streets which were closed to all car traffic.
It was a wonderful experience, though marred by incomplete information about the event (Velo Quebec #fail) and Bixi bike-rental app and organization foul ups.
On the plus side: when one finally gets on the bike and rides on the street, the crisp cool breeze, the wide open streets and night lights makes for an unforgettable experience. Luckily, too, there was no rain during this event while it rained on the Sunday’s full day Montreal Bike Ride event!
Along many inside neighborhood streets, such as Rue Dandurand, many sidewalk corners were filled with adults and kids cheering on the thousands of passing cyclists. The whole city likes to join in and party!
The highlight of the whole ride was the section of the ride that went inside the Olympic Stadium! They also had a number of marching band groups going full blast inside the stadium with cyclists riding around, cool stuff. Tour La Nuit inside the Olympic Stadium Video
As with all public Montreal events, the facilities and services were outstanding. Plenty of port-a-potties restrooms at the start, many volunteers along the way guiding the cyclists, and big blow out at the end with DJ, music, food, drink, even a ferris wheel on the park. And free chocolate milk at end of the ride! All very nice.
Registration is required and is $35 for adults.
Many kids also participate in the event, so it is a whole family event.
Riders deck out their bikes with lights and such.
Things to know: It would have good to know about the actual event. Velo Quebec organized the event but their web site was missing key information which would have made the event far more enjoyable!
First of all, they say the gates will open at 20:15 hours and last riders can leave at 21:15. And they said the ride takes about 90 minutes at average speed.
But – it is a mess at the starting line! There are thousands of cyclists, and only 5-7 cyclists go out at one time. So it took over 40 minutes of inching along Ave Parc even before we could get on our bikes to ride on. It is all festive and such, but knowing this would make the delay much more understanda
In addition to 40 minutes delay at the start, add another 30-40 minutes along the course when people had to dismount and walk their bikes due to congestion or steep inclines.
Add even more time to slow down and enjoy the Montreal night sights along the way, especially special events like biking inside the Olympic Stadium, and it takes a good 2.5 to 3 hours to complete the course, far more than the 75 minutes I thought it would take based on the FAQ at the Velo Quebec site.
Far worse mess for me was the Bixi #fail. I decided to rent a Bixi, to support more of Montreal business, but their app and organization was a major letdown. The app refused to accept the promo code for the event. I tried many things (restart app, phone) and Velo Quebec booth guys also checked the code and confirmed it was right, Bixi app continually popped up “Invalid Code” message and their customer support was totally useless. I needed a bike, so I then bought a day pass on the Bixi app. I was hoping to dock the bike and re-rent every 30-45 minutes to minimize total cost. I did make around 3 stops, but would have made 4 or 5 optimally. Bixi charges $3 for every 15 minutes over, so the charges crept up fast when every Bixi dock along the second half of the ride was full (even though the app said 1 dock free or such).
So that is the second thing to note: if using Bixi, expect things to mess up. Ride is still enjoyable 🙂
And after the ride, I contacted Bixi e-mail support detailing all the problems and they were much more helpful than their phone support. They refunded all the excess charges, so in the end, Bixi is not too bad.
