Montreal Plateau and Mile End Self-Guided Audio Walk: Bagels, Smoked Meat and Outside Staircases

Your Experience

Montreal's Plateau and Mile End wear their staircases on the outside: wood and iron stairs climbing the fronts of brick and stone houses, one door for every flat. Once you know why, you can read the whole neighbourhood.

Start in Carré Saint-Louis, a reservoir turned poets' square, then cross the Main, the street that splits the city's addresses east and west and welcomed wave after wave of newcomers. Hear how Portuguese families restored these streets, and how a burned fairground became the classic Montreal triplex. Along the way, stop across from Schwartz's smoked meat counter, pass Leonard Cohen's front door on Parc du Portugal, walk a block of outside staircases, and cross into the Mile End for Wilensky's, Fairmount Bagel, a Byzantine dome and the wood-fired oven at St-Viateur Bagel.

Nine stops, about 3.6 km and 90 minutes, in English and at your own pace. Start whenever you like and stop to eat on the way.