2.
You can bet that no matter what you're craving, Montréal will satisfy. With more than 4000 restaurants, there's literally a cuisine for every taste.
3.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono held a bed-in for peace at the Fairmont the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montréal. Guests including Tommy Smothers sang along with the famous couple as they recorded the anti-Vietnam War song "Give Peace a Chance" in their room.
4.
Montréal has lots of creative energy. Musicians residing or born here include the inimitable Leonard Cohen, diva Celine Dion, Glen and Shawn Drover of the band Megadeth, Win Butler of the band Arcade Fire, jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, 80s heartthrob Corey Hart, pianist Oscar Peterson, singer-songwriters Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and alt-rock band Wolf Parade.
5.
Flamboyant Steven Cojocaru grew up in Montréal, graduating in 1979 from Wagar High School. "Cojo" has been a Hollywood fashion critic since the mid 1990s.
6.
Famed Jewish author Mordecai Richler was a long-time Montréal resident, growing up in the Mile End District. A prolific writer who contributed to numerous magazines and journals, penned screenplays, in addition to authoring several well-known novels, including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Joshua Then and Now, and Solomon Gursky Was Here.
7.
You really can shop till you drop in Montréal, regardless of the weather. More than 32 km (about 20 miles) of underground pedestrian tunnels link over 1700 stores, theatres, cinemas and restaurants.
8.
Montréal is home to some 60,000 Chinese residents. Of those, only about 400 live in the Chinatown area. Early Chinese immigrants came to Canada in the late 1800s to help build the Transcontinental Railway.
9.
That's one call he should've answered! In 1876, president of the Bank of Montréal and Canadian Pacific Rail, George Stephen, turned down the request of a young inventor in search of investors for his projects. Unfortunately for Stephen, the inventor was none other than Alexander Graham Bell, father of the telephone.
10.
There's nothing quite like a circus, especially when it's Cirque du Soleil. There are no animals but you'll find plenty of theatrical and physical skills from clowns, trapeze artists, tightrope walkers and contortionists. The troupe is in Montréal from April to June during odd-numbered years, and goes on the road in North America during even-numbered years.
