montreal

Although Montreal is best known for its exuberant summer festivals, Montrealers keep their merry spirits warm all winter long in swank, trendy hibernation dens. These carefully-crafted indoor burrows include the underground city that connects many of the modern centreville buildings, museums and galleries displaying contemporary Canadian and Quebecois art, sex clubs and paraphernalia supermarkets that line the city's main commercial streets and thousands of cafes, bars and restaurants. St. Lawrence Boulevard, and the quartier that surrounds it, is where the bustle and intensity of the city is best felt. In fact, this important street is the dividing line between the predominantly English and French sections of town and is often adorned with graffiti concerning Quebec's intriguing and charged language crisis. St. Lawrence, however, is not just a political axis mundi, but also a culinary one. The area houses an eclectic mix of restaurants of every nationality and price range: from Schwartz's smoked meat, to 24-hour fresh St. Viateur bagels, and to Monde-Aux-Frites traditional Quebecois Poutine (french fries with melted cheese and gravy).

RESTAURANTS: Cafe Santropol, located in a cozy triplex on St. Urbain, is a community staple. Smiling patrons linger for hours amidst huge papier-mâché fruits and munch on enormous sandwiches filled with concoctions of buckwheat, chocolate, walnuts, pineapple, vegetarian pate, lobster and cheeses. Importantly, Santropol serves the world's most stylish milkshakes. Nearby, EI Zazzium on Roy Street is a small restaurant that serves up huge platters of guacamole and pitchers of fresh sangria. It is bedecked in layer upon layer of bizarre and flashy decor, including huge fish nets, colorful animal mobiles and lots of toilet paper. Weekends feature live Mexican singers. For dessert, head down to the elegant and relaxed O Gateau! on Ste. Catherine East in the Gay Village. Daily feasts consist of delectable cheesecakes, coffees and wines.

Nightlife: Montreal nightlife starts late and ends early. Cigar bars, pool rooms and landmarks like the Foufounes Electriques, line St. Denis, St. Lawrence and Ste. Catherine East. For a relaxed evening out, join the smart crowd at Le Quartier Latin on Ontario in the French student area. Red, plush and pleasant, it often hosts live funk. A bubbly, self-consciously hip crowd occupies Jello Bar on Ontario (they like martinis). It features live jazz and Monday night swing dancing. Booty-shaking? Unity on Ste. Catherine East in the Gay Village and Sona, the after-hours club on Bleury, are where it's at.

NON-TOURISTY SITE: Located on the mountain, St. Joseph's Oratory is reached by a long set of stairs which devotees climb up on hands and knees. Inside are a priest's heart and a room full of crutches that belonged to people who no longer needed them after being blessed and cured at the Oratory. A night visit de-touristifies the experience; the grounds can be entered through the back Westmount entrance, which leads to verandas that reveal dazzling views of the city.

SPORT: If weather permits, skiing on Mount Royal is spectacular. Otherwise, gambling is a good bet. The Casino is gigantic, fluorescent and more or less the tackiest place ever.

SHOPPING: Montreal is stylish, and the Canadian dollar is cheap, so shop lots! At Hatfield and McCoy, and elsewhere on Mount Royal and St. Denis, you can find unique and elegant retro, go-go, hippie and chic refurbished clothing.

PIERCING: Any and all body piercing should be done at Black Sun Studio on St. Denis. Tattoo parlors congregate on St. Denis and Ontario.

PEOPLE-WATCHING: A window seat at any bar or cafe on St. Lawrence, near Prince Arthur, offers beautiful people vistas galore. The hunky Montreal Canadiens hockey team hangs at Bueno Notte.

WILD CARD: The Insectarium--part of the lovely Montreal Botanical Gardens--is home to many living and dead ones. And if the sangria, french fries and cheesecake haven't warmed you yet, be sure to participate in an old-fashioned Montreal bug tasting.