Old Montreal

I think this was the morning we awoke to almost no water in the hotel. Perhaps a consequence of the flooding last night. Today's activities were an introduction to Old Montreal - the city's founding and "historical district". And this map shows the major locations of this day's tour. Following last night's rain, and the morning's uncertain nature, I took my umbrella as "rain insurance". And it worked perfectly - not a drop of rain all day!

Founding of Montreal

We boarded our bus and headed to the Pointe-a-Calliere Museum which is located on the spot where Montreal began as a European settlement. Before Europeans arrived, the area was shared among the Algonquin, Huron and Iroquois. On October 2, 1535, Jacques Cartier was the first European to set foot on Montreal Island. On the south side was a large, walled village, Hochelaga. Fur trading soon came along.

In 1611, three years after founding Quebec City, de Champlain arrived, but found no sign of Hochelaga. He made plans to found a fur trading post, but it was postponed due to ferocious attacks by Iroquois Confederation, who fought the French as the other nations (Algonquin and Huron) had formed alliances with the French.

In 1639, a company was formed in Paris to establish a settlement on Montreal Island. In 1641, two missionaries, led by Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, arrived to convert the natives. On May 17, 1642, Maisonneuve set up a mission named Ville Marie on what is now Place Royale.

Ville Marie soon became a booming fur trading post; by the early 1700's it had become Montreal and the commercial hub of Nouvelle France, with 3500 inhabitants in 1710.

Our Tour

The museum, being located at the founding site of Montreal, has most of its major exhibits underground. It shows various stages of foundations and other structures dating from the early days. It was interesting, as such things go. The final exhibition was a "multi-media" presentation outlining some of the history of Montreal. Quite well done, overall. I took no photos during this part of the day - there really wasn't much to see that photographs well.

As we left the Museum it was time to board the bus and head uptown a bit.

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