Encompassing Montreal’s most famous neighbourhoods, Ville-Marie is made up of Old Montreal, Downtown Montreal, the Old Port and the Quartier des Spectacles. Plus parts of Mount Royal Park, Saint Helen's Island and Île Notre-Dame. It covers a sprawling 16 square kilometre footprint, which houses some of the city’s most iconic sights and attractions.
From wandering the cobblestone streets of Old Montreal and gazing up at Notre Dame Basilica to catching a show in the Quartier des Spectacles district and shopping at Sherbrooke Street’s designer boutiques, there’s something for every palate. Amazingly, Ville-Marie is just as busy underground as it is above ground. Submerged below Montreal is the incredible Underground City, a 32-kilometre long network of passageways linking office buildings, malls, hotels, universities and more.
Montreal is serviced by an ultra-efficient metro system, with stops dotted throughout Ville-Marie. Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport is just a 20-minute drive to the west, with the airport express bus making the trip in 45 minutes.
While today the city is known as Montreal, under French settlement it was called Fort Ville-Marie. At the time it was little more than a small fortress colony, used as a fur trading post for the French colonial empire. Over the centuries it grew into Montreal, which is now recognised as one of the most cosmopolitan cities on the planet.