Montreal is one of Canada’s great cities and one of North America’s oldest. It offers many fun things to see and do and, of course, wonderful food to be enjoyed as Montreal is Canada’s capital of cuisine. One of the more interesting destinations in Montreal is its Olympic Park, site of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games
Montreal’s Olympic stadium remains one of the most architecturally unique athletic venues in the world, with a distinctive leaning tower and (problem prone) retractable roof. After the Olympic games the stadium was home to the Montreal Expos baseball and Montreal Alouette football teams, but now is only rarely used. You can take rides up its leaning tower (which suspends the umbrella-like roof). While the stadium is very interesting to look at, the 1976 Olympics were a financial drain on the people of Montreal many of whom have mixed feelings about it all.
But it’s an interesting stop and when combined with a visit to the nearby (and wonderful) Botanical garden make for a great day in Montreal!
Is Montreal a French speaking area of Canada or is it multi-lingual ?
I’ve heard that French tourists have difficulty with Canadian French.
Any thoughts ?
Hi Vivie!
TravelGumbo loves Montreal! It’s such a great city!! Thanks for the tips on other things to see and do in the city.
The insectarium is especially cool to see if you have kids who love to look at “gross stuff”. These were some of my favorite specimens!
Yes Montreal is great.
Wish I could go back more often. The fun thing about these attractions is while they are all near one another, there is also a metro station nearby. Cheaper than the taxi and an experience in itself.
This is only the tip of the iceberg…so much more to see and experience.
Montreal… my hometown!!
When visiting the Olympic Stadium/Botanical Garden you should also take the opportunity to visit the Insectarium, the Planetarium rio tinto alcan and my favorite the Biodome. Information to all these can be found on the same website as the Botanical Garden. Enjoy! 
Montreal is multilingual, although most natives speak French as their primary language. You can easily get by here with only English and it’s a great city to visit. That’s not true in the smaller villages of rural Quebec where you might find it difficult to find someone who doesn’t speak French.
Canadian French split off from continental French 400 years ago, and the two versions of the language have diverged somewhat over the years. I don’t speak much French so I really can’t give you many specific details. Canadian Francophones have less trouble in France than the Continental French seem to have here. The situation is not unlike what you find in Iceland, where the Icelandic language is sort of an ancient Norwegian tongue.