Pointe-à-Callière: where Montreal began
The exact spot Montreal was founded, the archaeology beneath the museum, and the old market square. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Pointe-à-Callière museum
Start at the angular building on the exact point where Ville-Marie was founded in 1642. The genius is underground: the museum is built over the real archaeology, so you walk through the city's first foundations and an old collector sewer. Go in; this is one stop you don't skip.

2. Place Royale and the Old Custom House
Step out onto the small square that was the city's first marketplace and public space — fur traders, criers, the works. The neoclassical Custom House on its edge now belongs to the museum. Stand here and you're on the oldest public ground in Montreal.

3. Place D'Youville and the obelisk
Walk west along the long thin square laid over the buried Saint-Pierre river. The 1893 obelisk marks the founders; the red-and-grey former fire station midway is one of the prettiest buildings on the walk. The shape of the square is the shape of the lost stream beneath it.

4. Old Port waterfront and the Clock Tower
Cross to the river edge — the quays that handled the city's shipping, now a promenade. The 1922 Clock Tower stands at the far end as a sailors' war memorial; you can climb it for the harbour view. The St Lawrence is why the city is here at all.

5. Rue Saint-Paul
Turn back inland up the oldest street in the city, cobbled and curving the way old streets do. The stone warehouses are galleries and restaurants now. Walk it east to west slowly; this is Old Montreal doing what it does best, without the worst of the crowds.

6. Place Jacques-Cartier and the Notre-Dame doors
End at the sloping market square below the Nelson column, then a block to the carved doors of Notre-Dame Basilica on Place d'Armes. You don't have to go into the basilica, but the blue-lit interior is worth the ticket. Place-d'Armes metro is right there.

Pointe-à-Callière: where Montreal began