Rue Saint-Denis: the Quartier Latin spine
The spine of French Montreal — café terraces, bookshops, the theatres, and Carré Saint-Louis. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Berri-UQAM
Start at the city's busiest interchange, in the thick of the university quarter. Come up into the Quartier Latin and walk north; the student energy is the baseline here, loudest in term and after dark.

2. The Quartier Latin theatres
The blocks of Rue Saint-Denis below Sherbrooke hold the Théâtre Saint-Denis and a cluster of cinemas and stages — the French-language theatre district. Read the marquees as you pass; this is the entertainment end of the spine.

3. The café terraces of Rue Saint-Denis
North of Sherbrooke the street opens into the terraces it's famous for — café tables spilling onto the pavement, the long lunch and the longer drink. Take a terrace seat with no plan; watching the street is the activity.

4. The bookshops
Saint-Denis is the bookshop street of French Montreal, new and second-hand among the cafés. Browse one even if you don't read French; the shelves are the clearest sign of whose city this is.

5. Carré Saint-Louis
A Victorian square ringed by some of the most ornate houses in the city — turreted, polychrome, built for the 19th-century French-Canadian bourgeoisie. Sit by the fountain; poets and singers lived around this square, and it still feels like the quarter's drawing room.

6. Sherbrooke station
Cut back to the Orange-line metro a short walk west. End here, or carry on north into the Plateau if the evening's young — the spine keeps going, and so could you.

Rue Saint-Denis: the Quartier Latin spine