The Jardin botanique and the big park next door
The Japanese and Chinese gardens, the Insectarium, the Olympic tower over the trees, then open parkland. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Jardin botanique de Montréal (entrance)
Come up from Pie-IX and into one of the great botanical gardens of the world, laid out from 1931 by Brother Marie-Victorin. There's an admission fee and it's worth it; give the whole morning. The reception garden eases you in before the set pieces.

2. Jardin de Chine
The Chinese garden built with Shanghai in the 1990s — pavilions, a lake, rock the colour of ink, the largest of its kind outside China. Walk it slowly and over the bridges; it rewards the unhurried far more than the quick lap.

3. Jardin japonais
Across the grounds, the Japanese garden with its tea pavilion, koi pond, and a bonsai collection that stops people in their tracks. The most composed corner of the whole garden. Sit by the water a while; that's the intended use.

4. Insectarium
Recently rebuilt as a part-underground walk among the insects, ending in a glass dome of free-flying butterflies. Skip it if bugs aren't your morning, but the redesign won it real acclaim and children rarely want to leave.

5. The view to the Tour de Montréal
From the garden's eastern lawns the leaning Olympic tower rises straight over the treetops — the city's strangest skyline behind one of its calmest places. The single best photograph here isn't a flower; it's that contrast.

6. Parc Maisonneuve
Out the garden's far side into the big open park next door — long lawns, a golf course, room to lie down. After the garden's composed precision this is the loose, public counterweight. Drift across it toward Viau and the Green Line home.

The Jardin botanique and the big park next door