The Plateau: the staircases and the colour
Spiral outdoor staircases, painted triplexes, the murals of the Main, and the cafés of Mont-Royal. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Avenue du Mont-Royal
Start where the metro lets you out, on the Plateau's loud commercial spine. Coffee first; the side streets are the walk, but this is the artery that feeds them. Walk west a few blocks before you turn off, just to read the neighbourhood's pulse.

2. Rue Saint-Hubert and the staircases
Turn south onto the residential streets and the famous thing reveals itself: the outdoor staircases, curling up to the second floor of every triplex. They exist because of a tax quirk and a builder's shortcut, and they became the city's signature. Walk slowly and look up.

3. The painted triplexes of Rue de Bullion
The three-storey walk-ups in cream, ochre, deep red, and forest green, stacked with their wrought-iron stairs out front. No two doors quite match. This is the Plateau most people picture; the quieter cross streets do it better than the busy ones.

4. Boulevard Saint-Laurent murals
Hit the Main, the boulevard that splits the city east from west, and the open-air walls of the MURAL festival. Several storeys high, repainted each summer. The stretch north of Rue Rachel is the densest; crane your neck and keep walking.

5. Square Saint-Louis
A Victorian garden square ringed by the grandest of the painted houses, with a fountain in the middle and students on every bench. The most composed corner of the Plateau, and the one that explains why the writers and singers all lived here. Sit for ten minutes.

6. Sherbrooke station
The Orange line stop at the Plateau's southern edge, a short downhill walk through the square's gates. One stop takes you to the centre, or stay above ground and keep drifting south into the city.

The Plateau: the staircases and the colour