Westmount is the other hill — Mont-Royal's quieter, richer twin to the southwest, an independent city on its own slope that has never quite joined Montreal in spirit. It rewards a walk the way a private garden does: not with spectacle, but with the slow pleasure of stone, ivy, old trees and the view kept for the few who climbed.
About four and a half kilometres, with a real ascent, best in the afternoon. Start on Greene Avenue, the discreet commercial hill of galleries and antique shops, then cross to Westmount Park — the duck pond, the stream, and the small glass conservatory that stays warm all winter. The Tudor library beside it has been lending books since 1899.
Then climb. The mansions of upper Westmount rise in tiers above Sherbrooke, grander with every street, until the houses give way to Summit Woods — real forest, a bird sanctuary, loud with migrants in spring. The lookout on Summit Circle is the payoff, the city laid out from a hill most visitors never find. Down to Vendôme from there.
