Take this self guided audio tour through Mile End to Outremont. This is a place where artisans and musicians live side by side with new families and old immigrants. It's a real, working neighbourhood where you're likely to see old men gossiping on the street corner the way they've done for fifty years, musicians hoisting cellos past the flower shops, Hassidic men in big fur hats carrying prayer shawls, and children yammering in three languages as they ride their scooters to neighbourhood schools. You'll find independent bookshops, vintage stores, funky young designers and artisanal bakers and chocolatiers. There's always a bench to pause and people-watch, and there are plenty of shade-trees, some bearing cherries and pears. This is one of the best neighbourhoods in Canada to feel how electric an urban space can be when it defies homogenization.
