Around Montréal
The lake-dotted countryside around Montréal offers a
range of recuperative pleasures for the city-dweller, starting with
the largely wilderness stretch of the Outaouais to the west,
135km northwest of Montréal and extending along the north side of
the Ottawa River. Once the domain of Algonquin tribes, the region
was not developed until the 1800s, when it became an important
centre for the lumber industry. While the bulk of the activities in
the region are of an outdoorsy nature - hiking, canoeing,
snowmobiling, cycling and cross-country skiing - Montebello
and the lush farmland of the Cantons-de-l'Est (Eastern
Townships), east towards the US border, are worth visiting for
their atmosphere and historical heritage. Even Hull ,
formerly Ottawa's dull cousin, is now a draw thanks to the Musée
Canadien des Civilisations , Québec's finest museum.
Extending along the north side of the St Lawrence from the
Ottawa River to the Saguenay are the Laurentians - one of
the world's oldest ranges - where five hundred million years of
erosion have moulded it into a rippling landscape of undulating
hills and valleys. Immediately north of Montréal, the more
accessible Lower Laurentians are dotted with whitewashed
farm cottages and manor houses, but settlement in the Upper
Laurentians did not begin until the 1830s, when the
construction of the P'tit Train du Nord railway tracks let in the
mining and lumber industries. When the decline in both industries
left the area in a depression, salvation came in the form of the
recreational demands of the growing populace of Montréal. The
region is now one of North America's largest ski areas, with the
number of resorts increasing annually.
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