Montreal has excellent shopping facilities, from large department stores to small street markets, specialist fashion boutiques and discount retail outlets. Specialities include furs, Native American crafts, haute couture and antiques. The Canadian Guild of Crafts - Québec, 1460 rue Sherbrooke West, is a non-profit organisation that has a gallery of Inuit and Amerindian art and also sells works by member artisans. Other fine-art galleries can be found along the same street, in the vicinity of the Museum of Fine Arts.

One of the best concentrations of shops in Old Montreal is at the Marché Bonsecours, 350 rue St-Paul East, but there are all sorts of small shops on rue St-Paul and tucked away in the side streets. Downtown shopping is along the stretch of rue Ste-Catherine, between rue Guy and rue St-Urbain, and is a good place for cheap music and electronics, as well as fashions at all price ranges.

Upmarket department stores include Ogilvy, 1307 rue Ste-Catherine West, and Holt Renfrew, 1300 rue Sherbrooke West, while The Bay, 585 rue Ste-Catherine West, is aimed at the average consumer. Les Ailes de la Mode, adjacent to the Eaton Centre, fits somewhere in between.

Other shopping malls lining rue Ste-Catherine West and connected to the Underground City are Complexe Desjardins, Promenades Cathédrale, Place Montréal Trust, Place Ville Marie and Cours Mont-Royal.

Beyond Downtown, boulevard St-Laurent (the ‘Main') is a good place for ethnic and alternative shopping, while rue St-Denis and avenue Laurier are filled with chic boutiques and Québécois designers. The city's better-off anglophones shop along avenue Greene in Westmount, to the west of Downtown.

The city's two largest public markets are a bit further from Downtown. Marché Atwater is near the Lachine Canal, at 138 avenue Atwater, while Marché Jean-Talon is to the north, in the heart of Little Italy at 7075 avenue Casgrain. Both have wonderful produce (including the ubiquitous maple syrup), as well as butchers, bakers and speciality foods. They are open Monday to Wednesday 0800-1800 and Thursday and Friday 0800-2100. They close at 1700 on Saturday and Sunday.

Shops are generally open Monday to Wednesday 1000-1800, Thursday and Friday 1000-2100, Saturday 1000-1700 and Sunday 1200-1700. The 5% federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) and 7.5% provincial Quebec Sales Tax (QST) are levied on most products and services. Non-residents can no longer apply for a rebate of the GST portion on goods for use outside of Canada.

© 2006 Columbus Travel Publishing Ltd. Disclaimer

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