The great building at the head of the convivial Place Jacques Cartier is the giant and glorious Hôtel de Ville.

It's Montreal's City Hall, built in the 1870s in the Second French Empire-style and it bursts with opulence inside. These are mostly much newer and Beaux-Arts style, thanks to a fire in 1922 and bust with marble, bronze and chandeliers.

It's all worth a look though and the Hall of Honour (Mon–Fri 8am–5pm) and often has free exhibition on. It's also from here that free one-hour guided tours go.

One of the most famous events at City Hall was the proclamation of “Vive le Québec libre!” (long live free Quebec!) by French President de Gaulle from a second-floor balcony during Expo '67, which helped usher in a decade of friction and separatist politics and maybe led to French Presidents being largely silent on the matter since.

Champs-de-Mars