Keep It a Secret

Late spring, late Saturday night Montreal fizzles over the water. We're less than a month away from Grand-Prix and the hotels of the city are filling up. Out there, on Saint-Laurent Boulevard and touristy Crescent Street, nightclubs bang with music and people. From my vantage point by the Lachine Canal in the Ville-Émard neighbourhood, the skyscrapers are close enough to be pretty and far enough to preserve a nearly idyllic night. It's quiet here, but the city's energy courses through "le canal de Lachine". I'm alone atop a picnic table, staring up at the Big Dipper from underneath evergreen trees and thinking about how the water links to the Atlantic. A narrow Tiffany blue bridge leads to the trendy but gentrified Saint-Henri neighbourhood.

During the day, the grassy length of the canal welcomes a symphony of joggers, bikers, miscellaneous fitness enthusiasts, dog walkers and couples. Paralleling the canal itself is a bike path that leads straight to the Old Port of Montreal. For only $2.50 CDN, you could borrow a Bixi (bicycle + taxi) and ride the small hills and curves all the way there. You could rent a kayak or paddleboard, do your groceries at the Atwater market, and eat at one of the stylish shabby-chic restaurants on rue Notre-Dame.

But I am in Ville-Émard. A 15 minute drive from the Old Port, you could still see downtown from this working-class district tucked between newly cool Verdun and suburban LaSalle. Despite new crops of condos, the place feels almost anachronistic. Video 3-D, a video rental store, boasts a sign straight out of the 80's and offers a service better suited to that decade as well. It's not the only business here that feels stuck in another time. For all the mom and pop shops and dépanneurs - little convenience stores on every corner - there is something crude about this part of town. Massage parlors with cheap, mismatched curtains shut tight over old bay windows. Graffiti. Empty diners. The occasional group of high schoolers out late, hanging-out. If Ville-Émard were a cocktail, it would be equal parts urban and suburban, nature and grit.

The Lachine Canal is a Canadian historic site, but up by Ville-Émard it feels private and forgotten by visitors. After a night of partying, it's a place to go to reflect alone, sober up, and listen to the waves - or to bring a date. The trees provide privacy and an abundance of empty picnic tables create the ideal make-out spot. This is Montreal's lovers' lane, but keep it a secret.