North America

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Did you solve the Montreal Mystery in my last blog post? Did you guess which Montreal mansion was the location for our decadent brunch?

Plaudits to Steph Sirois (@StefS31) and Linda Coffin who answered correctly that the mysterious Montreal mansion in the video is Mount Stephen Club! Both Steph and Linda have personal connections to the property, one from college reasearch and the other from growing up two blocks away... Bravo, Montrealophiles! (Shoot me your mailing addresses, and a prize will help you celebrate your smarts.)

The Mount Stephen Club occupies the late 19th century mansion of George Stephen, the co-founder of Canadian Pacific Railway. This extravagant home in Montreal's Golden Square Mile was architecturally inspired Italian Renaissance palaces. The interior is extravagantly finished in detailed Cuban mahogany, English walnut and exotic woods and boasts many marble mantles, stained glass glass windows, and grand staircase fit for royalty.

My bride and I escaped to Montreal, QC and environs this weekend to catch up with good fiends, Fabrice and Veronique.We stayed in their spectacular, almost-complete new home located about ten minutes east from Montreal. In the country! How many cities offer the bounty of culinary, cultural and professional opportunities of Montreal, with the luxury of country living only ten minutes away?

Montreal, Canada (Photo credit: Michel Filion)

Kristin Kizer posted a tidy sumary of Montreal's most noteworthy landmarks. (Did you know there's also a Montreal, Missouri and a Montreal, Wisconsin? We'll check them out another day. Kizer's landmarks are in Montreal, Canada, the largest city in Quebec province.) Just over an hour north of my home in Essex, New York, Montreal is an alluring and convenient destination for my wife and me. When we want a change from the Adirondacks' Champlain Valley, we head north for world class dining, concerts, art exhibitions, accommodations and cultural outings. We feel fortunate to live close enough to Montreal that we can meet friends for dinner or a concert and still drive home to sleep. But even if you live farther afield, check out these top Montreal landmarks to discover what you've been missing.