Business in Montreal

The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth is in a very convenient location for a business trip. It is in the business district, on a major road and the train and subway stations, as well as a huge shopping mall, are connected underground.The one advantage of chain hotels is that you have some idea of what you will get before you ever arrive. I have stayed at other Fairmont chain hotels and this one was no different. The hotel is quite large and plush in a rather old fashioned luxury hotel type of way. When you enter either door, the reception area is not immediately within view, but the doormen and porters quickly direct you to the reception desk. Being in Montreal, the staff first greet you in French, but they are all bilingual. My French must have an obvious English accent since many of the staff switched to speaking English once they heard me speak.I had a room with a king bed. The special rate I received was $165 for the week night and $185 for the weekend. The room was reasonably spacious with room for a TV and mini bar cabinet, desk, and chair, large armchair and ottoman and space left over to set up a luggage stand. The bathroom was rather tiny. I find most hotels do not give you much shelf or counter space in the bathroom and this was no exception. Nice smelling shampoo, conditioner, bath gel and lotion were provided. They had a hairdryer, but no bathrobe or slippers.The bed was very comfortable and the room was clean. You can request turn down service in the evening. My room was away from the elevators, in the middle of a long hallway facing the main street. It proved to be a quiet room.Being there on business meant I did not get much opportunity to explore the hotel. There is a spa, pool and gym which I did not use. I had a late meal in the bistro, Montreal, and a lunch in the Voyageur bar. Both meals were fairly good but not cheap. Soup was $7 and a sandwich $14 at the Voyageur. The very top end restaurant, the Beaver Club, is located on the ground floor.The hotel room is set up for Internet, but I used the business centre located in the lower lobby. It costs $4 for each 15 minutes on the Internet, but when I did not take the full 15 minutes, they waived any charge.The staff are good at anticipating your needs. Taxis are hailed before you even ask, and at check out someone was immediately on hand to see if I wanted to store my luggage until later.The hotel is also mid-distance, about 5 blocks, to the edge of Vieux Montreal and about 5 blocks the other way to Sherbrooke Street, which has places of interest and a high end shopping areas.I would recommend this for business travelers, but for pleasure, I prefer Vieux Montreal hotels.

Montreal's Museé des Beaux-Arts is housed in two buildings connected by an underground passage way. The main entrance is in the newer building. Adult admission of $15 gets you into all the special exhibits as well as a visit to the permanent collection.Despite having two buildings, at any given time, the Museé is only able to display part of its collection devoted to Canadian and international artists. Like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museé's collection ranges from contemporary to ancient artworks from North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is worthwhile to make repeated visits as the exhibitions change.The older neoClassical building houses special exhibits. When I visited, the treasures from the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg were on display. The special exhibit emphasized Catherine the Great's artistic interests and the opulence of her court. The ground floor has a grand staircase in the center. At the top of the staircase, sat her gold carriage making a very impressive start to the exhibit. Audio guides were offered as part of the exhibit but there were plenty of descriptive cards for the art and artifacts, and how they connected to Catherine the Great and her court. Viewing the number of works painted by famous artists at Catherine the Great's request tells you a lot about the wealth of the Russian court at that time and the connection Catherine the Great had to artists and thinkers. The exhibit was very popular. I went on a Tuesday at lunchtime and it was very crowded.Luckily, the permanent collection was not crowded with people. The newer building is very visitor friendly with low rise stairs which gently slope between the floors and a floor plan that takes you in a roughly circular tour through the collection. There are some old masters works in the upper levels and more contemporary Canadian works in the lower levels, but the Museé is not strictly organized according to culture and era. For example, works by contemporary Canadian artist, Nicolas Baier, were scattered throughout making an interesting opportunity to compare and contrast.The second level of the new building also houses a gift shop with lots of lovely items, and an extensive selection of art books and prints. There is also a cafe which gets good reviews and was full of contented looking diners during the lunch hour and afternoon I was there.The Museé can be viewed in a couple of hours, making it a pleasant visit for anyone interested in art. It is closed on Mondays. If you want to check the website to see what is currently on display: http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/musee/index.html