Not too many tourists venture north and east of Parc du Mont-Royal but the primarily residential neighborhoods of Côte-des-Neiges and the Town of Mount Royal (usually just called TMR) have much to offer.
One of Montréal's most-visited sites—the Oratoire St-Joseph (St. Joseph's Oratory)—sits atop the northern slope of Mont-Royal, dominating the surrounding neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges. More than 2 million people of all faiths visit the shrine every year. The most devout pilgrims climb the staircase leading to the main door on their knees, pausing on each of its 99 steps to pray.
Even without the Oratoire (as well as the Cimetière de Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, another site worth seeing), Côte-des-Neiges is a district worth visiting. It's also an area where the dominant languages are neither English nor French.
It's largely working-class immigrants who live here—Filipino, Latin American, Southeast Asian, West Indian, Arab, Jewish, Chinese, and most recently people from Eastern Europe and Africa. It's also home to a sizable number of students, many of whom attend the Université de Montréal, as well as other smaller surrounding colleges and universities.
As a result, if you're looking for inexpensive, authentic world cuisine, there's no better place in Montréal to come to than Côte-des-Neiges. It’s teeming with ethnic shops and restaurants—Thai, Russian, Korean, Indian, Peruvian, Filipino, and more.
