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Once the site of duels, whippings and public hangings amidst the pedlars and hawkers who sold wares from the incoming ships, Place Royale is dominated by the neat classical facade of the Old Customs House . After a nine-day journey from Quebec City, Maisonneuve and his posse moored their boats at nearby Pointe-a-Calliere , now landlocked after the changes in the Vieux-Port. At the extremity of the point stands a monument to John Young , who was responsible for enlarging Montreal's port in the seventeenth century, an act that enabled the city to expand as a trading centre. The Musee d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de Montreal , 350 Place Royale (Sept-June Tues-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 11am-5pm; July & Aug Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat & Sun 11am-6pm; www.musee-pointe-a-calliere.qc.ca ; $9.50), occupies a splendid building on the Pointe and spreads underground below the Place Royale as far as the Old Customs House. The $27-million centre focuses on the development of Montreal as a meeting and trading place, as told through the archeological remains excavated here at the oldest part of the city. The high-tech audiovisual presentation is an excellent introduction to the museum, to archeology generally, and to that of Montreal in particular. Early remnants of the city include a cemetery from 1648, eighteenth-century water conduits and sewage systems, and walls dating from different centuries. The underground sections emerge into the Old Customs House, which holds a permanent exhibition on Montreal's his-tory, as well as temporary shows, all with an archeological theme. Directly behind the archeology museum is Place d'Youville , a charming public square that includes the Founder's Obelisk, a monument to, who else, the city founders. At the centre of the square, a red-brick fire station has been converted into the Centre d'Histoire de Montreal (mid-May to mid-Sept daily 10am-5pm; mid-Sept to mid-May Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chm ; $4.50). Dioramas of the city's history, from its days as an Iroquois settlement to its present expansions under and above ground, aren't terribly interesting, but are fine for a sketchy overview. If you enjoy kitsch, head up to the second floor, with its focus on the social side of Montreal living, replete with old magazines and department-store boxes. Kids will love the mock tram - enter it and images start running past the windows while a recording of a bus driver calls out stops in French and English. Temporary exhibitions, too, are usually quite stimulating. Ask for an English-language guidebook when you enter the museum. On the south side of the square, the Youville Stables , with its shady courtyard, gardens, restaurants and offices, was one of the first of the area's old buildings to be yuppified. The complex was in fact a warehouse - the stables were next door. Dating from 1825, the courtyard layout is a throwback to a design used by the earliest Montreal inhabitants as a protection against the hostilities of the Iroquois. From here, turn left onto rue St-Pierre and south past the renovated wing of the Hopital des Soeurs Grises, where the sick, old and orphaned of Ville-Marie were first cared for. Next door, the Musee Marc-Aurele Fortin at no. 118 (Tues-Sun 11am-5pm; $4) is a small gallery dedicated to a Quebecois painter whom the proprietors seem to believe was the greatest artist since the Impressionists. Unfortunately, Fortin's directionless experiments with various styles do nothing to justify the praise. His twee oils of pastoral Laurentian scenes convey no real depth of feeling and, though his paintings were bought by French-Canadians, they were hung in Montreal homes as decoration, not as great statements.
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