Some go on their own, others travel with me. I’ve been on the move in one form or another since early spring!

Instead of writing longer articles, I’ve been posting shorter bits of info more often on Facebook - and your response has been terrific.

So effective immediately, I’m switching formats. Please join me on the streets of Montreal via Facebook.

Follow my trips, meet clients, learn about upcoming events, my favorite restos, new shops, great art and design.

You’ll still find in-depth tour information here at the website - plus more than a year’s worth of blog archives.

So for more Montreal, more of the time, go to the Montreal by Design Facebook page, and click on “Like”.  You’ll get the inside scoop every day.

And pass the word!  I thank you - and your friends will thank you, too.

Join us for four days of active exploration in Montréal with an insider at your side!

At the heart of our itinerary was the Tour de l’Ile, the greatest cycling event in Canada. We joined riders of all ages and fitness levels, as we rode 50 k (about 30 miles) and discovered many areas of the city in this day long event.

We also rode Un Tour  la Nuit - a 12 mile evening ride under the city lights.  What fun!

When we weren’t riding, we delved into the city’s rich history, sampled international cuisine, viewed Canadian art , and enjoyed scenic vistas and streetside cafés.

Travelers’ comments:

Thanks so much for the great trip, Karen!

Perfection: redefined.

We did a week’s worth of activities in only 3 1/2 days.  Yet the visit felt leisurely.

I’m so glad I rode!

The trip was such a great success, that we’re going to do it again next year: June 3-6, 2011!

What’s special about this trip

• Experience Montréal life with an insider at your side. Karen Kane regularly leads tours to Montreal and writes about the city’s food and culture. She’ll introduce you to hidden corners and neighborhood haunts - making it easy to actively engage with Montrealers and their culture.

• Participate in two events of the Montréal Bike Fest, a citywide celebration of the bicycle.  Tour la Nuit is a fun, car-free bike ride along some of the city’s loveliest streets under the lights.  The Tour de l’Ile is a noncompetitive all day ride through the streets of Montreal.

• Walking, we’ll explore several areas of the city in depth - examining Montréal’s Old World roots and its modern joie de vivre as we go.

• Our small group - 2-4 people, each with a single room - gives you your own space, while allowing opportunities for meaningful connections and stimulating conversations.

• Bike Fest registration, bicycle rentals, and meals are included in the price of the trip. All you need to do is arrive and enjoy!

A sample day

9:00-12:00. Arrive Montréal. Check into your cozy room and unpack. Our base is a lovely B&B in the vibrant Plateau quartier. Then we’ll make sure our bikes are ready for the weekend.

12:00 - 1:30. We’ll take the Métro to Old Montréal - the French quarter - for a delicious lunch at a bustling café, and some wonderful views.

1:30 - 5:00. We’ll wander the cobblestoned streets of Old Montréal.  This area of Montréal is the city’s oldest - and we’ll learn about its past at Musée Point-à-Caillère. We’ll also take in 17th century architecture, modern galleries, and explore the walking path that borders the city’s vibrant waterfront.

5:00 - 8:00. Fortified by a light dinner (and with a few snacks for the road), we’ll get ready to see the city by bike.

8:00 - 10:00. We’ll join thousands of Montrealers for the Tour la Nuit, a car-free bike ride along some of the city’s loveliest streets under the lights. The event is about 12 miles long, and is a great family affair.  It starts a short distance from our lodging.

Trip leader
Karen Kane owns Montréal by Design, a travel consulting service that specializes in fantastic trips to Montréal. Her work has been recognized by the NY Times, LA Times, Boston Globe, Montréal Gazette, Houston Chronicle, Delta Sky Magazine, and National Public Radio.

What’s included
• 4 days and 3 nights in Montréal
• Your own room in a delightful three-star B&B
• Daily breakfast, four inspirational lunches, and three fantastic group dinners
• Bike rentals
• Guided walks that get you off the beaten path
• A personalized notebook that puts the city in context historically and culturally
• Montréal museum and métro tickets
• Recommendations for and help arranging optional activities, including jazz clubs, a cooking class, spa appointment and the like

Not included
• Transportation to Montréal, airport transfers
• Personal expenses
• Passports and travel insurance

Cost and registration
Cost is $1560 per person, single occupancy, if registered before May 1, 2010. Cost is $1,690 after May 1.
Registration is on a first come, first served basis, and maximum group size is 4. A deposit of $500 is required to reserve your place in The Tour de Montréal.

Are you interested?
To register, or for a detailed itinerary, contact Karen Kane, at 800 430 5436, or email karen@montrealbydesign.com.

Finally, more than a year later, I’ve met its creator, Maryline Scaviner, who has created chandeliers for kitchens, dining rooms, restaurants, and even a prestigious French aperitif.

Maryline built her first chandelier five years ago. Recently arrived in Montreal from Africa, and working as an interior designer, she missed the lush colors of the distant continent. When she couldn’t find a lighting fixture that pleased her, she created one.

Another designer saw it, asked her to build one, and her company, Monts et Cristaux, was born.

Then as now, Maryline sees each project as a chance to explore. “I build according to inspiration,” she says.

Slim and smiling in black boots and fine, silver hair, Maryline showed me the beginnings of a traditional chandelier. Hanging in the corner of her rue Bellechase atelier is a silver hook fastened to a fist-sized metal disc, and a slender wand with a knob at the bottom.

Within days, these meager beginnings would be hidden beneath a center column, from which she would add a half dozen upswept arms, tapered columns holding clear bulbs, and graceful sweeps of crystal pendants, beads and attenuated drops.

Color comes next. It is Maryline’s muse as she hand-dyes European crystal to match a room’s decor. A striking green chandelier called “Le Vert” contains a multitude of beaded ropes that glimmer as they spill from bobeches - patterned glass bowls that hold the lamps. Small pearls stud the ropes, and reflect soft white light, in contrast to the shimmering chartreuse pendants suspended below them.

Where the preferred style is modern, materials lean toward industrial: chainmail, recycled aluminum, LED lights. Forms are crisp and linear - a column of glittering crystal, for instance, suspended from a laser-cut aluminum crown and illuminated from within by a round white bulb.

This personalized approach to lighting makes Maryline the go-to person for interior decorators throughout North America. Her clients live as far away as Florida and British Columbia.

In the dining room of Le Cosmos, a Quebec restaurant and bar, she strung 1000 crystals of different sizes and colors around an antique Spanish chandelier.

To pay homage to Andy Warhol, she created five chandeliers, each three feet wide and five feet tall, dripping with wooden beads and metal chains painted fuschia, orange, purple, turquoise.

“Crystal is a noble material,” says Maryline. But what I see is dazzling color, and unexpected beauty.

Have you seen Maryline’s work? Tell us what you think!

Tall windows define the front of the restaurant, the tiled back wall streams with water. The bar, suffused in red light, runs from front to back. The place is packed with square tables, leather-backed chairs, and, on that Friday night, the nervous energy of young, well-dressed urbanites.

The air throbbed as the DJ, wearing a tuque, goggles and tattoos, cued up the Rolling Stones, followed by the Tragically Hip. Waiting for our table, I smelled oysters.

The food at Méchant Boeuf is French brasserie fare - raw bar, hanger steak, grilled salmon - with a nod to pub food, including burgers and a poutine made with braised pork and Canadian Migneron cheese.

My salad of arugula and goat cheese was decidedly French: half inch slabs of creamy chèvre stacked between rounds of yellow and red beet made a delightful and delicious sculpture.

Eating required deconstruction; in the process I slathered cheese on slices of fresh crusty baguette. The loose pile of peppery greens with grape tomatoes and grated carrot, paired with a glass of Chilean cab, left me satiated, and full.

The burgers at Méchant Boeuf are said to be the best in town, and Ken couldn’t resist. The half pound of charbroiled beef arrived nicely pink at the center (even though our server told us they’re not technically allowed to serve beef rare).

The juicy meat was covered with blue cheese, gruyère, caramelized onion, and two substantial slices of bacon. A warm onion roll contained the dense, smokey concoction. An English pint of Tetley’s cream ale, with notes of caramel and a hoppy finish, was exemplary at its side.

Good as it was, the search for the city’s best burger continues…

Do you have a favorite? Let us know!

What a great gift for your favorite chocolate lover, and at $14.95, it’s outrageously affordable!

With two restaurants, a bar and, for added romance, a poet as a namesake, the Nelligan is the perfect place to cocoon.

I spent 24 hours at the Nelligan - read about my micro-vacation, including the best eggs benedict I’ve ever eaten, in this week’s Seven Days.

Here are a few other ideas:

Old Montreal
Ateliers et Saveurs, 444 Rue St-François-Xavier. Gift certificates for wine tastings, cooking and cocktail classes, $20 - $75

Verses Restaurant, 100 Rue St-Paul Ouest. Gift certificates for weekend brunch, $40

PLATEAU-MONT-ROYAL
La Vieille Europe, 3855 Bd St-Laurent. Italian panettone and panforte; German gluhwein, marzipan, stollen; Christmas pudding, mincemeat, and many other Old World holiday foods. Most $5-$15

Epicérie Entrepôt, 4001 Bd St-Laurent. Bulk groceries, including organic products and Portuguese specialties, at reduced prices

Le Canard Libéré, 4396 Bd St-Laurent. Everything duck, including pâté, rillettes, foie gras and tubs of rendered duck fat, from $10

Espace Nomad, 4650 Bd St-Laurent. Gift certificates for 7-step Chocobliss facial ($95), and skin products made with maple syrup, fruits, vegetables and chocolate ($20 - $40)

And finally, a view more food treats from this week’s Voir.

Have you found a fabulous treat or source? Tell us about it!

Then, a few weeks ago, I went to Café Griffintown to meet a friend and listen to live jazz. I liked the ambiance - a long, narrow space with brick walls, wooden floors, and lots of regulars - but I didn’t expect much, foodwise, until my friend told me the menu was based on ingredients from Atwater Market.

I ordered the Griffintown Burger - 50% beef, 25% lamb and 25% duck, charbroiled in the open kitchen at the back of the café. The combination of ingredients raised my spirits - which then fell when I wasn’t asked how I wanted my burger cooked (rare is my default position).

Fearing the worst, I sipped my Argentinean malbec and mentally tweeted the gods of fairness: Please, not another flat, dry disappointment.

They must have been listening.

The burger was cooked through, with no pink that I could see in the dim light. But it was plump - a good sign - and surprisingly, wonderfully, tender. The flavor was primarily beef - not bland factory farmed beef, but closer to the round, fresh flavor of grass fed Scottish Highland - enhanced by the earthy sweetness of the lamb and duck. The lightly toasted eggy bun complemented the meat perfectly.

Lettuce, onion and a slice of tomato served with the burger were substantial, though not so much that they made holding it unwieldy. A red condiment I thought was ketchup turned out to be a smoky concoction that overwhelmed the bite I put it on.

Of the soup, salad and chips w/salsa offered with the burger, I chose the salad, a tidy pile of mixed greens with lots of mustard on the dressing. The meal was delicious and filling, and at $14, a good value.

Then came the value-add: live jazz.

The One Two Trio that plays standards on Thursday nights is actually a quintet, composed of Griffintown owner Mark Peetsma (bass), artist Cheryl Braganza (piano), and Roger Walls, formally a member of the Duke Ellington orchestra (trumpet). Eloi Bertholet and Oscar Kalderone play the regular drum kit and djimbe respectively.

I stayed into the second set, swaying in my seat as the musicians riffed and swung, showing obvious joy in delivering familiar music in their own way.

My search for the best burger in Montreal continues.  But, all things considered, Griffintown is at the top of my list.

1378 Notre Dame Ouest @ rue de la Montagne

I’ve been wandering Mile End lately, with and without clients.  I love that it’s an interesting mix of architecture, commerce, art and people.

These photos take you to the neighborhood in ways my descriptions just can’t.  I’ll be back with a few reviews, but in the meantime, merci mille fois - a thousand thank yous - to Cynthia Hartnett for sharing these photos (which I have regrettably cropped to fit the blog format.)

I found the show beautiful, mysterious, intricately designed and socially relevant - a curious combination of abstract and real.

The first installation, Data Zone, consists of three large white tables imbedded with Petri dishes. The “cultures” are actually videos, where dark human figures, reduced and stripped of physical characteristics, resemble strings of bacteria. The figures/strings move in intricate patterns across an illuminated white field.

Each dish seemed to contain a kind of modern dance where I reveled in the beauty of the movement, and searched in vain for a narrative. Rovner is a trained dancer, and the choreography of her “data” is both mind-boggling (the complexity of the patterns suggest that they are created by computer programs) and meditative.

The human forms at the foundation of Rovner’s work are part of the exhibit. I was struck by the amount of humanity the anonymous figures retain when reduced from real life men and women with identifying characteristics.

These figures are superimposed (and always exquisitely lit) on stone sculpture, canvas, notebooks, and four floor-to-ceiling screens. While we don’t see people, the installations feel personal. The line between real and abstract is not clear.

The show also contains continuous screenings of Rovner’s more overtly political works, in which she creates large-scale installations, one on the border of Israel and Lebanon, and the other using 60 tons of white building stone from the remains of Palestinian and Israeli homes.

Particles of Reality ends this weekend. Hurry to see it before it goes.

Have you seen the show? Tell us what you think!

If you go…

451 Rue St-Jean, at St-Sacrement, M: Place d’Armes
Open W-F noon-7pm, Sat and Sun 11am-6pm