Date Night Ideas in Montreal

Setup.A fare each, comfortable shoes, and a rainy or freezing afternoon. Start at Peel station on the Green Line and avoid rush hour so you can stand and stare without being in anyone's way.

1. At Peel, hunt for Jean-Paul Mousseau's big ceramic circles set into the walls and floors, mostly oranges and blues. Each of you picks a favorite before the next train comes.
2. Ride the Green Line toward Honoré-Beaugrand to Place-des-Arts and find Frédéric Back's backlit stained glass mural on the history of music in Montreal, the first artwork ever commissioned for the Métro.
3. Carry on to Berri-UQAM, where the Green, Orange and Yellow lines meet, and look up for the big stained glass mural honoring the city's founders, hung over the Green Line tunnel.
4. Take the Orange Line one stop to Champ-de-Mars. Marcelle Ferron's stained glass lights the mezzanine; it was one of the first abstract works the Métro commissioned.
5. Leave toward City Hall and walk down into Old Montreal for whatever comes next.

Talk about:If we could commission one piece of art for the station we use most, what would it show?

Setup.Check tonight's sunset time and the shrine's hours. A light layer and something to sit on if the stone is cold. Take transit; parking there is paid.

1. Arrive about 45 minutes before sunset and climb the outdoor staircase together. Two parallel concrete flights of 283 steps flank a wooden center flight of 99 steps reserved for pilgrims who climb on their knees, so leave that one to them.
2. Go inside first while the doors are open. Entry is free, and the dome overhead is the largest church dome in Canada.
3. Come back out, pick a wide step facing the skyline, and settle in.
4. Stay until the sky goes dark and the city lights come on, then walk down slowly.

Talk about:What is something you worked your way up to, slowly, that turned out to be worth it?

Setup.Two bikes (your own or Bixi), a tote or small cooler bag, a blanket. A warm, dry day between spring and fall.

1. Start at the Old Port end of the canal and ride west on the path along the water.
2. Count the locks as you go; there are five on the canal, two of them at the Old Port.
3. Lock up at Atwater Market, right by the canal in Saint-Henri. Split up and each buy two picnic things without showing the other.
4. Spread the blanket on the canal bank and do the big reveal.
5. Energy left? Keep riding west toward Lachine and the lake, or turn around and cruise home.

Talk about:If we lived on a boat on this canal for one summer, what would we argue about first?

Setup.A summer day, the shuttle schedule checked, comfortable shoes, water and a snack.

1. Board at the Jacques-Cartier Pier in the Old Port and stand at the rail for the crossing.
2. Walk to Alexander Calder's Trois disques, one of about ten public artworks on the island, many of them gifts from countries that took part in Expo 67.
3. Visit the Biosphère, the geodesic dome that was the US pavilion at Expo 67 and is now an environment museum. It charges admission, so check hours and prices before you go.
4. Wander the trails on Mont Boullé up to the lookout at the Tour de Lévis.
5. Ride the Yellow Line home from Jean-Drapeau station.

Talk about:Expo 67 was about imagining the future. What did you picture your life looking like by now, and what surprised you?

Setup.A cold, clear afternoon. Warm layers, a thermos of hot chocolate, and your own skates or money for rentals.

1. Check the conditions tracker on the Les amis de la montagne site before you head up; it shows what is open.
2. Get to Beaver Lake and lace up at the free refrigerated rink. Rentals are at the counter inside the Beaver Lake Pavilion.
3. Skate until someone's toes go numb. Hold hands for at least one lap, wobbles and all.
4. Take a run or two on the park's snow tubing slope, then share the thermos on a bench.

Talk about:What winter memory from when you were small would you most like to recreate with me?

Setup.A gray or wet day, a few dollars for the voluntary contribution, and no plan beyond three floors. Check hours before you go; it is closed some days of the week.

1. Walk onto the McGill campus from Sherbrooke Street and stop outside to take in the building, an unusual late Greek Revival design from 1882, and the fossils in the Mineralogy Garden.
2. Head up to the second floor for Back to the Sea, on animals that moved from water to land and back again, then the Curiosity Cabinet with its extinct Carolina parakeet.
3. Stay on that floor for the shell collection, the minerals and the Japanese sea crab, the largest crab species in the world. Each of you picks the one specimen you would smuggle home.
4. Third floor: the World Cultures gallery and the Ancient Egypt collection on funerary rites and mummification. Look around from up here too; it has the best views of the building itself.
5. Walk back out and trade your smuggling picks over something warm nearby.

Talk about:If a museum kept one object from our life together for the next hundred years, what should it be?

Setup.A real diner, booths, vinyl seats, a paper menu. Cash or card.

1. Sit in a booth, not at the counter.
2. Order one savoury and one sweet to share.
3. Stay through three coffee refills.
4. Tip 20%.

Setup.A baseball, basketball, hockey, or football game. Cheap seats, they are cheap for a reason and that's fine.

1. Get there 30 minutes before first pitch.
2. Hot dog and a drink each.
3. Stay through the seventh-inning stretch.
4. Walk to a bar near the stadium afterwards.

Setup.A pub with a weekly quiz night. Most pubs run them, usually free entry.

1. Order food before the quiz starts. Eating mid-quiz is hard.
2. Pick a team name. Submit it confidently.
3. Argue every contested answer.
4. Stay for the prize round even if you cannot win.

Setup.A pumpkin patch (October only). Boots, it gets muddy.

1. Walk the whole patch before picking.
2. Hayride if available.
3. Carve at home that evening.

Setup.An antiquarian or used bookshop in a literary city. Cash for small purchases. A budget.

1. Each picks the section they would never otherwise visit.
2. Spend 30 minutes there. Pick one book.
3. Reveal at the till.
4. Read at a café for 30 minutes before walking on.

Setup.A working sugar shack in season (Feb–April). Layers, they are cold.

1. Tour the boiling room with the producer.
2. Eat tire-d'érable (maple taffy on snow).
3. Buy a small tin to take home.

Setup.An indoor skydiving facility. Closed-toe shoes, comfortable clothes.

1. Watch the safety video twice, listen.
2. First flight is the hard one.
3. Second flight, you actually look around.

Setup.A beach with legal bonfire pits, most coastal cities have at least a few. Wood, kindling, a lighter, marshmallows on sticks.

1. Arrive before sunset. Build a small fire.
2. Eat dinner around the fire, sandwiches or cooked-on-stick foods.
3. Marshmallows for dessert.
4. Put the fire out fully before leaving, beach rules matter.

Setup.Two bikes (or scooters/skateboards). Lights and helmets non-negotiable. A 24-hour stop pre-mapped.

1. Leave after midnight. The first 10 minutes feel weird; that goes.
2. Pick streets you would never bike during the day.
3. Stop somewhere unexpected and lie on the ground for two minutes.
4. End at the 24-hour spot for the slowest possible coffee.

Setup.A salsa, bachata, or kizomba social. Dress for dancing, shoes that pivot, layers for sweat.

1. Arrive after the lesson but before the social peaks.
2. Dance every other song. Rest between.
3. Drink water, most clubs sell it.
4. Walk for 20 minutes home before transport.

Setup.Snorkel, mask, fins each (rentals are fine). A reef with shore access or a short boat.

1. Apply reef-safe sunscreen.
2. Float on the surface, breathe through the snorkel slowly.
3. Hand-signal anything cool to the other.

Setup.Whatever you were going to eat. One candle. A drawer in a different room.

1. Cook your usual dinner, no need to be fancy.
2. Both phones into the drawer. Close the drawer. Walk away.
3. Light the candle. Sit. Eat slower than usual.
4. Stay at the table after the food. Do not get up to clean.

Talk about:What is something you have been thinking about that you have not told me yet?