Step out of Saint-Paul street's grey stone maze and the river opens up all at once: the moment Old Montreal stops being a set and becomes a port again. You walk east along the quays — Jacques-Cartier, King-Edward, the Clock Tower — freighters climbing the St. Lawrence on one side, the Bonsecours dome on the other.
Quais du Vieux-Port, entre la rue McGill et la Tour de l'Horloge, Montréal