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Mike and I are just back from a fun and exhausting weekend in Montreal so I’ll be blogging about the city’s decorating and design scene all this week. I thought I’d kick things off with a kind of overview to give you some of the flavour of the place.

One thing we noticed over and over was how colourful the city is. Balconies, fire escapes, roofs and railings are often dressed-up in cheery hues. I loved the facade, below centre, with blue eyes and gratuitous metal eyebrows and mustache — how fabulous!

We were happily surprised to see many Canadian maple leafs, above on a balcony alongside a fleur-de-lis and below on a beautiful mailbox the likes of which I’ve never seen in Toronto.

Right now, Montreal is promoting its museum district with a fun campaign called Project Orign’Art: two-dimensional moose sport quotes from famous artists in French on one side and English on the other: my favorite was a line from the painter Edward Hopper who apparently said, “If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.”

And speaking of language, unlike on previous trips where Mike and I experienced a certain amount of attitude for not speaking French, this time around we were treated extraordinarily well with nary a bad encounter. The city seems to have outgrown some of its linguistic stresses and we found people on the streets and service in the shops to be nothing but helpful.

We encountered lots of storefronts where colour was clearly a primary consideration. Not far from our flat in the Plateau district was Curio-Cité (81 Avenue du Mont-Royal Ouest), above, a design-focused shop selling all manner of lighting, kitchen, garden and organizing gadgets. Wouldn’t you want to go in and browse based on the storefront alone?

On Rue Notre Dame Ouest we were dazzled by Leo Victor, below, a modern furnishings boutique where colour is the undisputed star of the show. Inside, technicolour vignettes push the saturation meter to its limit. Those made-in-Quebec Solair chairs are $100 each, $20 cheaper than here in Toronto.

On Rue Amherst, Montreal’s mid-century furniture stroll, we were impressed by Spoutnik‘s eye-popping mix of neon green, red, black and white. Owner Sylvie Rochon’s furnishings and vignettes were no less impressive (more on this later).

Flowers are another important part of Montreal’s colourscape. Decks and balconies are frequently dressed up with lovingly composed flower boxes and even Montreal’s sidewalk planters are stylish with their triangular, bent metal legs. Temporary, tented garden kiosks, like the one at Atwater Market, below right, have sprung up for the season, most often near Metro stations.

At Ristorante Bice (1504 Sherbrooke Street) the scheme in the tented patio is green and white thanks to a spectacular living wall and more Moooi Random Lights than I’ve ever seen in one place. Very chic, just like the rest of the city as you’ll see here on styleNorth all this week.