If there is one thing I was sad to leave behind when I moved from Montreal in 2018, it is the way the city’s landscape remains a little wild in places. I like this not only for the spaces themselves—which are more quiet and mysterious than you’d normally find in a big city—but also for the way they remind you that there is often more to urban landscapes than what you see at first glance. 

I am thinking in particular of a place on the southern end of Île Notre-Dame—the smaller of the two Expo 67 islands, located east of the Port of Montreal. Along with Île Ste-Hélène it makes up Parc Jean-Drapeau, a multi-use park whose historic landscape has been augmented with performance venues, recreational amenities, pavilions from Expo and sports facilities from the 1976 Olympics. Just east of where the bike path that ...