Montréal

Montréal is the city that figured out how to be both European and North American without becoming either — French-speaking in its bones, bilingual in practice, with a food scene that reflects the collision of Quebec culinary tradition (poutine, smoked meat, tourtière) and the wave of immigrant communities that have made the Plateau and Mile End two of the most interesting neighborhoods in North America. The Old Port is genuinely medieval by North American standards; the underground city (RÉSO) is the largest underground shopping complex in the world; and the summer festival calendar (Jazz Festival, Just for Laughs, Osheaga) fills the city from June through August. The winters are severe and glorious in equal measure: the city invented the tunnel network, the ice skating rinks, and the philosophy that weather is only a problem if you pretend it isn't.