A fellow travel writer for the Telegraph recently asked, “Half Paris, half Brooklyn– is Montreal the perfect city?” And I think I’d have to agree.

I spent the last two weeks exploring Montreal, a city that wasn’t necessarily on my radar before moving to New York City, but has left such an impression on me that I’m already planning my next trip.

The flight from NYC to Montreal, the largest city in Canada’s Québec province, is just over an hour long. In the time it took me to finish an episode of Bourdain’s No Reservations and drink exactly 1.5 Diet Coke(s), I’ve found myself in a different country.

The fact that country was Canada was hard to believe because as Hannah Meltzer so aptly describes in her title, we might as well landed in the French version of Williamsburg.

I’ll share more on the blog in the coming week, but in the spirit of surprises, here are 5 things you may not have known about Montreal:

Montreal is an island. The Hochelaga Archipelago, also known as the Montreal Islands, sit at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. There are over two hundred islands, the largest being the Island of Montreal. (Mind blown? Yea, me too.)

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Make that poutine your routine. Montreal boasts the highest number of restaurants in North America, after New York City. Bon appétit!

Parlez-vous Franglais? Though Montreal is one of the five largest French speaking cities in the world, you’ll notice more of a hybrid lexicon. (C’est amazing, non?) About 60 percent of the population speaks French while 20 percent are also fluent in English. But unlike France, you won’t offend people if you first greet them in English.

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Calling all creatives. Montreal is home to Arcade Fire, Celine Dion, AND Cirque du Soleil. Not fair right? The city is especially a hotbed for tech + creativity. On any given night, you can enjoy both traditional art galleries, live music shows, and a series of video and sound projections beamed along the sides of old historic buildings.

There’s an underground city. Okay, it’s more like a series of interconnected office towers, hotels, shopping centers and added residential complexes. But this underground network, also called RESO or La Ville Souterraine, is particularly useful for Montreal’s long, brutal winters.

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So before you go on thinking Montreal is perfect (it almost is) I’ll have to remind you that it rains on average every month and snows about 60 days a year. During this time,  well over half a million citizens are estimated to use the Underground City every day.

Trishna Patel aka Trishlist is a cultural curator, photographer, and host specializing in travel and the human experience. Follow her latest adventures as she explores New York City and beyond.