The unavoidable main artery of Montreal. For the real experience, ignore everything west of St. Laurent. It's a fairly generic downtown strip with the same stores you find everywhere else. If you head east of St. Laurent, it's far more interesting. The sleazy vibe between St. Laurent and St. Denis is like pre-Giuliani Times Square where junkies, punks, and prostitutes still reign supreme. Anyone who, like myself, has some kind of misplaced and confused nostalgia for pre-gentrified and Disneyfied Midtown should check it out. Go while it's still there since they've been threatening to transform the area into a generic tourist trap with the Quartier des Spectacles. Further east of St. Denis and it's the Village which is also a pretty interesting place worth checking out.