Montérégie

Driving through the Montérégie two unusual geographical features will strike you:

The farmland is divided into long, thin strips, rather than large squares like everywhere else in North America. This is a legacy of Quebec's French colonial past. Farmhouses were built at the edges of these strips, along rows called "rangs".

The otherwise completely flat region has isolated mountains popping out of the ground at near regular intervals. This is what gives the region its name "Mountain region". One of the prettiest is Mont-Saint-Hilaire; its mixture of mountain, river, forest, and farms make it picturesque, especially when the leaves change colour in October. There are paths to go hiking on the mountain.

A few other features of Montérégie are pleasant to visit on a daytrip from Montreal:

Fort Coteau-du-Lac

Ruins of a fort along the St-Lawrence River.