The summer season is in full swing in Montreal, which welcomes approximately 11 million visitors each year. With a travel guide in hand or accompanied by a certified tourist guide, they walk the streets of the metropolis to discover all its attractions. But who are these enthusiasts who tell the story of the city and promote it to travelers? The duty met two of them. First article in a series of five on tourism in Montreal.
“In front of you, of course, is the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. You’ll see, the interior is very much inspired by the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris,” Pierre Tomaszewski tells the small group of nine French people forming a semicircle around him. His deep voice dissipates the ambient hubbub of the popular Place d’Armes a few steps away, the tour guide captures the visitors’ full attention in a matter of seconds. In the next hour, he will take them to discover other must-see sites in Old Montreal: City Hall, Bonsecours Market and the Bank of Montreal building.
Pierre could give this visit with his eyes closed, he knows it so well. He no longer even counts the number of times he has offered it. “Yes, I’m repeating myself,” he jokes. “But when you love, you don’t count!”
Pierre makes no secret of it: he has always been “in love with Montreal.” “I love its architecture, its heritage, its alleyways, its small neighborhood shops, its parks, its atmosphere…”, he explains to Duty the one who grew up in the Ville-Émard district and now lives in Milton-Parc.
And it was his unconditional love for the city that led him to become a tour guide in 2016, at the age of 54. Pierre likes to say that he then began his second life, having worked for 37 years for the Molson Coors brewery.
“I thought about it when I knew I could retire at 55. I didn’t want to spend my days walking alone on Mount Royal or playing golf. I wanted to be in contact with people, to move and be on the course. I said to myself: ‘Why not combine that with my passion for Montreal? I wouldn’t even feel like I was working,’” he says.
And that’s an understatement, considering the retiree’s busy schedule. From May to October, when the tourist season is in full swing, the sixty-year-old dons his guide’s clothes six days a week. The Guidatour agency, with which he works, allows him to give tours sometimes on foot, sometimes by bus, sometimes in a private car as an accompanying guide.
“I love meeting people and sharing my passion for Montreal with them. But my greatest satisfaction is when there is a Montrealer in the group and he comes away from my visit having learned new things. That really touches my heart,” confides Pierre, all smiles.
Share a passion
“My mission is accomplished when people say at the end of the visit that they can’t wait to come back,” says Ukrainian guide Galyna Lykhoshva, 38.
Arriving in Montreal in 2016 out of “love for the French language,” Galyna quickly became a volunteer guide at the Château Ramezay museum, a way for her to practice her French while learning more about her new “home.” “I told myself that the more I got to know the place where I live and my host society, the more at home I would feel. It worked out and, above all, I developed a taste for the profession.”
Today, in addition to being a part-time court interpreter, Galyna organizes walking tours throughout Montreal. In 2019, she even created a tour of the Little Ukraine neighborhood in the Rosemont sector, the profits of which have been donated, since the beginning of the war in that country, to a local organization preparing first aid kits.
She is also a tour guide for groups of foreign travelers or school groups. “I love being a guide, it allows me to speak French every day, to be in contact with people from all over the world and to always learn more about Montreal and Quebec,” she confides. Her library contains no fewer than 300 books on the history of the city and the province. “My new homeland has become my new passion,” she adds.
Despite her young age and the repetitive nature of the job, she believes she has found a good balance to keep her daily life stimulating for many years to come. “I am constantly learning and learning about the places around me. You just have to vary the visits, and why not the playground too,” she says. Her next challenge? Getting her tour guide license in Quebec City to accompany travelers in the Old Capital.