Montérégie: See
Driving through Montérégie, two unusual geographical features will strike you. First, 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". Second, 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.
There are a few other features of Montérégie that are pleasant to visit on a day trip from Montreal. Fort Chambly is a French fort dating from 1711 built to protect against the British. Fort Lennox National Historic Site is a British fort 22 km south of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu that was built in 1819 to protect against the Americans. The Coteau-du-Lac National Historic Site is about 40 km southwest of Montréal on the shores of the St. Lawrence River near Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. It features Canada’s first lock canal and the remains of a fort.
Lac Brome is a pretty lake for watersports, hiking, or shopping in the village of the same name.