I’ve spent much of my adult life in the wild—in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon. But the only place I’ve ever stood face-to-face with a bear was on a quiet forest walk in Lynn Canyon, five minutes from a mall in North Vancouver, BC www.hellobc.com.

Come spring, the city dubbed “Paris without the jet lag” (by American author Patricia Schultz in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die) shrugs off winter and prepares to entertain al fresco. All across Montréal, QC, patio doors are unbolted, tender shrubs unwrapped, public fountains uncovered and scrubbed clean.