by Taylor Berry

Montréal is an inherently sexy city–it’s fashionable, it’s French, and magnums of vodka reign in the clubs. But even more obvious is the prevalence of sex throughout the city in landmarks (think Super Sexe) not to mention all those shady men trying to usher you into dark clubs on St. Catherines. Sex is definitely in the streets in Montréal–but where?

One of the first things I noticed in the city, roaming east on St. Catherines, was that all of a sudden I felt like I had stumbled into Amsterdam’s red light district. This area around St. Laurent and St. Catherines is brazenly X-rated: bright neon signs advertise danse contact and shady-looking prostitutes wander around in open-toed sandals and too-short dresses in the middle of winter. This area is less intimidating in the morning if you feel like a good old fashioned stripper brunch.

East on St. Catherines is the Montréal gay village, where men hook up with other men in the bathroom at Unity. Go visit Le Mystique, Montréal’s oldest gay bar, before it closes. It’s a piece of Montréal gay history; it’s one of the sites of the violent police raids of 1977 that led to Montréal’s first gay pride parade in 1979.

Not far away from Montréal’s red light district, if you walk up St. Laurent away from St. Catherines, you find Montreal’s famous Cinema L’Amour, the last X-rated cinema in the city. You can settle in for some porn in the stained seats in the main cinema, or rent a sexy couples-only booth–it’s probably worth the $30.

A little farther up St. Laurent is the city’s best sex shop, Joy Toyz, where you can purchase lubes, fetish gear, anal toys, vibrators, massage oils, you name it. It’s in a discrete St. Laurent building in a kind of boutique-loft space, so you’re spared the embarrassment of being spotted entering or exiting one of Montréal’s bolder sex establishments (think Super Sexe). Joy Toyz also offers fabulous sex workshops, from the art of striptease to the perfect blowjob–chocolate cock provided.

Finally, there’s the mountain itself, not to be topped as the defining Montréal landmark, even when it comes to sex. The mountain has been the site of endless hookups, from innocent gazebo makeouts to sex in the bushes. It may not be advertised with red light bulbs, but this could be one of the sexiest spots in the city. Get up there while the weather’s fine.