A couple of places to look to find a furnished apartment for three weeks in August:

http://www.sublet.com/

http://www.vrbo.com/

You should be aware that July and August are the highest demand and highest rate months, particularly in the downtown and southern Plateau area. Also, it might also be difficult to find one so late in the season.

thanks for this message. We are still looking for a place. A couple of places have replied and we are following up.

We are also interested in buying a house which is in a commuting radious of about 40 minutes from Mcgill University. We would welcome information on possible residential neighbourhoods, the main considerations being, commuting to McGill University and good english medium schools near the house.

All advise is welcome.

...TripAdvisor staff will probably close this post, since they are allergic to topics that involve moving, but here's the low-down.

Montreal has traditionally been divided in half, with the western part of the island being English, and the eastern part more French. In reality, there are tons of languages mixed up all over, but it still holds true.

Since you're coming from very expensive London, you may be able to afford Westmount, which is very nice and very English, and right next to downtown, so very convenient. The inner suburbs -- NDG, Côte-St-Luc, Hampstead, Montreal west -- are nice (although NDG can be nasty in places, too), and still close.

Another option would to be close to a train station on the West Island (either the Rigaud or the Deux-Montagnes line), or closer to home: St-Lambert just across the river, which is more French but very charming indeed and has an English primary and secondary school. The train service is nothing like London of course, but if you have regular office hours, it's pretty darn convenient.

In reality, English schools are dotted around MTL -- quite a few the north east part of MTL, which is less chic than the West Island, but more urban with better shopping (thanks in part to all the Italians who live there :).

...and I'm guessing that middle school translates into secondary school here (ages 13-17 I believe...). I found the Montreal English School Board list here: (emsb.qc.ca/en/…listofschool07-08en.pdf).

To see where they are, I google mapped them here:

maps.google.com/maps/ms…

This doesn't cover the schools in the West Island, which are controlled by the Lester B. Pearson School Board (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_B._Pearson_School_Board).

...it does now, marked in red instead. :)

...and the English schools on the south shore are marked in green... see http://www.rsb.qc.ca/rsbmain.aspx

Another area to consider might be Town of Mount Royal that is residential but also has the train that goes right downtown. You will potentially get more for your money than in Westmount. There are good primary schools right in the area in walking distance. For High School it is a bit trickier although you may end up selecting a private school and public transport is very good.

Thank you for your messages. They are really helpful in our research for our Montreal Vacation. We have found an apartment which costs CAD 750 a week +50 for cleaning. Its at 3070, Barclay, Montreal. We plan to be in Montreal for three weeks but we have only booked it for one week becaus we are not familier with the town and we may want to change. Or even go out of Montreal for a week and drive down to Toronto/Buffolo or ....