There aren’t many secrets left in the cruise business, but one of them is surely “Montreal in Summertime.” For whatever reason, it has become a city of fall colors for cruise ships and their visitors, and anybody who knows Montreal can only wonder why.

Cruise-ship activity in the 360-year-old Canadian port city is highest in September and October. The only major cruise ship that visits in July and August this year is Holland America’s Maasdam, and it’s only there twice. In the five-week period that starts September 10, however, there are at least eight major ship visits scheduled to make a port stop in Montreal, including three by the Maasdam. By then, the chill is usually in the air.

What they’re missing is summer, the best of all seasons in Canada’s second-largest city, although the mystery is less pronounced further up the St. Lawrence River, in Quebec City.

It’s in the summer that Montreal’s downtown streets are alive with people and the joie-de-vivre spirit that is part of being French-Canadian. It’s in the summer that Old Montreal with all its charm and street vendors and outdoor cafes can best be explored, because it’s the best climate. It’s in the summer that sports fans can enjoy the Canadian Grand Prix, world-class tennis and Canadian football, played by mostly American players and for sheer excitement a game superior to the one played in the NFL.

And it’s in the summer that you can enjoy old world architecture in shirtsleeves, the international jazz festival and the wonders of Mount Royal Park, designed by the same man who created Central Park in New York.

How can we be so sure about all this? Because we lived in Montreal for more than a decade.

For an industry that always seems to take people places with the nicest weather, it seems the cruise ships are missing the boat in thinking of Montreal as a fall destination.

Photos courtesy of Montréal International Jazz Festival & Tourisme Montréal (Stéphan Poulin)