Ulysse began selling travel books in Montreal in 1980 and started publishing them a decade later, which is why the Saint-Denis shop reads as both a bookstore and a catalogue of its own output.

The shelves cover the usual global destinations, but the useful depth is closer to home: guides to the regions of Québec, cycling and walking routes across the province, hiking trails, and Montreal parsed by borough, architecture, religious heritage and cultural life. Ontario and the northern United States get their own sections for anyone measuring a weekend by driving distance. Maps, atlases and illustrated books fill the rest, alongside pocket volumes of Québécois expressions, which repay a few minutes if you intend to talk to anyone here. There's a series of first travel guides for kids.

Most titles are sold in print and as PDF or ePub for travellers who'd rather not carry paper.