It is important to come to Canada during the summer especially for those who are not accustomed to winter temperatures of Montreal. That way you can take the time to buy boots, snow pants, and especially the proper winter coat. The coats that you had before will not be used in Montreal for the winter but rather in autumn and spring, you should be well equipped for winter. You also need a cover for your head and polyester gloves. Leather gloves are not very efficient in extreme temperatures.
If you want to cook your own food, you'd better bring your own spices, because they are relatively expensive. Be careful while bringing food in Canada because there are very strict restrictions. For example, meat, sausages, are strictly prohibited. If you are stuck with something prohibited while entering to Canada, your luggage will be systematically searched each time for several years, so you'd better be careful.
The spoken French in Quebec is more different than in France. In addition they have words that are not used anywhere else. It took me about 6 months to adapt with their strong accent, which depends mostly on the person. The more you go away from montreal, the stronger is the accent.
Heating is essential and constitutes one of the most expensive bills in Canada. It is highly recommended to heat with electricity rather than natural gas. Quebec is a major producer of electricity so electricity is much cheaper than gas. We were heating with gas at the beginning and we had a very expensive invoice. Speaking of heat, you can have heat included in rent. It is a formula rather interesting to control your expenses.
Speaking of rent, if you have stayed before in Europe, you will appreciate the accessibility of housing in Montreal. You should though forget about the name s + 2, you should also forget about the m2 that is replaced by foot2. The names indicating the capacity of a rent are 1 ½, 2 ½, 3 ½, 4 ½ ... Half means always the bathroom. Regarding 1, 2 and 3 and a half, it gives an idea about the size of the apartment and its structure. 1 and a half is a relatively small studio, just a room with small kitchen ... 2 and a half is the same but has a little more space. It's 3 and a half which contains a closed room with the kitchen and bath room. The 4 ½ contains 2 closed bedrooms and 5 ½ 3 rooms and so on.