In the French Concession, the city's most popular residential district, bicycles and scooters careen through the winding tree-canopied streets, holding such new buzz boites as Dr. Wine and The Apartment.

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In one day, I got a free curling lesson from a moustached Quebecois man, saw a dogsled race on snowy 400-year-old lanes, ate a juicy caribou steak in one of the continent's oldest restaurants, watched boites a chansons (local folk music) shows with hipster locals and yelled "allez allez" at a wild minor-league hockey game.

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