By JOYCE L. CARROLL

With its cobblestone alleys, haute couture boutiques and al fresco dining, Montreal has all of the old-world charm of Europe and the chic sophistication of Paris. In the aftermath of the 2008 economic downturn, a savvy East Montpelier businesswoman in the travel industry has changed her focus and found success a bit closer to home.

Montreal by Design is modeled after Karen Kane’s successful Paris by Design business. Her personalized travel and consulting service now includes self-guided or accompanied tours of one of North America’s most-loved cities.

Kane is more than a niche travel consultant. While travel agencies and consultants plan trips, tourists are often left on their own once they arrive at their place of destination. Kane is as involved or uninvolved as her clients wish her to be.

Some may opt to download her category-specific travel e-guides like Montreal for Chocolate Lovers or Cheap Eats Montreal, while others may book one of her personally guided tours. The first three pages of the e-guides are available for free, she said. Her chocolate lovers’ e-guide maps out 12 stops at some of Montreal’s finest chocolate shops in conjunction with other points of interest. She’s currently working on a vintage and resale e-guide and a second Cheap Eats e-guide.

Kane’s newest business may be by design, but its formation was the result of a spontaneous set of circumstances.

“It was a combination of a client’s request and timing,” she said. A client whom she had previously accompanied to Paris posed the question, “When are we going to Montreal?”

Her first trip as a consultant was fabulous, she said. “I took five people. There was an Yves St. Laurent (fashion) show; we saw that. Then, we had lunch and shopped. Shortly after that, the economy started to fall through.

“The timing was good,” she said of her decision to shift her focus. She said she would continue to work with clients interested in going to Paris.

Her category-specific Montreal trips, whether they revolve around fashion, art or other genres, are receiving rave reviews, she said. She said she will likely schedule four three-day group trips a year, but is also available on most Saturdays for day trips.

She also travels to Montreal once a month on her own to do research for her e-guides and plan upcoming trips. “What I love most is doing the research and then sharing it,” she said.

Thus far, three clients who previously joined her in Paris have also accompanied her to Montreal. Her clients have come from Vermont and New York, but also from as far away North Carolina and Florida.

“Paris is that trip of a lifetime,” she said. Montreal, on the other hand, provides an affordable getaway.

“It’s such a vibrant city,” she said. “It captures the new world and the old world. It still offers the opportunity to hear and speak the French language and experience the French way of life. It’s visually interesting, but in ways that are different from Paris.”

Kane also introduces clients to local shopkeepers and artisans during her accompanied trips. “It’s door-to-door. I provide context and focus,” she said.

Kane’s background is in education; she’s been a teacher, writer and even a bike tour guide. While her two businesses lend themselves well to the field, few American travelers have the privilege of a guide with such an intimate understanding of the history and culture of Paris or Montreal. It was her love of Paris that inspired her travel business.

Kane said she fell in love with the city while taking her first French class as an 11-year-old. Her first business, Paris by Design, was launched after living in Paris at the beginning of the decade.

“I have the most wonderful husband in Vermont. I said to him, ‘I really want to go live in Paris.’ He said, ‘What’s stopping you?’” she said of that trip in 2000.

Since then, she’s taken small groups of travelers across the Atlantic to Paris, and now across the border to Montreal. Her clients, she said, appreciate her personalized services as well as the many chance occurrences to befriend others from unfamiliar cultures.

“I was with a group last October. It was right before the elections,” she said. “(President) Obama was particularly popular in Paris. One woman in our group was pro-Obama. She spoke no French. She spotted a poster of Obama and she did her absolute best to say, ‘I want that poster.’ She asked if she could buy it, but the owner (of the business) said no.

“In the end, he sold it to her. She was proud of that find … she found something special, but she also found a way to bond with someone from another culture,” she said.

More recently in Montreal, Kane said two clients wanted to take a yoga class, which became an opportunity to forge a friendship with the instructor, she said. Kane’s next Montreal trip will be sometime in October.

For more information about Paris by Design or Montreal by Design, visit www.parisbydesign.com or www.montrealbydesign.com, where Kane maintains a blog about what’s new in Montreal.