(Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
Everything was in place for our trip to Montreal. The only thing we couldn’t control was the weather…and, in this case, it definitely did not want to be controlled.
I travel to Montreal from time to time, but I have done only one previous blog entry on the largest city in the province of Quebec. That trip didn’t go completely according to plan either, as I forgot my camera and took only a few iffy photos using an iPod. I remembered the camera this time; fortunately, I also remembered to bring an umbrella!
However, the focus of this trip wasn’t on the usual touristic sights in Montreal. Yes, we wandered through Old Montreal once the weather cleared a bit, but we spent most of our time in various Montreal neighbourhoods that were a little more out of the way.
Dinner on Friday was in an Afghan restaurant in the “Plateau-Mont-Royal” neighbourhood. My favourite Montreal record store was nearby, and we found some interesting grocery stores where we could stock up for Saturday’s breakfast. This particular area has a lot of students and a huge number of dining options.
Saturday saw us visit Verdun for the very first time. We picked it almost at random. It’s only a few subway stops from downtown Montreal, but when we left the subway it was as if we had completely left the big city. It was kind of fun to feel like we were the only people who didn’t live there. As a bonus, we also had success at a clothing store that catered to tall people
We also visited the Marché Jean-Talon in Little Italy, after having lunch at the Breizh Café on boulevard Saint-Laurent. This was our first time at a crêperie since enjoying them nearly every day during last summer’s trip to Normandy and Brittany (“Breizh” is the Breton word for “Brittany”). We were very happy with our galettes and the cider from a local cidrerie was a perfect accompaniment. We felt a little nostalgic, and vowed that we would return to northern France again someday.
The dodgy weather continued on Saturday night, so we stayed fairly close to our hotel and ate at a Tibetan restaurant near the bottom part of boulevard Saint-Laurent. It was OK, and certainly inexpensive, but not a highlight. My Tibetan meal in Luxembourg, for example, was far superior.
On Sunday, we had lunch in the “Mile End” neighbourhood. I think we had probably eaten too much rich food on the first two days, as we both had strong cravings for salad! As you can see from the salad photo above, they were huge and appealing…both visually and tastewise. “Mile End” is home to a number of important food sites (of course), such as St-Viateur Bagels and the Dieu du Ciel microbrewery.
So yes, there was a bit of a food emphasis on this trip. Our trips to Montreal usually work out this way, and it seems like Montrealers truly appreciate food. But we also tried something else on this trip for the first time: buying a weekend transit pass for the Metro and buses.
That was probably the best thing we could have done. In addition to saving a LOT of money (the cost per ride ended up being less than $1.00), we found ourselves in some truly unique neighbourhoods that we would never have walked to from our downtown hotel. It also made the rainy weather easier to handle: we could quickly get back to the hotel and dry off, unload our purchases (mostly food, naturally), and/or get more appropriate clothes. The pass was valid from late Friday afternoon until early Monday morning, and we will definitely consider it again for a future weekend trip.