Montreal ~ Last Day

Before we knew it, it was the last day of our trip. We decided to have a delicious breakfast of crepes and fruit on a patio on Place Jacques-Cartier.

And the most amazing thing happened. As we were sitting there an accordian player set up right beside us and played Lara's Song from Dr. Zhivago, which in my family is known as Grandma's Song because it was our Grandma's favourite song. She was an amazing pianist and would play this song when ever she came to visit us.

After breakfast we had time to work in one more museum: Chateau Ramezay.

One of my favourite moments was when we walked up and this young guy in period costume asked us in a thick French accent, "You would like to go to the museum?" And when we said yes, he incredulously said, "Yes?" I guess that gave him an opportunity to do his job and tell us his story as the executioner of the settlement, about how even though he was simply giving prisoners what they deserved, many people did not enjoy his company, all the while he was beaming at having the chance to share his tale. What fun.

Then we browsed some shops, but we realized we're not really shoppers or souvenir collectors, rather memory and picture collectors. And then it was time to say goodbye.

As our train pulled out, I was terrified that it pulled out onto a bridge. I have an intense fear of deep water and so just sat there waiting as the train crew did whatever they needed to do. Scary!

A 5-hour train ride and then we were home, pulling in to the very familiar downtown Toronto. But we are confident our memories of Montreal will draw us back soon. If you get a chance to go, I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did. I'll leave you with one of our favourite sites from our hotel window. Enjoy.

Montreal ~ Day 3

Saturday it rained, so we made that our gallery day. First we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which I absolutely loved. We saw so many memorable pieces.

One of my favourite forms of art is installations, and there were many that were a part of the current exhibit. The one pictured above absolutely blew us away. In a darkened room 4 black canvases leaned against the wall. As you stood there, one by one they would come alive with a video recording of a someone in jail sharing his story. The slow fade in and out absolutely made it seem like a 3-dimensional drawing was coming to life in front of your eyes and the stories and how they were told were thought-provoking.

I just loved that as we walked through downtown Montreal, every time you looked north, there was Mont Royal shrouded in mist.

After stopping for lunch, we headed to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It was a bit late in the day already so we went to their regular collection, which was fascinating.

One of the unique things they had was quite a collection of decorative arts. I enjoyed exploring the really impressive collection of 20th-century design. I'm so tactile that it's always challenging for me not to touch things in a museum. This time it was hard not to sit in things!

It's too bad this picture is a bit fuzzy. It's probably my favourite from the whole trip.

We went back to our hotel to relax a little bit and put our feet up. This was the gorgeous rainy day view out our window.

We finished our night at an amazing restaurant called the Stash Cafe. This was the absolute perfect place to spend a cold, rainy night. It was cozy and the food was Polish comfort food. It tasted like a homecooked meal. I felt guilty when I tried the borscht (which was amazing!) because my mom used to make it about once every 2 years as a big treat and I wouldn't touch it! Here I sampled it (and wanted more) and homemade pierogi and an awesome cabbage stew. The service was not the best but the food was so good we'd definitely go back for more.

Montreal ~ Day 2

I hope you'll indulge me as I continue to share about our Montreal journeys. It was such a good time that I must have looked over yesterday's pictures 50 times throughout the day imagining I was back there! We found this lovely cafe near the hotel with excellent coffee, suitably standoffish service and a little wifi tablet so I could send Shannon the worst spelled note that we were safe and sound that was ever written!

This morning we went to our first museum - Pointe-a-Calliere. This was all about the history of the region. The basement, where I'm pictured here, is part archeological dig and part display. This started out as one of those "well, we have to go there" history places but we really enjoyed it and spent hours reading and exploring. It is much larger than it seems. One thing that was really cool was at the end they had contemporary exhibits, including some created by children, about people's perceptions of their Montreal.

After all that history it was time to be outside in the sun enjoying lunch on a patio by the waterfront.

Across the way we could see some of excitement that was Expo all those years ago. We didn't manage to get there this time.

Then we explored Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, often referred to as the Sailors' Church. You can see the carved wooden boats hanging from the ceiling.

Then we ventured onto the Metro for the first time. It was easy to navigate and get from point A to point B. One key was that direction is described by the end stop of the line as opposed to east/west, etc.

We explored the Plateau Mont-Royal and found this awesome little spot for smoothies. I have to say, we felt very at home here - which doesn't explain this sort of stunned look on my face, lol.

We ended up at one of the must-go-to places, Schwartz's, famous for it's smoked meat. As you can see, it was packed. The atmo was awesome - full of life and energy and interesting people. I'm not a huge meat eater but I have to say, the sandwiches were awesome. A great way to end the day.

Montreal ~ Day 1

Justin and I have just returned from a magnificent 4-day vacation in the beautiful city of Montreal. I couldn't believe how nostalgic I was as we arrived. As the train pulled in, my eyes welled up. This was surprising because really I grew up in a small subdivision where the limits of my world were how far I could bike. I didn't come downtown or to Old Montreal, where we would spend most of our time this vacation. Still, I felt like I was coming home.

We stayed at the beautiful Saint-Sulpice, which was a real treat. It's located right in the heart of Old Montreal with Notre Dame Cathedral on one side and the beautiful Rue St. Paul on the other. It was such a treat to be able to pop back to the hotel whenever we needed to catch our breath or put our feet up.

And speaking of Notre Dame...

Entering this amazing cathedral was the first bit of sightseeing we did. I viscerally remember the very first time I ever came here. It was with a school trip in grade 8 (we saw many, many school trip attendees while in Old Montreal). I had always thought that it was the beauty of that blue and the amazing workmanship throughout that made it memorable. But walking in this time, I knew it was actually the energy of the space. The years of tears and smiles, of weddings and funerals, of heartfelt prayer have filled this place with an energy that's palpable.

On our first day we toured Old Montreal taking in the history and the architecture. Now I understand why all the school trips come here. You see history everywhere you turn. And though Canadian history has a reputation for being boring, it most certainly is not. We were captivated by everything.

This little street is also one of the places I remember from my student trip. It is usually filled with artists and you can walk along admiring their displays of paintings and photography. It was very quiet on our Thursday afternoon in Old Montreal in May. A good thing to note for future traveling.

And of course we ended our first day sipping wine and eating in a restaurant on Place Jacques-Cartier. We chose something casual and comfortable, enjoying every moment and thrilled to be together in Old Montreal.