Canada - Montreal

So, we have taken advantage of the fact Tom finished school early this year and for the first time in 12 years have got a cut price holiday - yay!

As Tom wants to do French at A level, we decided that we should go to a French speaking country.  First choice was France but there were so many things we had to sort out: where to go, how to get there, what sort of accommodation etc etc that we decided to look elsewhere and ended up with a fantastic price for a trip to Quebec Province in Canada.  Fantastic.

We flew out on Wednesday 2nd July with Air Transact to Toronto and then connected to a short hopper flight to Montreal.  Flights were fine, we got fed better than we expected and the service was pleasant.  We were a little late getting into Montreal, but we got through the airport easily and got the bus to Centre-Ville.  The bus driver was obviously in a rush as he put his foot down and we flew down the road to the city centre in no time it was dark by the time we arrived, and also there was a bit of a thunder storm going on so we couldn't see much - but it was very obvious that the city is French speaking as everything (road signs / shop signs) were in French.  We got off at the stop nearest our hotel and were very pleased to find our hotel right in front of us, so we checked in, had showers and went straight to bed. 

Thursday - slept soundly to 3.30 and then had a run of very strange dreams until 6.30 when I gave up!  We lay in bed until 8am when we woke Tom and when down for breakfast - a very average hotel breakfast: no pastries, no croissants, no hint of anything French: basically scrambled eggs, bacon, eggy bread, toast and pineapple, it was advertised as only $11 per person, so really can't complain and it did fill us up.

We then headed out to do an explore: we walked to the old port - the place was a bit dead, which was surprising considering it is summer, but also we were a bit early, after we left we discovered most things opened after 10.  We then headed into the old town, however, the whole place was being dug up, we had to follow a walk way but really there was nowhere to browse and the sound of the drills etc reverberated around the buildings making it quite unpleasant- shame - bad timing I guess.   

We decided to find the Basilica Notre Dame - that was also being worked on and half of it was under scaffolding - not doing well for so far.  We paid to go inside and it was stunning and considering none of us do religion it must have been good.  Phew!

We then walked up towards Down Town and Ste Catherine Street which is one of the main shopping streets.  We found lots of lovely souvenir stores to explore - Tom got himself a holiday T-shirt.  We explored a supermarket - a combination of North American and French - I'm looking forward to when we don't have breakfast included in our hotel stays as that will mean we will be able to properly explore some supermarkets for some treats. 

 found a good bakery for a lunch treat - this is how bilingual this place is - at the same bakery - half the sandwiches were labelled in French - 'quesadilla d'agneau' alongside others in English - 'cheese and bacon', poor Tom was confused trying to order it - do you go French / English or half:half? (He went English!)

When we finished lunch, it was raining so we headed further up Ste Catherine Street to a shopping centre, but we were all getting a bit tired, so decided to get the metro back to the hotel, had a relax, a swim and sauna.

First impressions - finding Montreal a little underwhelming- think probably because there is so much construction work going on, it is hard to enjoy anything. Confused whether we should be speaking French or English - but we are initally trying French.  That's why we are here after all.  However, prices of everything from transport to food seem very reasonable - certainly cheaper than Toronto and home!

For tea today we decided to head to a restaurant recommended by Matt's friend Dave - a Portuguese place.  We walked the 1.5 miles there and found a queue outside it - obviously a popular place.  We joined it, it moved quite quickly.  It was a grilled chicken place - they were grilling a lot of chicken on charchol and it looked and smelt amazing.  It was mainly a takeaway but had some tables. 

We ordered a half chicken and a special poutine.  OMG - it was huge and when we picked up our order there was an extra plate of chicken (our dodgy French letting us down!).  Luckily they took it back, and although we were hungry we couldn't finish it all.  It was absolutely delicious though and once again very reasonably priced. 

We walked home a longer way through a park to try to help aid digestion.  When we got ready for bed, we heard a couple of bangs, we looked outside and were treated to the most amazing fireworks display - half an hour of bonkers fireworks - the best I've ever seen.  Apparently part of an international fireworks competition.  We were extremely lucky to have a hotel room with a window looking straight at it. 

We were up again at 8am on Friday for our second day sightseeing.  Today we decided to go to explore Mont Royal.  

Mont Royal is what the city is named after and is a hillock in the middle of the city.  We got the metro to the edge of the parc and then walked up the steps, countless steps to the top to be rewarded with a great view over the city.  After a refresh, we continued our walk, on the top, past a lake, watching endless school groups having fun.  We were hoping to get an ice cream to help cool us down, but to no avail - there were cafes etc but no ice creams.  

We continued walking hoping to get to Oratoire St Joseph, but we really couldn't work out how to get there safely (ie without walking on the road) so we got a bus a couple of stops instead.  The building was mightily impressive, built into the side of the hill - we were lucky to have lots more steps to climb to the top of the building and yet another view point - Tom liked this viewpoint a lot as it was on the flight path to the airport - plenty of plane spotting opportunities.  We went inside - was a huge and very high space, but quite plain inside compared to Notre Dame yesterday. 

We went to see the bells in the bell tower being played - basically a person was at an upright piano type instrument which was linked up to many bells in the tower and was playing tunes with the bells - it was really very pleasant.  We then discovered another building and went inside to find the biggest religious trinket shop I have ever seen.  There were medals for every saint going, some lovely smelling incense, life size monk statues, and everything in-between - couldn't quite believe my eyes!  

Outside the building was a fantastic sculpture of migrants and refugees on a boat.  They were of all races and creeds - a representation of those who have settled in Canada.  The inspiration for the sculpture came from the New Testament - from the Letter to the Hebrews 13:2, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" I think pretty much every country in the 'West' needs this somewhere prominent right now as a reminder that we are all human and to accept and help people in need...

We then got the metro to Marché Jean-Talon.  Another recommendation from Dave - he said there was a really good onigiri stall, we scouted the whole area, but couldn't find it anyway, so settled on an arancini each instead - was perfect.  As we finished up, Tom found the onigiri stall - it was next door to the arancini stall - how we didn't see it was beyond us, but it didn't matter the arancini was marvellous.

We were now quite hot and tired with aching feet, so we headed back to the hotel, had a swim, sauna and some down time before heading out for tea.  On our travels back from the market we discovered an Afghan restaurant selling Qiballi pilau - a dish we discovered in an Afghan restaurant in Manchester and love very much.  They only have it on the menu on a Friday.  

So, we had to go back to satisfy our need for Afghan cuisine.  We weren't disappointed.  We had that, a butter chicken and an Afghan lamb dish and loved them all - we had very happy tummies and were able to send Dave a recommendation to visit next time he is in town.

We then came back to the hotel for a collapse - another mammoth day for steps: our feet were quite tired (when I say 'our' of course I mean Matt and I, Tom's feet were fine!)