14.7.2012 – 14.7.2012  36 °C

Nice leisurely start today, topped off with fresh croissants… That is the one thing I love about being in a French area, yummy breakfast! After we had sated our appetites we put on our walking shoes and headed downtown to the old area of Montreal.

The old town is about 20 min walk from our hotel and is down on the St Lawrence River. You know when you’ve entered the old section because the pavement gives way to cobblestones… I’m a huge fan of cobblestones and wish that more cities in the world kept the practice of the cute little stones! Our first stop was into the old Marché Bonsecour (the old market place of Montreal). It is a gorgeous 18^th century building topped by a silver dome. It was originally the marketplace of Montreal and over the years has gone thru many iterations ending today with it back in a marketplace! Its not a marketplace like you are imagining.. its more like a shopping mall filled with boutiquey style souvenir and jewellery stores. We stopped into one store and I spent some time checking out the jackets. It’s the one thing about living in a cold climate, the winter fashions are so much more stylish than summer! Obviously, there is no point me buying a gorgeous thick jacket because it’ll end up being eaten by silverfish or smelling like moth balls!

As we continued our wander thru the old town we stopped at a maple syrup shop and ordered a maple flavoured latte. I had been warned that Aussies like it sweet but Canadians like it sweeter and boy was this an accurate representation! My maple syrup flavoured coffee was so sweet.. actually un-drinkable! I’m glad I gave it a go but gee whiz!

Right next door to the maple syrup shop was a fur trader. The fur coats and muffs in side were really beautiful. I had to put aside my knowledge that these coats come from little cute critters and just admire the softness of the fur.  The part that I struggled with was the whole skins that were on display on the wall… Really, though it isn’t any different to a fur coat I guess!

After our little shopping interlude we continued thru the old town using the LP walking guide to Montreal to take us up to the Montreal Notre Dame. I’m glad we had a guide book cause I wouldn’t have picked the church for the ND! It doesn’t look much like the real McCoy in Paris. It is situated in the middle of a pedestrian square that is flanked by the oldest building in Montreal (the seminary for ND) and is crowned with a bronze statue of a French leader who battled with the Iroquois on this place in the late 1600s. All in all the Place Du Armes (where ND is located) was slightly disappointing… To be fair this is probably more because it is so hot today and walking around anywhere isn’t very pleasant!!

We stopped in at a little cutesy Christmas shop on our way back down to the Old Port of Montreal. We stopped in because the Xmas shop had on display ice crystals (in the form of LED lights) and a xmas tree that had snow falling on it! The xmas tree had some sort of vacuum system attached to the base of the tree, thru which small styrofoam balls were being shot up and out the top of the tree (making it appear to be covered in snow). From a distance the effect was impressive.. up close it was a bit of a shocker.. styrofoam balls everywhere!! The LED lights (appearing to be water crystals) was really impressive as was the 250 dollar price tag!!! 250 dollars for some LED lights felt extremely exy and so the xmas shop ended up not getting a dollar out of us… (it was blessedly cool inside though so we didn’t vocalise our complaints about the shop!)

Our last stop this morning was down at the old Port of Montreal. The old port has been changed into landscaped gardens and pathways for people to enjoy. If the temp wasn’t 35 in the shade we probably would have really enjoyed the parklands, as it was, we spent half an hour sitting in the shade before we unanimously agreed to catch the metro back to our hotel for some lunch.

After a rest and a short break for lunch we hopped in the car and headed up to the namesake of Montreal, Mont Real (Mount Royal is the English translation). The Mont is about 10 mins from downtown and is a huge parkland on the hill above the town. Most of the park is foot and bike paths so we actually didn’t spend much time in the park (owing to the heat and tiredness) but instead took some shots at the lookouts before we headed for a drive around the suburbs of Montreal.

Most of the houses at the base of the Mont are really impressive big mansion style houses, so the drive thru their tree lined streets was really pleasant. We also discovered where the average joes live (small terraced style houses). All in all, Montreal is actually a very pretty city, plenty of greenery and not too many broken down factories to mar the sky line! I need to mention a bit more about the apartments in the area where we are staying. The buildings are all three stories high, probably built in the 19^th Century (I’m guessing, I have no real idea), and all have exterior stair cases! I find this amazing considering how cold it gets here in winter.. I can only imagine how icy the stairs must get in the middle of winter…. Generally the buildings contain 6 apartments and have 2 stair cases.. The ground floor is often given over to commercial ventures and the upper two stories are living quarters. Most of the staircases are not just external but also spiral… Interesting to look at, but I’d love to know the reasoning for the exterior stairs… I’m sure there is a good reason…..

Our day ended with us enjoying an average Thai meal (which was more Chinese than Thai..). We had grand plans of going back downtown to seeing a fireworks display but I couldn’t (rotten headache) and M&D just couldn’t be bothered so there ended our time in Montreal. Tomorrow we’re back on the road this time up to Quebec City, fingers crossed we can find a Maple Syrup Farm!

Song of the Day– The Cat Empire, So long