On The Road Again: Montreal
Our hostess at Camping Amerique Montreal spoke excellent English, which was good. Our French is abysmal! Moneau patiently showed us on the map how to get to Montreal, a 30-minute drive. She also showed us where to park, explaining that the 25$C we'd spend for parking was the best parking value in the city.
The following morning found us sojourning to Montreal. It was surprising how painless it was, even though I had no idea where I was going. Thank goodness for the Google maps! We found the garage and parked, and then headed to the nearest tourist office.
The experience of being in a foreign city again was enchanting! It felt exotic- all the signs were in French, as were most of the overheard conversation snippets. The young woman at the tourist office spoke excellent English, though, giving us a city map and marking it with all the tourist hot spots.
Susan wanted to see murals, so we spent the morning on a search mission. We were a little bit disappointed- we'd seen higher quality murals elsewhere. There were a few good ones, but overall...
One of Montreal's murals.
We next found ourselves in Chinatown, in line to get into a noodle shop! The dishes were excellent, and our Chinese waiter was tri-lingual, which was so helpful to us. We were trying to learn enough French to get around, but realistically? We'd be back in the USA long before attaining the slightest degree of fluency.
Meal over, we went to the Place d'Armes. Notre-Dame Basilica is there, as is the historic Bank of Montreal building, and a monument in memory of Paul de Chomedey, founder of Montreal. A band was playing in the square. We wanted to see the Basilica, but you had to buy tickets online. Thirty Canadian dollars apiece? The building is undergoing a renovation. We've seen churches on three continents. I'm sure the Basilica is beautiful, but with the construction, we wouldn't even be able to see everything. Merci mais, non merci.
Lined up at the noodle shop!
We went to the bank, Montreal's first. The building, built in 1847, was beautiful, impressive, massive, ornate. I tried to change $100 for Canadian money. No dice- I didn't have an account. They sent me to a currency exchange shop.
Money changed, we wandered around, finding another plaza with a band playing, part of the summer-long Italian festival. It was good to hear live music, do some people-watching, and rest our feet!
The band took a break, so we went wandering again, finding a store that sold native art- Inuit, Algonquin, Haida, and others. In we went. The quality of the work was stunning. They had a shop filled with museum pieces! Paintings, and sculptures, ceramics, and canoe paddles, textiles- I told the saleslady they had a shop filled with museum pieces, and she said, "No, this is better, because you can take one home." Well, yeah, if you're wealthy. We're sleeping in a van, so let's not get carried away! But after leaving the art store we did stop in a nearby gelato shop. Gelato is more in our price range.
The Place d'Armes, with the de Chomeday monument and the Bank of Montreal.
After gelato we kept wandering, but we were tired and almost hobbling now. We found the Marche Bonsecours, closed. It was late in the day. We decided we'd had enough, and would make a more formal visit the following day. Back to the van, back to the campground.
The next morning found us repeating the now-familiar drive. We get to the parking garage- closed, for some reason. The attendant sent us to another garage nearby. Thirty-five dollars. No, I'm not paying that to park. We turned around and drove back to the campground. "Hey Siri- nearest winery." She sent us to the Le Vignoble Du Domaine St-Jacques winery, where we sampled some lovely wines, fine enough for us to purchase a couple bottles. Then we found a boulangerie, and a fromagerie, and then a beautiful shady spot, and had a lovely picnic, with warm sunshine, bees buzzing in the wildflowers, the crickets chirping in there, too. I did not feel at all bad about missing Montreal round 2, even knowing we were leaving the next day.
Marche Bonsecours.
We enjoyed our short time in Montreal. It's lovely, grand, historic, and culturally rich. We found it not a great place for travelers on a budget, though, so we spent some time in the surrounding countryside, visiting places tourists don't usually see. It all evens out in the wash!
And next, we were off to Quebec City.
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