French Canada: Montréal

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

This was my first visit to French Canada, and the second visit to the country itself. We grouped with Danya’s parents just as the last time — and this made the trip even more interesting. Danya’s dad used to work as a tour guide, so he knows a lot about the history of Canada as well as tourist attraction spots.

We left Brooklyn at around 14:30 on Thursday, picked up Danya’s mom from work, and headed towards Montréal. The traffic was brutal, just as expected, so it took us 3-4 hours to drive through Manhattan.

On our way we stopped two times for sightseeing — in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, and in Montpelier, the capital of Vermont. Harford’s capitol building is just gorgeous. It’s made of marble and granite, and has some noticeable features of Gothic design. I must say that it’s one of the most impressive capitol buildings that I’ve seen so far.

I was also amazed to see some eagles flying around. They did not seem to be disturbed by our presence, and as Danya noticed on the pictures that he took, were ringed. We also caught a performance by local nightingales — and it was just beautiful!

Vermont’s state house is OK, but it didn’t strike me as being something special. A very fresh air and a view of a bright starry sky with a milky way obviously visible were special though (Danya insisted on making the sky viewing stop somewhere in Vermont).

We arrived at our hotel at around 3:30 in the morning. We stayed in Doubletree for 3 nights, and to be honest, I was a bit disappointed by this particular place. The room with a noisy crooked bathroom door was mediocre. Also, we only got one complimentary breakfast ticket for the room, and in my opinion it’s just ridiculous since most of the time there are at least two occupants per room.

They also stressed Danya out on Saturday night, when there was no parking space whatsoever around the hotel (and they charge $16.50 + tax for parking per nigh), so he had to park by a hydrant on the street and run for some help. But the hotel’s location was good — close to the center of the city, and just one block from Montréal’s Metro.

On Friday afternoon we went to explore the city of Montréal. The majority of the people on the streets were speaking French — after all, Montréal is one of the five largest french-speaking cities in the world. I really like the sound of the language, but can’t quite reproduce its “R”s. All the street signs were in French too. It seemed that everybody speaks English as well, but many don’t feel as comfortable with it as with French.

First we walked through some streets with a whole bunch of restaurants; many of them had outside sitting areas, and all of those were packed later that night.

There are many beautiful buildings, both old and modern, which give the city a special character. What I noticed compared to New York is that there are more open spaces in Montréal, so it’s sometimes easier to appreciate the architectural beauty of the city.

We visited the Notre-Dame basilica of Montréal, which is over a hundred years old. The church’s interior is truly a piece of art!

Fires of many candles in colored glass candle holders somehow increased the feeling of being close to something beautiful.

I also really liked La Joute — a fountain designed by Jean-Paul Riopelle, which is now located in the international district of the city.

We also visited the Biosphere Museum on the Saint Helen’s Island. We didn’t actually go inside the museum, but we walked around it.

We then walked through the island to the casino. Needless to say that the nature there is very beautiful, and that I really enjoyed our walk. The casino inside is indistinguishable from many casinos I’ve been to, but outside it looks quite unique due to the fact that it was designed to be an Expo 67 Pavilion, and not a casino.

Since we were very tired by the end of the day, we took a bus, and then a metro to get to the hotel (no more walking). Danya’s dad wanted to eat in some restaurant’s outside area and enjoy the street view, but, as I said before, there were no availability, so we ended up inside a “La Crêperie”. I’ve got a creamy leek soup, and a chestnut crepe. The soup was OK, but the chestnut feeling was way to sweet for my taste. Oh well, I don’t mind to occasionally eat something not-so-yummy in order to discover new flavors. Danya’s parents liked their crepes with mushrooms, ham and bechamel souse.