I was honestly shocked at how French Montreal was. Of course, I knew Montreal was full of French speaking people - I work with them! But, I guess I just expected it to be partly French/partly English. It was SO French!! Everyone would first speak in French to me and I would have to say I didn't speak it. They all knew English, but it is definitely not their 1st language. Some speak very good English, even with no accent, others struggle to know all the words - just depends on who you're talking to! Everything was in French!
Here is what I did when I got out to explore:
- Explored The Underground. Montreal has the 2nd largest underground city in the world! It was built for people to escape the cold winters. It is very nice - clean, bright, lots of good stores and restaurants. You can get to many buildings downtown and even entire malls without ever setting foot outside. Our hotel was located just above The Underground.
- Shopping & eating in the Latin Quarter. This was my favorite neighborhood that I found in Montreal and I ended up going there 3 separate times! It was very quick and easy to get there on the Metro, which had a stop just under our hotel. There were 2 streets I spent most my time on. 1) St. Denis which was a little more sophisticated and 2) St. Laurent, which was a little more funky. I loved the shops on St. Denis. Here are a few pics on St. Denis...it was a long street and each section had a unique look!
- Lunch at Schwartz' Hebrew Deli. Schwartz' is a very famous restaurant known for their smoked meat sandwiches. It was delicious. I ordered it like most people - with fries and a Black Cherry Soda. The sandwich was good, but the Black Cherry Soda might have been the best I've ever had. It turned out they had Schwartz' bring in sandwiches for one of the weekend parties - if I had known that, I wouldn't have gone there for lunch, but then I would've missed out on the awesome soda!
I was at Schwartz' on the coldest day of the week, yet
there were still people waiting outside to get in!
- Drinking chocolate at Juliette & Chocolat. I had never had this kind of hot chocolate (although, there are at least 2 places in NYC that serve it that I've wanted to go to over the last 2 winters, but haven't made it...maybe this is the year)! It was thick and dark and oh, so freakin' good! I loved it. However, within about 20 minutes, I had a sugar-crash harder than I've ever had before. I became so tired so quickly and generally didn't feel so great. Luckily it didn't last long, but, wow, that cannot be good for you.
- Chez Jose Bakery! When in France (or in a French speaking place), you have to get a pastry! I picked up a delicious tart from this quaint bakery in the Latin Quarter.
- Shopping at Jean-Talon Market. I had read good reviews about this market, so I went to check it out. It was evening when I went, so it was pretty dead. I was able to pick up baguette, prosciutto, olives, cheese, and some oranges to take back to the hotel for a yummy dinner.
Dinner from Jean-Talon and dessert from Chez Jose!
- Walking through Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal). I expected this area to have more shops and restaurants than it did. It was very quiet in this neighborhood, probably partly due to the fact that it was extremely cold the day I was there. It is a neat area with a more European look & feel. Really small, windy streets. I had wanted to go to a cafe there, but it was closed, so I really didn't do much there.
- While in Old Montreal, I stopped by the Notre Dame cathedral, which looks like a small replica of the Paris one. I debated going inside - not sure it could be worth the $5 entry fee. I ended up going for it and was so glad I did. It was absolutely beautiful inside! Pictures cannot capture it. But, the painting all over the walls/ceiling, the stained glass windows, and sculptures were simply amazing.
The outside, made to resemble the real deal in Paris.
The organ at the back of the church was gorgeous.
This was the chapel -- totally different look than the main sanctuary.
- Went to see Mont Royal. Mont Royal is a "mountain" in the center of Montreal, but to me it's really more of a really, really big hill than a mountain. There is a park on the mountain that was designed by the same man who designed Central Park in NYC. It was hard to get a real feel for what the park is like with all the snow and ice, but I'm sure it's probably really awesome in warmer months. I really wanted to hike to the Chalet that is at the top of the mountain, but the day I went was the coldest day we had and I was a little afraid that I would not make it up and back down! So, I just walked a little ways up and got a little view of the city and the river. I'm sure the views at the top were amazing!
This was the snowy trail that would lead me to the top!
View of downtown from inside the park
I thought this little, red buried fire hydrant was so cute!
- One thing I love to do when exploring a new city is to walk down residential areas. It gives me a better feel for the city than going to the touristy areas. There were some great residential streets near the Latin Quarter that were so cute. Montreal is known for having exterior staircases on multi-family homes. When I saw a picture of them before seeing them in person, I thought they would be ugly. They are actually quite cute in person!
- Tea! I went to a quaint little tea room that didn't end up being at all like I expected! I had read good reviews about it and expected it to be like an English tea room, with yummy teas and cakes and such. The entire menu was in French! So, I did my best to pick out a tea, but finding ones that had words that I thought translated to "floral" and "mint". The food didn't look great, so I just got the tea. It was good and nice to sit in such a cozy, quiet place, but I've definitely had way better tea.
I really liked Montreal and think I'd like to go back sometime in the spring or summer!
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing - this was a very cool glipmse of Montreal. It actually made me want to go there - will have to make a trip sometime.
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