Leaf Peeping Tour - Montreal

And sample it we did!

We arrived in Montreal around 6:30pm on Wednesday night. After we got settled, we decided to go out to dinner. The front desk clerk recommended a place, and after checking it out we found it dead and uninspired.  Of course, it's a Wednesday night, but we had hoped for a more fun atmosphere.  So we hopped in a cab and went to a cocktail bar called Lab where, again, we were pretty much the only people there, but we had a great chat with the bartender.  Lab is like the Montreal version of my favorite cocktail place, PX, which is in Old Town and never fails to make me feel fancy and serve me delicious alcoholic treats.  After we had both had some cocktails, and chatted a good bit, Gabrielle sent us to the place where we had the best meal of the entire trip.

(This isn't where we ate but the sign was too funny.) 

We walked a few blocks through a bougie neighborhood and found Le Chien Fumant to be warm, intimate, delicious-smelling, and packed with people.  We had a GREAT meal.  We had foie-gras stuffed ravioli, skate à la Grenobloise, and I'm having a hard time remembering what I had, but I was more focused on the atmosphere. We sat at the bar which is right in front of their open kitchen so I was already distracted watching all the action. The owner was there and he was pretty easy on the eyes.   We told him Gabrielle said hi and tried to charm him, but he seemed introverted and quiet, a sort of solemn restaurant genius.  We also met a Quebecois country bumpkin who had the singular strangest accent when he spoke French that I have ever heard.  It was awesome though.  He's also a chef and came there to eat and hang with his buddies who work there and he asked us all kinds of questions. He also helped translate most of the menu for us.  C'est quoi P.D.T.? (pommes de terre - potatoes) Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire "aneth"? (Dill) Comment preparer quelque chose à la grenobloise? (Avec du beurre brulé, câpres, et citron - brown butter, capers, and lemon).

 I had the strangest feeling from the time I entered Montreal that it didn't feel like a place to visit. It felt more like a place to live. It's comfortable and easy getting around, not too big, multicultural, just a good fit for life.  I fell right into a routine there. So much so that I almost felt weird visiting there and being in a hotel with touristic purposes.  I felt like I should be going to school or going to work.

We finished our dinner and caught a cab, reluctantly and not without a stumble or two.  We cabbed back to the hotel and planned the next day.  Christi tried to talk me into doing a bikram class with her.  I wanted to go to the Biodome and Parc Olympique, so I chose that instead.  I spent my morning riding the Montreal metro, surveying the highly international, beautifully varied inhabitants of this town.  I saw businessmen, lots of students (there are more than 5 well-known universities in Montreal), moms, kids.  It certainly didn't look like the DC metro on a morning commute in.

I started at the Biodome. It's one of the largest features in the city which is not known for beautiful architecture.  Most of what remains in the park are remnants of the 1976 Olympic Games and the buildings, as you can imagine, reflect that dark age of architecture where everything was concrete and bad looking.  The part of W&M's campus that was built during the 70s is largely regarded as a blight, especially as compared to the loveliness of Old Campus.  Anyway, the Biodome is really cool.  You walk through areas that each reflect different climates and in them you find different animals.  You'll find penguins and puffins, porcupines and otters, and lots of beautiful trees and flowers.

I had hoped to see an otter in Acadia but one in captivity is okay too.  They're such fun, cute animals.  I watched him swim skillfully for a while, and then continued on my tour of world climates.  After finishing at the biodome I went to the Botanical Gardens. They are located a short walk away in the same general area as the Biodome.  After seeing the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis and now Montreal, I have decided that in many cases, Botanical Gardens are a worthwhile stop.  You can count on abundant natural things, beautiful walks, and a quieter atmosphere.   It was a warm, sunny day and I had a fantastic time exploring the artistic botanical sculptures on display.  

When I got back to the hotel, there was much rejoicing, because, on the second-to-last day of our trip, Christi's bag had arrived.  We ate lunch at a vegetarian place next door to our hotel which was really delicious, and then we headed into the Old Port region for some touristy highlights.  I was disappointed with the Old Town.  Christi bought a beautiful necklace and they did have some very good shopping.  But I felt like it was the same as Quebec City, and didn't have much to offer except pretty things for purchase.  I think cruise ships stop here too and I think other parts of Montreal were more authentic than this part, even though it was pretty with all the stone buildings and cobblestone streets.  We didn't go to any of the museums and that probably would have been a good idea.  

After we were done strolling through the Old Port, we went back to the hotel area and drove up to the top of Mont Royal.  We watched the sun set (indirectly) and took in the view of the city from a lookout point right near the cross.  

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, got ready for our dinner out and headed to our restaurant.  We had a really nice dinner there in the chic, lively area of downtown.  Our table seemed like a sweetheart table, as the chairs were beside one other, and in a very prominent area of the restaurant with no other tables around it.  Jokes were made about proposals, etc.  It didn't compare to the previous evening's dinner but it was a nice evening out.  We headed back to the hotel after and started packing up in preparation for the trip's final day and our exit from Canada.