First off, while I was in Montreal, the awesome
Jodi featured me on her blog, so go check out
my interview with her!
After several days with my husband's family in Toronto, we took the train to Montreal to spend a day and a half there. M. had been several times, but this was my first trip to Montreal. It wasn't nearly long enough to explore such a truly excellent city. Although I am very partial to Chicago, Puebla, New York, and Toronto, on first impressions, I would put Montreal up there as one of the best cities in North America. It had an incredibly cosmopolitan kind of vibe and almost everyone that I saw of all genders, races, sizes, and ages was incredibly stylish. If McGill wanted to hire me, I wouldn't hesitate to go.
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| At the quays |
M. and I packed as much as we could into our time there. Once we arrived and got checked into our hotel, we immediately set off to explore. We walked around the quays of the Old Port, saw some street theater in the city's historic district, and had a delicious dinner at one of the many restaurants on Rue St. Denis, followed by dessert at Juliette & Chocolat, and a couple of microbrews on a bar patio. I had the Dieu du Ciel Rosée d'Hibiscus, which was a lovely wheat beer with a very floral nose on it.
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| Street theater in the old city |
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| M's brownie at Juliette & Chocolat |
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| Tasty Microbrews |
I had wanted to run in Montreal, but the weather forecast for the second day we were there was threatening thunderstorms. I decided to forgo my run in order to head out earlier in the day and hopefully beat the rain for a hike up the mountain with M. The views of the city from the mountain were incredible and well worth the trek. I saw lots of runners out and felt a little bit guilty for having skipped my run. I think I got in some decent exercise, though. By the time M. and I made it down from Mont Royal, it was lunchtime and we were starving. In order to be fair and scientific we decided to sample bagels from both Fairmount Bagel and St. Viateur Bagel. Both were delicious, but I'm going to give St. Viateur a slight edge. We spend the afternoon museum-ing and doing some shopping as the rain poured down. In the evening we got all gussied up and went to a light show at the Basilica. Unfortunately, it was still raining so I didn't get any pictures. Also it was a shame that the light show turned out to be mainly cheesy historical reenactments of important events in the building of Notre Dame and it was pretty underwhelming. Our dinner made up for it, though. We had an incredible meal at a restaurant in the old part of the city, called Aix Cuisine du Terroir.
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| From Mont-Royal |
I would have loved to have spent another day in Montreal, but we were due in Boston on Friday evening so we woke up early the next day and picked up our rental car to drive to make our way down.
That's all for now. I have a recap of my time in Boston and a race report to post soon. I'm hoping to catch up on everyone's blogs later today and tomorrow. We just got home from our vacation last night (delayed for a few extra hours due to the discovery of a leaky front tire while still in the airport parking garage), and I had to be up and on campus early this morning for a MA defense, as I was sitting on the committee.
What is your favorite city in North America? What do you love about it?
I have always wanted to visit Montreal.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite city is NY. Partly because it is home, even though it has been about 20 years since I lived there. I love the culture and the architecture, the canyons of buildings and the rivers and of course the museums and Central park. Glad you had such a great time!
Montreal is on my short list for a trip next summer. I'll always love NYC the best, but there are lot of cities I like visiting.
ReplyDeleteGreat recap! I would love to visit Montreal some day! I have told myself that I can't go to Europe until I[ve paid down my grad school loans to a certain amount (and it's an aggressive goal) so I should look at going to Montreal to sort of tie me over until I can get back to France! Sounds like a great city!
ReplyDeleteIt's tough to say what my fave city is because I feel like I have not seen all that much of the US. Of the cities I've seen, my fave in the US is New York. I just love the vibe and how the neighborhoods are all so different! Outside of the US, my fave city in North America is Vancouver, BC. I just adored that city! So beautiful with the ocean and the mountains and it had a great vibe to it! And cheap sushi!
Oh, I'm so glad you loved it! You can't even scratch the surface in a day and a half. You'll have to go back and have more fun still.... I actually prefer Montreal to NYC (don't tell anyone). I feel it's totally chic and cosmopolitan, but given to enjoyment, not commerce. Of course, I also love NYC. So sorry I didn't have a chance to see you. This last couple of weeks has been insane. I'm so tired, but I start the new job tomorrow. Then there's a long weekend (thankfully), and M goes to see my parents for 6 weeks (on Friday we have to get her off on an 8:30 am flight). Just gotta keep pushing through for a couple more days. I tell myself, this is all going to happen whether I fight it or not. So I'm trying to be calm, cool and collected... :-)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite city in North America is Victoria, where I did my undergrad. It's just beautiful there.
ReplyDeleteOooo, I love Montreal! I did my undergrad at McGill. I used to buy bagels fresh from the oven at Fairmount and eat about half of them, still warm, before I made it home. In my defense, Montreal is very snowy and warm bagels were necessary for the walk home. The city I live in now has a grocery store that ships in bagels (cooked but frozen) from St Viateur. They are not as delicious as fresh-from-Fairmount but Montreal bagels outside of Montreal are such a rare treat that I don't care.
ReplyDeleteWe spent some time in Montreal on our honeymoon, haven't been back since. Perhaps we are overdue to return... :-)
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to visit Montreal! I'm pretty partial to Chicago, myself. There's so much to do here, and I've always thought it was cool that they actually built a city on a lake. I think if I had to pick a favorite city other than my own, it'd be San Antonio, TX. I love that place. It's a beautiful city, the weather is always pretty nice, there's plenty to do and all kinds of awesome food.
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