Montréal, Quebec

Just returned from a 5-day trip to Montréal. The wife and I got a really great deal on air/hotel and stayed at the posh Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. Please enjoy these random observations and accept my recommendation of this city as a wonderful place to visit.

• Local flavor was interesting. I like pistachios, and was pleased to see that Montréal also seems to like pistachios. At the many cremeries (ice-cream shops) I noticed that pistachio was almost always included, a rarity in my area. Of course, crêpes were also widely available both as fast-food and on the menus of more upscale places. While we were at La Ronde, we noticed a woman and her 2-year old eating some french fry concoction I had never seen before and she informed me that it was fries topped with cheese curd and brown gravy (perhaps a distant cousin to the incomprable chips, mushypeas and gravy I had experienced in Northwest England). She informed us enthusiastically “this is a Quebecois meal!” There are an abundance of lovely sidewalk cafés, coffee-shops (most omnipresent were Second Cup and Houton locations) and also Italian restaurants for some reason. On Crescent Street there is a lot of bars & restaurants – most could find something to suit their fancy there. Sadly, it weasn’t until our last day that we found an all-veg buffet called La Commensal that was delicious, fresh and wholesome.
• Montréal is ostensibly French-speaking but is really bilingual. I noticed that the deeper one goes into Montréal (literally, from the surface down), the less English one sees. On the surface, almost everything is French/English. In the underground city, much more French only. In the Metro, all French. Regardless, everyone we spoke with was bilingual so it hardly mattered. I eavesdropped on two middle-aged, professionally dressed women having Indian food one night and their conversation seamlessly flowed between the two languages. I wasn’t sure if they were practicing or felt that some topics were better in French and some in English. Perhaps they were trying to conceal their admiration my gigantic head.
• La Ronde, the amusement park across the river from Montréal was a lot of fun but made me realize how spoiled I am by Hersheypark. The two parks are actually very similar, boasting a similar mix of rides and very similar themes (both have medieval and western-themed sections that appeared to have been built in the same period), but Hershey’s rides are just bigger, and with recent additions, there are more of them. Don’t get me wrong, we had a blast, but we kept saying “ohhh, this is just like the {insert ride here} at Hershey … but smaller.” Their double-track wooden coaster, Le Monstre was a great ride – fast but very smooth and one bank was so deep I was sure the train was going to jump the track.
• We visited the Montréal Biodome (virtual tour) one day and it was well worth the trip (and the long wait in line though if I were to go again I’d buy tickets in advance). Not a huge fan of zoos, I was curious how this exhibit that differentiates itself from zoos in its marketing would do so in fact. Clearly, a lot of time and energy had been expended to provide a realistic facsimile of the animals’ habitats. The Capybaras, Lion Tamarins, Mackaws & Parrots, Tropical Frogs, Porcupines and Otters were all incredible. However, the Beavers, Puffins, and Penguins made the Biodome something really special. There was a room where you could view the underwater habitat of the Beaver and actually watch them gnaw through branches and swim – they’re utterly graceful underwater and it’s amazing how quickly they can cut through a substantial branch. The Puffins‘ underwater habitat could also be viewed and watching these excitable birds ‘fly’ underwater is a rare treat. Their wings are adapted for swimming and they make astoundingly fast curves, dives and ascents. The Penguin habitat was a bit small for my liking (for so many penguins) but seeing Emperor Penguins in real-life was shocking in that I always imagined Penguins were about a foot and a half tall, not 4 feet tall. Their markings are striking and feathers iridescent.
• The aforementioned underground city is just incredible. It tickled the part of me that’s still adventuring with the Hardy Boys – blocks upon blocks upon blocks of upscale malls, metro stations, restaurants, downscale services & shops all underground in a labyrinth of tunnels. I have rarely felt so proud as the evening when I found our way back to the hotel through 8 or 10 blocks of subterranean shopping when it was raining outside. A marvelous idea and we later discovered that there was much to explore that hadn’t yet made it onto our map. The whole thing was like opening a secret door in the back of your bedroom to find not just a passage, but a passage with people, and food, and …