First day of serious sight-seeing.
We headed straight to Vieux Montréal to the Château de Ramezay, a museum charting the history of the city
. Alas, Alan forgot the bit in the guidebook that said "opens Tuesday to Sunday..." Ho Hum. Never mind, we could still explore the old town.
Well, what do you know?, it was already time for coffee. We found a little café in the Bonsecours Market. This used to be a large theatre with a dome. Now it has been saved and converted into shops and it also houses a museum of textile and costumes; also shut on Mondays.
The old town is very pretty with narrow streets and old buildings. Yes, we are in Canada, which is celebrating its 150th birthday this year, but Montréal is also celebrating its 375th anniversary so there are some genuinely old buildings around. The narrow streets and open squares (oblong ones) gave it a European feel. The Old Port has now been transformed into a modern one. The guidebook wrote that the locals have taken the riparian promenade to their hearts and many now use it for their daily jog. On the day of our visit, the whole area was under a thick blanket of snow, though there were a few hardy runners out dressed in suitably warm Lycra.
Major sites of visit being closed for the day seemed to be the order of the day for us. We wanted to see the Basilique de Notre Dame, but it was closed to visitors because they were getting ready for a 'sons et lumière' event, part of the 375th celebrations. As we couldn't go into the House of God, we visited the House of Mammon instead. Across the Place from the cathedral, is the Bank of Montréal. The building looked like Roman temple and the inside was gloriously ornate. It looked nothing like our local branch of HSBC!
As we bought ourselves a 3-day travel card, we had a change of pace and sauntered around a nice leafy residential area uphill from Downtown called Plateau Mont-Royal. The area was lovely, with artisan cafés, bakeries, boutiques, and for the season, a Cabane de Sucre, where products on the theme of maple syrup are for sale (never knew there were so many...). We also tried the speciality "tire d'érable". This basically is a lolly of maple syrup: warmed light syrup poured over crushed ice and rolled up on a lolly stick. It was delicious!
To reassure certain friends of ours that we didn't go hungry, there will be a number of photos of various meals we ate today.
Getting to know the city
Monday, March 20, 2017
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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2025-02-16
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Koen en Wim
2017-03-22
Heerlijk om te lezen. Alle herinneringen komen weer boven. Geniet ervan!
Lynda
2017-03-22
Looks lovely. If Montreal is part of Canada and Canada is 150 years old, how come Montreal is older? Great travelog.
alan-hamish
2017-03-22
To Lynda, 2017 is the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Dominion of Canada, but Montréal, which was part of New France, was founded in the 17th century, hence it's celebrating its 375th birthday.
Athena Barrett
2017-03-22
There is something you've captured in the architecture of this place that is very appealing and creates a certain atmosphere that I cannot seem to put my finger on. Dreamy.