Montreal in 48 Hours (October 19-21)

[The pictures in this blog are from my camera phone, so they tend to be a little bit on the crappy side. I might add more pictures once the black & white ones have been developed. If you see a woman in the pictures there's a 99.9% chance it's not me, but my traveling partner, Tracy. Also, this ended up being a eating/shopping kind of blog, so it might be a little boring for the guys. LOL

One more thing...if you have a shot of alcohol for every time I use the word "tasty", I'm sure you'll have lots of fun no matter how boring this blog is.]

Weekend Plans...
I made my first trip out to Montreal October 19-21. While visiting my friend Tracy in Toronto, we took the stress-free option of taking the VIA Rail train into downtown Montreal. Courtesy of a VISA Perks summer promotion, we were able to get on the 5 pm express trains, round trip for $168.12 per person. Not the best deal out there, but as our train passed the highway and we saw the cars lining up in deadlocked rush hour traffic, the benefits were fairly clear.

It's been a long time since I've been on the train. The last time I was on one was when I was probably around 8 or 9. I went on a 3-day train trip with my mother to Vancouver. Since reading a Sweet Valley High book or writing in my Judy Bloom journal for long periods of time on a moving vehicle would invoke headaches or nausea, most of my time was occupied by sleeping, or walking back and forth between the cars. Back...and forth...back...and forth.

Okay, enough of a flashback. VIA Rail is much different now. The seats seem to be more comfortable (or maybe I'm just older and comfort oriented now), and the ride much smoother and faster than in the past (or maybe I have more patience). Snacks are offered at an inflated price (i.e. snack-sized Pringles would be $2.50 each, bottle of water would be $1.75) but nothing is stopping you from bringing your own meals to keep your stomach occupied during your travel.

Give me a clean bed to sleep in and a mostly clean shower, and I'm happy...
We arrived in the heart of Montreal at Gare Centrale around 9:45 at night, where it was pouring buckets of rain (literally). As I contemplated the water gushing around the gutters, Tracy sensibly flagged down a cab to take us to our hotel. The cabbie got us there for $6 and we check into the the downtown Hotel Quality Inn located on affectionately known party street, Crescent (1214 Crescent).

The hotel itself is small and fairly clean, although it's looking a little run down from heavy traffic. We got our rooms off of hotwire.com for a fair deal of $129.02 US for 2 nights. We were also braced for the fact that there would be groups of random people shouting drunkenly into the night until the wee hours of the morning since pubs and club line this rue heavier than I butter my toast.

If you can sleep through anything, or expect to be one of the revelers, than this is a great place to be. It's convenient and close to rue Sainte-Catherine, and extremely long rode in the center of downtown Montreal, peppered with tourists, brand-names, clubs, and main stream shopping. Personally, after stomping around all day, I fully expect to sleep like the dead even if I am normally a very light sleeper.

Not so memorable food...
Anyway, after we dropped off our bags, we headed back out into the sheets of rain to find some food to eat. We must of still been groggy from our naps on the train, since we probably could have just crossed the street and went into one of the 15 pubs lining the street. Instead, we decided against pub food and slogged around the wet streets and ended up into a very unmemorable rib version of Swiss Chalet. So unmemorable, I couldn't even tell you the name.

What I can tell you is after dinner, we had a little fiasco at the hotel, that required our key cards to be re-magnetized 5 times, a broken lock, and a relocation to a new room. By the time we finished sorting out all the details, I had no energy left to go anywhere.

It was an early night. I had tramped around all day in Toronto before the train trip, so a chance to unwind was more than welcome. FYI - not much of a party girl, obviously.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day...
Anyway, the next day was much better than our evening welcome. The pouring rain had stopped, and although gray clouds hung ominously all day long, it never did more than sprinkle or spit. That is more than enough for me.

When I wake up in the morning, my first thought is this. I'm hungry. My next thought. Bacon. Mmmm...bacon. Tracy and I made our meandering way to Eggspectations [1313 De Maisonneuve West (corner Montagne)] an all-day breakfast restaurant that specializes in the various ways of preparing eggs.

This particular location was interesting to get to. The streets and sidewalks that surround this restaurant are currently undergoing a face lift, so there were rocks, uneven pavement, and ankle-turning obstacles everywhere. Eggspectations is a busy restaurant that spans two floors with large windows and open atmosphere. Although there seems to be a perpetual lineup in the mornings, people are in and out of there like a revolving door.

I am not the best person when it comes to describing the tastes of food. Usually this involves the "mmm...good" or "mmm...bad". Excellent food usually involves me involuntarily closing my eyes so I can savor the food. I ordered my typical favorite breakfast meal - 2 soft poached eggs with bacon and whole-wheat toast. This particular meal came with grilled potatoes & fruit garnish, and I order a glass of orange juice as well.

The meal was average. I wasn't particularly unhappy with my meal, but this wasn't what I would call an eye-closing experience. I was happy the eggs were done right (almost NEVER get them right), but the bacon was thinner than normal and reminded me of tracing paper with it's translucent nature. I was pleasantly surprised that the orange juice was freshly squeezed, floating seeds and all - which was sweet and refreshing. The potatoes were also pretty tasty without being too salty and grilled with onions to add to the overall flavor.

The meal came to around $11 including taxes and tip. Not the cheapest out there, but I didn't leave feeling ripped off. I was happy with a full stomach so that was enough for me. Unless I was incapable of looking around for a new place to eat, I probably wouldn't visit again. Unless I had a hankering for eggs that were done just right, of course.

After breakfast we headed out to boule. Saint-Laurent to do a little shopping. We took the Metro (6 tickets for $12) from Peel station to the Saint-Laurent station and then walked a few blocks before we saw signs of life.

The question is not "should I shop", but rather "how MUCH I should shop"
Okay, here I'm going to had a disclaimer. When I travel, I tend to concentrate on only a few things, and they fall into these categories: food, shopping, architecture. I'm not a typical tourist junkie, nor do I care for institutions such as museums, observations towers, or zoos, though occasionally I make exceptions for this. I attribute this to the fact that I like "finding" things. I like wandering around, finding unknown, or uncommon little places.

With that known, on we go. One of my hopes on this trips was to be able to visit a couple of local designer boutiques. I'm a fan of Montreal design, but very rarely does it visit us out in Edmonton. So this is very much like a kid in a candy store...dangerously so. Oh, and for reference sake, Montreal carries a PST of 7.5% on top of the 6% GST.

Space fb
Our first stop was a little boutique called Space fb [3632 boul. St-Laurent], which houses clothing from designer Francois Beauregard. The store design and clothing style are simple, elegant, and classic. Heck, it even makes a rough personality like me feel a little refined. Both of the sales girls were extremely helpful and friendly, switching fluently between English and French depending on the requirements of their customers.

I loved more than I could fit, but still came away with two pieces. My first choice, robe vanessa [$129], a little black dress with two front pockets at waist height, elbow length slightly puffy sleeves, and a soft round scoop neck. My second, andrea scoop [$89], a peacock green sweater with elbow length puffy sleeves, and a ribbed low scoop neck. Okay, so it's not the cheapest first stop I could have made, but at least there was a sale going on, so I got 20% off the prices and saved $50 off my bill. Whew.

Square Saint-Louis
From here, the girls in the store suggested we move on to rue Saint-Denis, which had more local designer boutiques than boule. Saint-Laurent. We headed across rue Prince Arthur and made a brief picture stop in Square Saint-Louis since the trees were turning different colours and leaves were falling like rain. Across the street of the square is a glass building that is a fabulous typographic display and occupied my attention for a couple pictures. The name? Je ne sais pas...I was too busy taking pictures to remember to find out. LOL

rue Saint-Denis
We moved on and hit rue Saint-Denis with enthusiasm. The girls from Space fb were right. Wow. So many shops, and my feet were already killing me. There were clothing boutiques, jewelery, decor, vintage record shops, cafes, tea shops, restaurants, books stores, on and on and on. It was like Whyte Ave in Edmonton on steroids. I was in heaven and in very deep trouble.

Carré blanc
The next purchase I made was in a little home decor shop called Carré blanc [3999 Saint Denis] where I picked up a new fitted bed sheet [$55.84] in the leaf green colour I've been so fond of recently. If I was a bed decorating enthusiast, I probably could have spend a $1000 in that store picking from the multiple sheet styles and sets they had available for your home designer tastes. I guess I'm happy to NOT count this as one of my hobbies but that didn't seem to stop me from buying.

Roxy Lama
Now, the one thing I try to do (at the very least) is to buy a ring in every new city I get to visit. If not the city, at least the country. Thus, I have a ridiculously large collection of rings, and I remember where I got each one.

I knew I wouldn't really have a hard time finding a ring I liked in Montreal even with the limited time I was in town. I usually end up finding my best rings in stores I didn't expect, and this was one of them. We wandered into a little eclectic store called Roxy Lama [4063A St-Denis], which carried colourful, varied clothing, knick knacks and in the back a vast array of jewelery. For those who like custom jewelery, there is a designer in this store who does some lovely elegant silver pieces to order.

By the cashier, there was a glass display which had most of the items that held my attention. A gorgeous assortment of different rings with semi-precious jewels including turquoise, carnelian, and amethyst. The one ring that caught my eye was a silver ring that had a large, smooth polished, irregular shaped rutilated quartz, and on the sides of the setting were ball & wire silver detailing. Considering how uncommon large pieces of rutilated quartz are, $96.86 for this ring was a steal.

Arthe
Our next stop was one of pure interest. Tracy recently bought a new condo in Toronto and is going through the growing pains of trying to furnish her place with pieces she loves. It's not just the large items, but the small pieces as well. So while I'm shopping for clothes, we also are trying to keep our eyes peeled for items Tracy can use in her new home.

We found a kitch tea shop named Arthe [3804 rue Saint Denis] that carried all sorts of tea paraphernalia. Within are a large assortment of wildly decorated tea pots, cups, creamers, sugar holders, etc. Beautiful silver tins were available for sale to store your tea leaves or coffee beans, as well as a selection of different teas to buy. Downstairs is a cozy little space for you to sit down and enjoy a cup a tea and read a book or magazine.

Tracy found an adorable set of 4 double-wall glass expresso cups [$20] manufactured by a Montreal-based company called My Cup of Tea [mcot.ca]. The website only shows you the tea associated accessories for sale online, but there are quite a few locations all around Quebec that probably have an expanded inventory, so check the website.

Obscenities and caffeine...
So to this point, I've spent an obscene amount of money, and it wasn't even 3 PM yet. WTF? Tracy and I were running low on energy and decided on a caffeine boost. We were so tired, neither of us remember the name of the cafe we stopped at except that the railings and trim were red on the outside. I ordered a frappuccino and Tracy ordered a cappuccino that had Nutella lining the entire inside of the cup. If you're a fan of Nutella, or even just chocolate, Tracy highly recommends this combination (just maybe not too often).

Melow
Artificially recharged, we continued on our shopping odyssey. I really needed a new pair of walking boots, and my feet were reminding me that my current boots weren't meant for 8+ hours of walking. But at this point, there just was no shoes stores to be had. Instead, I was stopped in my tracks by a mannequin at the end of a stairwell that had a beautiful, asymmetrical black jacket hanging off it.

I was standing on front of the store Melow [3889 St-Denis], the boutique of local designer Mélissa Bolduc. This is the place where not only she sells her clothes, but makes them. Sure enough, taking a quick peek to the back of the shop were the bolts of fabric and all the makings of the fashion trade.

Mélissa sat behind her counter, amused, as I made a beeline to the jacket hanging on the rack and tried it on, all the while muttering under my breath how much trouble I was going to be in. This lined jacket has a wrap design that uses clip buttons to hold in place on the inside and by the shoulder. You tie the side of the jacket at the waist to hold it's asymmetrical shape. Tracy made no effort to stop me as I purchased this $239.29 black jacket that was so new on Mélissa's rack it's not even on her site yet.

My feet are killing me...
So what is a word that would indicate something worse than obscene? Whatever that is, that's where I'm at in the expenditure department. And yet, I still have at least one more purchase. This whole time I'm walking in heeled boots - and although they were my most comfortable pair, they certainly weren't comfortable enough. I wanted a pair of dress boots, but a pair of walking boots were also on the want list, and more or less necessary if I wanted to save my feet.

So after the black jacket purchase, we went into as many shoe stores we could find. There was about a half and hour left before the stores would close (Sat-Wed 10-6, Thr-Fri 10-9), and we figured that we would rather eat. We started heading back towards boule. Saint-Laurent, to try out Schwartz, probably the most famous spot to get yourself a Montreal smoked meat sandwich.

On our way, we found a shoe store called Sicily [251 Mont Royal Est). Nice shoes, but I was most interested in comfortable boots at this point, and after trying on about 20 shoes in different sizes and colours (the staff was VERY helpful), both Tracy and I ended up buying the same black flat micro-suede boots [$79.75]. Excellent...I now have a pair of boots I can comfortably wear to death.

Feed me Seymour...
After we got out of the store, our stomachs were really growling. We figured that we wanted to try something more like a real meal (which we haven't had yet), so we turned back to rue Saint-Denis.

On rue Saint-Denis there is a restaurant called l'académie [4051 St-Denis]. It's a 3-level corner restaurant that enjoy a high volume of patronage, especially on weekends. We were lucky as we were still fairly early for the weekend dinner crowd, so only a couple people were actually in front of us.

As you go through the glass doors, the hostess will greet you, and sort you depending on whether you have a reservation or not. Like most other multi-level restaurants I've seen thus far, through headsets they'll figure out which floor to seat you and direct you to the floor.

Once you've worked up your appetite climbing stairs (we were on the 3rd floor), you're seated at a table that is closely situated to its neighbors. Not the most roomy configuration, but considering how busy this restaurant seems to be, it's not surprising to see them trying to fit in as many tables as possible.

We were seated between two small tables, and after cramming our shopping bags under our chairs and table, we settled in to peruse the menu. Any who have gone to a restaurant with me already know my addiction to red meat. I almost never get seafood unless it's mussels or sashimi, mostly because I prefer my seafood either raw or in Chinese cuisine. My dilemma here was that not only did they have mussels available with different sauces, but they also served lamb - which I had a craving for for the last couple of weeks.

I had to make a choice, and in the end I had to choose the lamb dinner [$29.95] since I had been craving it for so long. The dinner came with the choice of a salad or soup, and I chose the mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. I also have a hard time getting veggies into my diet when I travel, so often enough I binge on vegetables because I haven't had any for a while.

The salad was at the very most very fresh. The balsamic was just enough to give the salad tang without being overwhelming, unfortunately, the oil in the salad was heavy and excessive for my taste.

The lamb arrived in a little tee pi arrangement, sitting on a dark sauce, and a small assortment of vegetables. I couldn't tell you what kind of sauce it was, but there was a hint of alcohol and it had a smoky tangy flavor with rosemary. The lamb was done medium rare, a little more rare than not. I usually like my red meat rare to blue rare, but rack of lamb tends to be overly chewy and difficult to eat if it's any more rare than I had it. If it's done too well, you may as well be eating the leather sole off a shoe.

Whatever the particular sauce was on this rack of lamb, I found it tasty enough to really enjoy it. The meat was soft, moist, and fragrant, and the sauce was complimentary rather than heavy. I don't know if it was an eye-closing moment...I've had tastier, but it was definitely a meal that pleasantly filled my stomach.

As we finished, our neighboring diners were taking a look at the dessert platter, and the familiar cylindrical ramekin of crème brûlée [$4.95] caught my eye. Crème brûlée for those who don't already know, is a French dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by burning sugar under a grill or small torch. It is usually served cold and is extremely tasty.

This particular crème brûlée had the thinnest layer of the hardened caramel, which made gave the dessert a light crispy texture. I like it best this way, since I find if the layer is too thick, I get the caramel stuck in my teeth. LOL. A nice sexy picture picking burnt sugar from your teeth, huh? Anyway, I digress. The crème brûlée deserved a couple moments of savory sleepiness before I finished devouring it.

We ended dinner with a complimentary cup of coffee before squeezing our way out of the restaurant and heading back to our hotel. As we left, we noticed that the line up to get in had grown astronomically larger...so much so that it ran out the door, around the corner, and down the street. We congratulated each other on beating the weekend traffic and continued on our way.

Needing a way to unwind...
After Tracy and I divested ourself of our purchases back at the hotel, we headed out to Vieux-Montreal [Old Montreal] to check out the cobblestone streets, unique architecture, and hopefully, a relaxing place to hang out and enjoy a drink or two.

As we headed towards the Metro, the streets were filling up with Montreal Canadien fans who had just left the game from the Bell Center. They were in a good mood since Montreal had beaten the Buffalo Sabres 4-2. As we made our way down to the Lucien-l'allier station, we noticed as we hit the train entrance level, the floor at bottom of the escalator was done up like a Hockey Night in Canada hockey rink. It was so cool, I went back the next day so I could get a clear photo of the floor.

We got off at Place d'armes station and headed up ground towards the Basilique Notre-Dame, the only architectural spot that I could name. My inability to remember names and places unfortunately has always plagued me. My attention span is usually so short, that I find it's the strangest, smallest things that will catch my attention and leave me gaping. This was a little bit of problem since Tracy would often leave me behind because she didn't know I had stopped. We had to established the single syllable grunt to alert her to my distraction.

Anyway, we hung out in the Place d'armes, a little square park across from the Basilique Notre-Dame, while I tried to do a couple night time shots. We headed along rue St-Paul checking out the brightly lit windows of the closed galleries and walked around the clumps of people waiting outside various pubs and clubs that lined the street.

I found a landscaped pig in one of those windows that made me laugh, and I briefly entertained the thought of buying a small one for my mother (year of the pig).

We took a quick trip down to the port to see if we could catch a glimpse of the water fountain located next to the Quai Jacques-Cartier, but unfortunately, they had already drained the water in anticipation of the winter months.

We did go back and see the emptied water fountain during the day so I could get a picture of it. I guess it was a bad thing being mesmerized by a couple guys scraping up gunk from the fountain floor. But like a train wreak, I couldn't look away.

Anyway, at nothing, you couldn't make anything out other than some dry concrete, so we headed back to the cobblestone streets to find a place to grab a drink.

Monsieur, I am parched...
After our meanderings along the port, I was tired and footsore, and looking for a place to just unwind from the very busy day. We almost headed into a pub that was featuring live music (rock) from an English cover band, but after testing the decibel level, we headed back out since I wasn't in the mood to shout in order to make conversation.

We stopped at a jazz bar called Modavie [1. rue St-Paul ouest], a restaurant and wine bar that features live jazz. We missed the live jazz, which kind of sucked, but decided to hang out at the bar anyway, to enjoy a glass of wine and relax since the atmosphere was low-key and mellow.

I ordered a cheese tasting platter with a glass of Graham's 20-year tawny port [$18 if ordered together], while Tracy ordered a glass of bold red wine. I couldn't tell you the cheeses on the platter, except for one - the very distinctive blue cheese. I can only eat that stuff when I'm drinking tawny port, and that's because the heavy honey taste of port is the perfect balance to the pungent aroma of blue cheese. I think if I make it to Montreal again, I will have to make it back to Modavie's to catch what I hope is a superb session of live jazz.

On the way to our beds, I stumbled across a building that had different coloured lit windows. It was a little psychedelic, so it took a few snapshots and moments before I managed to snap out of my colour-induced stupor in order to move on and grab a taxi back to the hotel so we could call it a night.

What? There's another day?
Yes it's another day, and sunny to boot! Tracy and I were pretty excited that the weather was clear with no clouds in side. I originally thought we would head back to rue Saint-Denis, but after figuring out how much money I burned up the previous day, we thought sight seeing would be a safer choice.

We decided to head back to Vieux-Montreal and have breakfast there. Even though we saw Vieux-Montreal at night, we figured it would be a different experience in the day. It was still fairly quiet in the streets, and still early yet. So the only people who were really out and about were fellow tourists trying to beat the crowds and get their mandatory photos under their belts.

As always, breakfast was first and foremost on our minds. We headed into the Place Jaques-Cartier, where the restaurant Le Fripon was serving a continental breakfast (1 egg, bacon, sausage, fruit, toast, potatoes, coffee or tea) for a decent price [$9.95]. We sat out in the patio so we could get some fresh, non-rainy air while we had our breakfast and watched the tourists make their way done to the port.

We had a slight issue with luke-warm coffee, which was quickly replaced after a bit of argument, but the food came out quickly enough, and to order. We were both surprised as to how tasty the potatoes were considering they looked like your typical cafe chips that had just been chopped into smaller pieces.

My eggs were also made perfectly to order (over easy this time), so that makes me 2 for 2. And to my delight, the bacon was not only plentiful, but thicker and tastier than the wafer thin stripes I had at Eggspectations. That alone would make my morning. And yes...I like to save my bacon until last. :) All in all, I was pleasantly pleased with my full stomach, and once we payed the bill, we headed out to the port once again.

We did our obligatory walk around the ports, a couple of photos together with me ferociously glaring into the sun because I couldn't see anything except the light off the water dazzling my eyes. After we headed slowly back into the cobblestone streets while I gawked at different buildings, masonry, little gardens, and window displays. I love how many little tea shops Montreal has.

Papeterie Casse-Noisette
While going along one of the little streets, we came across a cozy corner stationery shop called Papeterie Casse-Noisette [445 St-Sulpice]. In the back of the little store was a beautiful tiny spiral stairway that went upstairs where a small collection of art was on display.

Below was a varied selection of art supplies, papers, journals, portfolios, and writing instruments, which made me almost weep for my ban against purchasing any more pens. I found a couple gorgeous Italian portfolios that had price tags pushing past the $200 and made me once again curse my ability to pick up the expensive items in a store without looking at the price tag.

I did pick up a set of drawing pens that cover the range of gray [$17.32] that I'm pleased with. The store had many lovely colour inks, but realistically speaking, I wouldn't use colour as much as gray, so I had to pass on them.

Mmm...cupcakes...Les Glaceurs
We were almost back to the Basilique Notre-Dame after being distracted by a couple shops here and there. Almost, that is, until I passed by a unassuming store front that had one word I could not walk past. Cupcakes. Yup, you heard me right. Not too far away from the stationery store is a little ice cream and cupcake shop called Les Glaceurs [453 St-Sulpice]. There's are only a few cupcakes to choose from, but I went straight to the Choco Choco cupcake anyway. Ordered 1 to go [$3.25] and then we headed back to Place d'armes so we could sit down, watch the horse carriages load up, and I could eat my very delicious looking cupcake with relish.

Oh...and the cupcake was yuuuummmy. I'm not a fan of gourmet cupcakes because I find them too sweet, and the frosting too sugary. Homemade is best, and this particular cupcake was just like one, soft and moist cake, and smooth frosting that was sweet but not sugary.

Pink is for little girls...
As I was savoring the chocolaty haven of my cupcake, we noticed that the baby pink horse carriage parked in front of us found a new customer. A family with two little girls, the youngest in a pink jacket with pink accessories. I laughed and took a pictures, and I'm sure the family thought I was nuts, but whatever, it's not like I'm going to see them again.

Lost little sheep...
I'm not sure if it's just because I look lost all the time, but as Tracy and I sat there trying to figure out what to do with the rest of our day before heading to the train station, a local woman asked us in perfect English if we needed any help to find our way. This also happened to me when I was in Paris when a busy looking man walked passed me and stopped abruptly to ask if I needed any help or directions to find my way.

Apocathary find...
We meandered our way back to rue Saint-Catherine. Along the way, we found a little asian import boutique called Saithong. Instead was a beautiful apocathary cabinet from Hong Kong, over 100 years old. Tracy and I drooled over this piece for probably 10 minutes as the owner of the store told us that he had a 2nd one that he sold only the week before for $2800. For a cabinet that large, it's a steal since to find your own overseas and pay for shipping and customs would probably bring your costs to $3000 and up.

Modern musings...
No sooner than we had left Saithong, we stumbled upon yet another furniture store, but instead of asian imports, it was modern contemporary furnishings. My favorite kind of furniture, but extremely expensive and kind of hard to find where I live. The store we found was called Barami [404 rue St-Jacques ouest], and both Tracy and I wasted a ton of time here dreaming and sighing over the furniture there.

They also had a replica of the famous ball chair that I sat in and almost couldn't bring myself to come out again because it was so damned comfortable. If I actually had room to fit all that chair in my place, I would totally have it, guaranteed.

Tracy found a couple little plastic injection molded stools that fit together a little bit like puzzle pieces. At $69 a pop, there were are funky little possibility that she couldn't pass up. So we stacked them up, wrapped them in a couple plastic bags and lugged them back with us. They have some great lines to them.

My kingdom for a loaf of bread...
So the one of the last things I wanted to make sure I tried before we heading out on our 5 PM train back to Toronto was fresh bakery bread. I love bread. Love bread. People who go on no carb diets are insane (sorry). We had about an hour and a half to find decent bakery, but we had no idea where to start.

We stopped and had to ask for directions to then nearest bakery and after some vague directions and even vaguer hand gestures, we found Bakery Au Pain Doré - Le vrai pain français [1415 rue Peel]. Tracy bought 2 croissants, one chocolate, the other almond. I purchased of full loaf that had cheese baked into the dough. Yes...I know what you're thinking...I was greedy. But I wanted to make sure I had food before we headed home on the train.

I picked up a couple of individual butter pats and had my bread on the train. Mmmmmm...cheesy bread. Sooo...tasty. According to Tracy, her chocolate croissant was delicious, but it was the almond croissant that was superb.

Random thoughts...
I actually enjoyed Montreal a lot more than I expected. I kind of regret that I was only able to spend a couple days there - most of which was shopping until my feet almost fell off. It was almost too easy to stick to the tourist path, though I'm glad we at least went around our own way, and walked (sometimes crawled) at our own pace.

Although there were one or two locals (one a bus driver), who refused to speak any English, even a word or two to clarify the conversation, I found most locals to be friendly and willing to help in English, in French, and when the language barrier was difficult to overcome, wild sign language.

If the chance should drop in my lap again, I would be more than happy to visit this bright and busy city, armed with a padded wallet so I can hunt for hidden treasures, taste more bakery delicacies, and take in more stunning architecture.

The one thing I enjoyed most was having the chance to travel with my long time friend, Tracy. We've known each other our entire lives (minus a few months at the very beginning). I always have lots of fun with her, and this trip was a long time coming. Even though I'm sure she found it frustrating to turn around and find me a ways back staring blankly at something she couldn't quite fathom, she always took care of me, which I'm grateful for considering the depth of my absent mindedness.

Considering how much we both love food, it's probably a good thing we're not in the same city for too long because the damage we could wreck would be astronomical.

So while I was in Le Fripon, I saw this random sign posted on the entrance way...can anyone explain to me what the hell this means? Or is it just some inside joke to make us THINK it's suppose to mean something when it's really just meaningless geometry.

So I took this picture while I was down at the harbour...it's not a real obvious picture. The zoom on my phone is puny, and if you us it to the max, the pixel integrity of the image completely falls apart. But...if you look closely at the bottom of the tree on the left side, you'll notice someone taking a nap in the sun. I don't know what I was on at the time, but for some reason, I found it completely hilarious.

Next up...Toronto (October 18 - 28)...probably Part 1 of 2 since there's no way I'm going to fit everything into a single entry...