Thursday, June 14, 2012

Parting shots from Montréal

Ken and I were in Montréal for less than forty-eight hours, but I've been posting about it for over a week. I'm amazed at how much we saw and how much of it was not planned. We did plan our dinner Friday night (at le Hangar down in a gentrifying industrial district near Old Montréal) and our lunch with friends on Saturday.

I don't know if these are caricatures of famous people or just random faces.

We also planned a brief meet-up with fellow blogger Tornwordo and his husband Serge for Saturday evening. It was great to meet them after reading about them for several years. But the rest was just wandering, either on foot or in the car.

On the rue Saint-Catherine. It's closed to cars in the summer in The Village. Must be great!

We both enjoyed Montréal a great deal and would love to go back. We're already talking about how it would be fun to find an vacation apartment rental for a week one of these years and spend some more time exploring the city. The list of things to do "one of these years" never seems to get shorter.

Serge (left) and Tornwordo (right). You can find his blog here.

On Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and set off to find a bagel place for breakfast. Our friends told us about two famous places: St.-Viateur and Fairmount up near a traditionally Jewish neighborhood. We found them, but they're just bakeries with take out, so we didn't stop in. We also learned that St.-Viateur has a bagel café on Avenue du Mont-Royal in the Plateau neighborhood that we found without too much trouble and enjoyed breakfast bagels and coffee.

St.-Viateur bagel shop and café. I had smoked salmon and cream cheese. Delicious!

After that we said salut! to Montréal and headed toward Burlington, Vermont.

13 comments:

  1. Montreal is worth a longer visit, certainly. I did a home exchange there for about a week (in November! Fortunately it was sunny rather than wet) and there was plenty to see and do, including an overnight in Quebec City, which is much more immersively French, and has plenty of history to show.

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  2. I've enjoyed your Montreal posts so much. Your friends' blog is really good, too.

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  3. Walt

    I was expecting a pic of the wood-fired oven in the bagel shop :-)

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  4. Doesn't Montreal have a special bagel, different from the NYC-style bagel? If that's what you ate, can you comment on which you prefer?

    Walt, I don't care how long you string out your travel tale; I am with you all the way.

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  5. Ditto what everyone said already :))
    (Well, okay, I wasn't EXPECTING a picture of the wood-fired oven in the bagel shop, but now that I know there was one, I would like to see it :))

    I really enjoyed Québec City. The vieille ville is nice and historic (though tourist-priced). We hoofed it several blocks away (toward the art museum) and found a street of restaurants where locals go, and that was fun (although I did fall for the old trap of forgetting that déjeuner is the Québecois term for breakfast, instead of petit déjeuner, so I got the wrong menu in the first place :))

    Have you two ever been north of Québec, up toward Chicoutimi and along where the St. Lawrence Seaway? We did a nice tour up that way, and it was well worth it. I'll bet you Albany-area high schoolers taking French traveled up that way for class trips, didn't you!

    Judy

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  6. I am enjoying your posts of your trip to the New World. Maybe next time you'll visit the First Town (Lewes, DE - 1631) in the First State (Delaware). You're always welcome here Walt. We have room for you.

    Ron

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  7. autolycus, that sounds great. We also went to Québec, but not on this trip. It was over 20 years ago!

    evelyn, thanks!

    t.b., I should have!

    carolyn, I'm not sure. The bagels were good, though. They might have been a little breadier than a typical NY bagel, which is more chewy. I prefer the chewy ones, but the Montréal bagels were darned good, too.

    judy, we have been up to the Lac St.-Jean, mucho years ago. One trip we've always talked about (but not yet done) is out along the river to the Gaspay Peninsula. We never went to Canada when I was in school! I'm sure somebody did, but no my classes. There were trips to France, but I never went on one.

    ron, thanks! I have been to Delaware (when I lived in Washington DC) and I think I've been to Lewes. It would have been in the early 80s, so I'm due for a return trip! :)

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  8. Walt

    Personally I like the Fairmount bagels better than St Viateur . They are more chewy .

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    1. Now I have to go back.

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    2. Yep

      and we can go to Schwartz for the smoked meat on rye and a cherry coke to wash it down :-)

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  9. I think the caricatures on the Kilo Café are of real people, but I don't know who they are.

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  10. Walt, we have some friends who live in Montreal (TMR neighborhood, 2 blocks from a main shopping area and the Metro). They routinely do house swaps and France is one of their favorite places to go. Email me if you want contact info.

    ...Susie

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