Blogs from Old Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, North America - page 2

The St. Lawrence river, with the third largest drainage area in North America covering 1,610,000m2from its farthest draining site in the Great Lakes, runs from the outflow of Lake Ontario through two provinces - Ontario and Québec - out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence at its enormous estuary. From Lake Ontario to its mouth, it also happens to flow through several of Canada's major cities - including Toronto, Montréal, Québec and, by way of a major tributary, the nation's capital Ottawa - which makes it a convenient base for the itinerary of a first trip to Canada. Without having planned it deliberately, this 2 1/2 week trip almost entirely took place along the St. Lawrence River and its sources, providing a thematic continuity to it all. Flying out from Paris, my trip began with five ... read more

I was sort of intrigued when friends decided that Montreal would be their next vacation destination. I was actually quite surprised as I thought we were headed to England & Scotland. But I am flexible. “Count me in” I said. And with the weak American Dollar, I was not looking forward to the financial ouch of European travel with conversion of the lagging American Dollar to the British Pound or Euros. And I can speak French and would enjoy a Parisian style ambiance without the 7 hour flight time for a pittance of a trip to France. As a devotee of haute French Cuisine, I could be useful translating French menus in a flash for not so French cuisine addicted friends. I was surprised by the small Delta Connection aircraft from NYC to Pierre Trudeau Airport ... read more

En route to Montreal: Rebekah and Dan are relaxing in the Euro-styled lounge here at the Toronto airport: we have about 30 minutes til our connecting flight to Montreal. We've availed ourselves of the free almonds, diet Coke, and coffee. I'm enjoying the Mac lounge where I can use one of a dozen free computers. During the first flight from Chicago, I had unusual success with Scrabble on my Kindle. Dan got his celebrity news update by reading "US Weekly" magazine from cover to cover, and Rebekah spent some time with Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five. Kind of a gender-role-reading-reversal, I think! When we arrive we'll find the HI hostel and then go exploring. Rebekah has a list of pubs that offer special "craft" beers, Dan wants to see an art museum, and I want to ... read more

Hi again! I know it has been awhile since I updated our journey but I couldn't get into my blog account for some strange reason. Also, I am going to miss a small segment of the last of Quebec because I was without a camera for a few days. We had some amazing experiences from Montreal to Gatineau. After our day of work in St. Jerome, one of our team members arranged a team dinner at a "Sugar Shack". The maple syrop farm was really cool. I wish I had pictures. We had a traditional dinner served to us which included alot of maple syrop. Our first course was pea soup. Mom and Dad, I actually ate it and enjoyed it! Fresh baked bread, pork pate, pickled onions and beets, deep fried bacon, maple hot dogs, ... read more

We really enjoyed our all too brief trip to Montreal, a city that seems to suffer from an identity crisis but is a great city to visit with beautiful natural features, a fascinating history and a vibrant population. I started the morning in a very healthy way, going for a 10km run, the first half of which was along the picturesque McGill University, where all of the staff were on strike and protesting, and then up the very steep Mont Royal, a huge park on the hill that overlooks the city. The views from the top were fantastic on this very sunny morning so I stopped for a break and then ran back down the hill which was much easier! There were so many people out running, riding and even doing some weird sort of cross ... read more