Bonjour Montreal!

Move July 6-10 003
Originally uploaded by Polish Carpetlayer.

“Bonjour!” Does anyone speak English? So let me get this straight, your queen presides from Brittan and you speak French even though the rest of your country speaks English? This is the silliest city I have ever been to. But don’t tell anyone from Montreal I said that, because if I EVER have the opportunity to live in Montreal, I would not hesitate to take it.

When we arrived our first impression was of the HI hostel - great if you’re young and single and used to living in a dorm. Once you pay for two, however, you’re getting close to the cost of a motel, where you have your own room, shower, and don’t have to sleep in a bunk bed. It was fine for the night. After getting settled in and deciding on a parking garage for the evening, we took the “concierge’s” recommendation and found this hip, energetic French restaurant where we could bring in our own bottle of ‘04 Languedoc. We paired it with seared tuna with a basil sauce and (don’t tell my family) duck “a la frambois” (raspberry sauce). It was wonderful and relaxing.

The next day we spent the morning finding a place to stay for the night. I was directed by a B & B who had no vacancy to www.bonjourquebec.com. I highly recommend this to anyone planning to travel in Quebec and I wish I knew about it before. Here we found a room at (speaking of dorms) the University UQAM for less than we were paying at the hostel. We had our own room in a quad where we shared a kitchen and two bathrooms with four other private rooms. But we did not use the kitchen, and neither did our one other quad mate. And to top it off, it was across the street from the Jazz festival!

The Jazz festival was so fabulous! But I’ll get to that later, or let Cas blog about it. (Cas is currently on a writing hiatus) First, after finding our lodging, we took the bikes for a tour of Montreal. Portland’s bike hospitality has nothing on Montreal. Not only did we have our own road, divided from the main road by a strip of concrete, but we had our own stop light!!! With cute little bike shaped lights! Ok, so that was for five routes they have mapped throughout the city, but there are bikes EVERYWHERE. Riding our bikes through downtown felt safe, even without bike lanes.

On our ride, we rode the set bike route through the bustling downtown water front through the more grungy and industrial neighborhoods of Montreal, which was cool to see. We then followed another road that took us deep into the city, up the hill, around a great little park, by several bike shops and a bike shop/bike travel agency!/café where we had lunch. And just in time, ducked under it’s awning to wait out a flash downpour.

Despite the car theft of the two American women staying in our hostel that occurred while ours was parked under the Days Inn for $20 a day (thank God for our decision), Montreal is a wonderful, beautiful city that we felt safe and at home in.

Please take the time to click on the picture to see our album from Montreal.  And please comment! (It’s our only form of communication at this time!)