Becks and the Cities

Salut! Bonjour! This Thursday, I’m posting on our recent travels to Montréal, also in the Québec province.  Last week, I posted on Québec City and mentioned our fast food frenzy (aka the language barrier dilemma). After we grabbed breakfast, we made the three hour car ride to Montréal! Of course, it was raining, but that wasn’t going to stop us from spending the next 24 hours in this beautiful city.

First stop in Montréal was to get out of the rain.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a more beautiful church in North America than the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal.  The Gothic Revival basilica was built in 1672 and displays detailed stained glass windows, an impressive pipe organ, and ornate statues with Biblical reference.  The pictures I captured fall short of the church’s true beauty.  To top it all off, an organ filled the sanctuary with music. I was in total awe. 

Afterwards, we went to Old Montréal (check out Saint- Paul Street) and explored shops along the cobblestoned roads with European resemblance.  Eventually, we stopped in a small restaurant called Frite Alors. That’s right, it’s poutine time.  How could you go to a French speaking territory and not get any?? Tristan ended up ordering my meal, since I couldn’t read the menu. I ended up with a pulled pork and grilled onion sandwich (yumm!!).

After lunch, we took a drive up to Mont-Royal.  This is the BEST spot for viewing all of Montreal! Although it was cloudy on the day we went up (thanks a lot rain), it was still a spectacular scene! I’d highly recommend starting your journey here so you can see the city as a whole before you dive in.  We checked into our Airbnb, relaxed, and got dressed for dinner. Fun fact, our Airbnb host was Celine Dion’s personal chef for a while, so there’s that.

We had dinner at Modavie, a wine bar with live jazz music. We had such a great view of the city from our seats and the meal was fantastic, too! We each ordered a cocktail and I selected a duck confit on wild mushroom risotto. If that’s not a great rainy day meal right there, I don’t know what is. Next time, I’d like to visit the Montréal Botanical Gardens, where 10 greenhouses sit on 185 acres of decorated land. The Montréal Biodome is another item on my Montréal bucket-list.

If you’ve ever been to Montréal, post a comment! I’d love to know where some fun spots are! Although our trip was short and sweet, we were able to cover a lot of ground and see some of the best parts in the city. Next week: Toronto!!