Je t'aime Montréal

Days 12 - 14: 165 miles, destination Montréal, Canada

Total miles: 2990

Oh, I love it here. It's so different from Québec and there's so much more to see. I already wish I had planned more time to spend here. I got here in the afternoon and met my AirBNB host - this time I'm staying in a shared apartment so Daniel, who lives here, met me with the keys. My plan was to drop my things and go out and explore the neighborhood I'm staying in since I had read that it's a great area to check out and not one that tourists would normally visit, but once I had gotten the tour from Daniel and brought in my things and he left I realized I was tired, hungry, and *really* needed to do laundry. So, I ordered tikka masala and loaded up the washing machine instead.

Day 1 - since I had stayed in the night before, I booked a scooter tour for day 2 and decided day 1 would be exploring Old Montréal, Vieux-Port, the International District, and a bit of Downtown Montreal on foot. Old Montréal and Vieux-Port were my priorities, so I searched Google Maps for a good cafe in Old Montréal and I was off in an Uber. The day did not disappoint from start to finish.

The coffee shop happened to be Italian, and it was fantastic. Excellent latte and while I try not to start my day with only a donut, it was HARD because they had some good lookin' ones - I mean, pistachio creme anyone? I sat at a little table with this dreamy window.

Outside that dreamy window was this adorable little street. The cobblestones, architecture, flowers, lamp posts - these are all things I saw over and over again in the streets in the old section. I could take 10,000 pictures of scenes like this.

See what I mean...?

It's just so gorgeous...

I wandered all day, going in and out of shops, up and down streets, taking in the whole area.

Day 2 - Scootin'! I spent the morning walking around the Plateau and Mile End areas and also did a scooter tour around these areas as well. It was a drastic change from Old Montréal. It was much more urban and cool - I found out later that the area has undergone a great amount of gentrification in recent years.

One of the things Montréal is known for is their bagels. I was surprised at this as coming from the Northeast US, didn't we invent bagels (no, we didn't either, ours are just better). You probably just love what you're used to. Montréal's bagels were small and on the sweeter side - not donut sweet, but the dough definitely has a sweet tinge to it. They were fine, but nothing compares to a NY bagel.

There area was also full of super cool murals...

I stopped by one of the local outdoor markets. I tried a new fruit, cerises de terre (ground cherry), when you pull back the papery covering they look like a yellow cherry tomato and taste fresh, a little sweet, and vaguely tropical but they don't have a strong flavor. The cases of cheese and meats were just begging to be made into a charcuterie board!

I couldn't sign off without a pic of me scootin'!

xoxo

iamfunchris