At some point since we moved North, we started talking about how neither of us had been to Canada before and we thought we should remedy that, being that it’s just a short trip away! We ended up choosing to go to Montreal, because of its European feel and the great history there. We thought we were being so clever, deciding to go to Canada in July, which is the hottest month in NYC, but it turns out, Montreal is just as hot and swampy as it is here. OH WELL. 🙂

We had been traveling quite a bit in the Spring, so we didn’t want to stay too long, so we decided to go over 4th of July weekend, so David would have an extra day off and we could just do a long weekend. Leaving Saturday morning, we had most of the day Saturday left to explore and we came home on Tuesday morning, giving us about two and a half days there. It ended up being a similar amount of time as we had spent in London last fall, which meant it was a teeny bit hurried, but we still had time to hit all the highlights that we cared about seeing, while still having some down time to relax. David is always so good about researching the best things to do and see and eat and drink wherever we go, so I let him do most of the planning this time, too.

We got to the airport in time to stop into the Sky Club for a drink, which, since it was around 9am, it was a mimosa this time. 🙂 There had been a bunch of flights delayed and canceled the night before because of a storm that had blown through the city, so the club was packed and there were people sleeping all over the place.

I hope we never stop holding hands.

The flight was about an hour and a half, so we got there around 12:30 and got to the hotel around 1. We used points again to stay at the Westin (or as they say Le Westin), and it was a great hotel. It ended up being in a perfect location – near the Old Port, between two major subway lines and close by to most of the places we wanted to see.

We dropped off our bags with the porter at the hotel, since our room wasn’t ready yet, and headed to lunch at a tapas restaurant that David had found. It was really delicious, and even though you wouldn’t really think that Spanish food would be good in Canada, we were really impressed!

The white sangria was refreshing and not too fruity – just how I like it!

This was the first time we got to interact with waiters while we were there, and while I had heard that most people in Montreal speak both English and French, I was pleasantly surprised how everyone spoke English (most with only the faintest accent), and how easy it was to get around there. They do try to keep their French culture alive, so almost every sign in the city is in French, but thankfully, David had taken French in high school and college, and had been brushing up before we went, so he had some basic words fresh in his mind. The other thing to mention is that what you’ve heard about Canadians is true – they are all SO NICE. They are polite and funny and we really didn’t run into one person that was unkind at all the whole time we were there.

The architecture there is somewhat similar to what we have in New York, but it was a little more European in its details. Lots of flower pots and hanging baskets were in front of almost every store. It is a really beautiful city!

I mean, how pretty is this?!

This is the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal, which was started in 1824, and designed by an architect from New York! The Gothic revival exterior is beautiful, but the interior is breathtaking. It’s done in a deep royal blues, purples, reds and golds and is truly magnificent. My pictures don’t do it justice. (Also, it’s where Celine Dion got married. haha) We just walked by it on the first day we were there, but went back to see the inside before we left, and I am so glad we did.

David tried to teach me some French and I was just so captivated by the quaintness and beauty of the city, that he taught me to say “Comment jolie” which roughly translates to “How pretty!”

This meal might have been the thing we were most looking forward to on this trip! We had heard about this restaurant on an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s show, and it looked like a place we would really enjoy. Joe Beef is run by two chefs who are from Montreal and they serve only an in-season menu, meaning that whatever’s freshest at the market that day, is what the chefs prepare. They put the menu on large chalkboards that are hung on the wall, and that’s how you order – both food and wine. We had nabbed a reservation at the bar for two for 6pm, which admittedly is not a great seat or a great time, but we wanted to go there so bad, we didn’t really care.

They have a sister restaurant, Le Vin Papillon, next door, so since we arrived about 30 minutes early for our reservation, we figured we would grab a drink there. We did not know that in most restaurants in Montreal, the way the liquor licenses are written, you have to serve food with alcohol. So, we couldn’t just have a glass of wine, we had to order food. By the time the bartender took our order, we only had about 15 minutes until our reservation at Joe Beef, and I was getting super anxious about them giving away our spots, since I knew it was  the “it” place to go. The bartender assured us he would walk us next door when we were done with our appetizer (delicious razor clams), and that it would be fine. I ended up running over to Joe Beef to let them know we would be late, and as I walked past the front of the building, realized that there was already a line of people 30+ long waiting to get in. EEK! I stuck my head in the door, where the staff was still having their pre-shift meeting (cue the embarrassment on my part) and I told the closest girl our predicament and she said it would be fine. The bartender did end up walking us over (about 20 minutes late), but it was clear they had given away our seats at the bar. The hostess (who ended up being our waitress) said she had a seat in the garden in the back that could be ours if we wanted it, and alluded that it was the best seat in the house. We had seen this “best seat” in the Bourdain episode we watched, and they had basically made fun of the people sitting in the garden for not having a reservation. I didn’t want that! But, we decided to take it and ended up having THE BEST time in “the best” seat in the house. We were kind of on display, considering the rest of the outside seating was a good 20 feet away from us and we were just at a little bistro table set in the middle of their raised garden beds. But our waitress was amazing, talked us into having the chef prepare a special menu for us based on his favorites on the menu that evening, and she recommended a wonderful bottle of wine for us to enjoy, as well.

Here we are at our special table, tucked right in with the Brussels sprouts and the kale!

First course was shellfish – oysters and clams with THEE BEST cocktail sauce I’ve ever had.

Asparagus with prosciutto and (what we think was a duck egg and) shaved truffles on top

Ok, so I am a french fry connoisseur. I love me some fries. These were so far above any other fries I have ever had, it’s not even funny. They were fried in duck fat, and that aioli was amazing. I could die happy after having these fries.

Spicy lobster sausage with clams and fresh English peas

We honestly can’t remember what this was, but we think it was a calamari ravioli with peas and pea shoots on top.

Half-eaten because we forgot to take a picture of it – headcheese croquette. Yes, I ate it, and yes, it wasn’t awful. 🙂

Fried softshell crab – probably my favorite of all the dishes, but I am a sucker for crab of any kind.

For dessert, the waitress recommended this soft serve, which they dished up in the cutest goose shaped cup (which you can’t see because I was getting a picture of their cute fleur de lis logo).

After dinner, we went to a bar and restaurant that David had read about that specialized in different types of sparkling wine and champagne, called Le Champagnerie. The best part about the place was that if you bought a bottle of champagne, they would let you sabre it to open it, right there in the middle of the bar. They had this neat way of doing it, where they would lower down a large grain sack from the ceiling (kind of like a mini blind) and let you pop the bottle against that to collect the cork and any glass that might come off with it. We weren’t going to do it, but after watching a couple of groups do it, David decided he needed to say he had sabred a bottle of champagne, so we bought a bottle. The bartender walked him through it and he got it on the first try, no problem. A fun memory and a great way to end our first day in Montreal!

Sunday morning, we got up and went to grab a quick breakfast at Tommy, which is located in a historic building near the Basilica. We needed some food after all the drinks we had consumed the night before! The food was great and it was a cute multi-level coffee shop. I also got me a Coke here, which always makes everything better. 🙂

From breakfast, we took the subway to a stop where you could catch a city bus to the top of Mont Royal, which is the highest point in Montreal and has a great view of the city. (Mont Royal —> Montreal…get it??)  We considered walking up, but after the bus ride, we were really glad we had taken the easy way! It’s pretty steep and much longer than we anticipated. It was a little bit warmer this day (mid-high 80’s), so it wouldn’t have been very pleasant to walk. Once we got off the bus, there was a path leading us to the lookout point, but there were miles and miles of walking/hiking paths up on the mountain, too. There were lots of people there, many with their dogs, but it didn’t seem too crowded.

There is a large Visitor’s Center at the lookout, where you can buy souvenirs and use restrooms. I’m thinking that they probably rent this space out for weddings and such. It was an enormous room, but had some cute details like these squirrels in the rafters.

The view did not disappoint! We were able to find the area where our hotel was, but we didn’t really know what else we were looking at. The mountains in the distance and the river winding through town were really beautiful.

David always says he doesn’t know what to do with his hands when I make him pose for pictures, so this has become his favorite pose. Stinker.

On our way back down the mountain (we only stayed up at the lookout point for an hour or so), we got off the bus in one of the neighborhoods that David had read about in his research called The Plateau. This is a much more residential part of town and the homes were so cute. It reminded me a lot of Brooklyn, because the houses were mostly 2-3 apartments, each with their own unique look.

We wandered around that area, walked around Square St. Louis, and then headed back to our hotel on the subway. The subways are very efficient in Montreal, as well as being clean and bright. Being that we rely on public transportation so much in NYC, the subways in Montreal were easy to navigate and use. We bought 3 day passes at the kiosk in the station and had no issues using the trains the whole time we were there!

On our second night, we had dinner at Cadet, which is a newer restaurant in the Montreal food scene, but it did not disappoint. We had a great, light meal of shared plates that included scallop ceviche, fluke tartar and an AMAZING banana split.

David went on a run on Monday morning, and took this picture of the St. Lawrence River as he ran along it.  So pretty.

After David’s run, we got ready for the day and then headed back out to The Plateau neighborhood for breakfast at Beautys Luncheonette. It was another place that we saw on Bourdain’s show that looked like a fun place to visit. It’s been around since 1942, so you know it has to be good! It’s still owned and operated by the original family that started it and the interior has a great retro vibe to it.

David had a full breakfast with eggs, biscuits and sausage and I had blueberry pancakes (my fave!) with real Canadian maple syrup. It was all delicious!

After breakfast, we decided to walk off some calories by heading over to an outdoor market that David had read about. It was huge! There were vendors of all kinds selling anything an everything you could want from fresh seafood to homemade sausages to produce and everything in between.

From there, we took the subway back to the area where our hotel was, and went down to the Old Port to explore. It is definitely a touristy area, with lots of restaurants and vendors on the street, but it is still really pretty. We found a rooftop bar that had wine, so we sat there and overlooked the river and the port for a while. It was cool and breezy up in the shade – perfect for a relaxing afternoon!

That last night, we had dinner at Notkins, a seafood restaurant with decor just like the inside of a ship. It was super cute inside, but not our favorite meal of the three evenings, for sure.

Our flight left mid-day on Tuesday,  so we had time for one more breakfast out before we left. We walked over to Le Cartet and had one of the very best breakfasts I’ve ever had. The space was really neat, very industrial with long tables with shared seating. I had eggs, toast and fruit and David had a bagel with cream cheese and lox (with a croissant on the side!), but the star of the show was this cappuccino. It was the best coffee I have ever had. A perfect ending to a perfect trip!

We had a great time, and we will definitely go back someday. We were super impressed with the food scene there (our hobby, nowadays), but the people and the scenery were just as impressive. Maybe next time we will go when it’s colder, and get the “real” Canada experience! 🙂