Exploring Montreal

So, I spent the weekend exploring Montreal, Canada, which isn’t as mad as it sounds, because it’s only around five hours to fly there and six hours back, and the time difference is the same as for New York. Although admittedly my cankles had cankles when I got home 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although I’ve been to Toronto many times it was my first time in Montreal. I was very lucky to be staying at the five star Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel. Fairmont is one of my favourite luxury hotel brands and I was on the ‘gold’ floor, which gives you access to an exclusive lounge…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…plus gorgeous breakfasts and evening snacks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel has a wonderful charm – although some of the public areas could definitely do with updating, I rather liked its retro style. In fact it’s the hotel where John Lennon and Yoko Ono had their famous bed-in. Very cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was my bed, although I didn’t have a bed-in…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and this was the fabulous view, which is the the Mary Queen of the World Cathedral; it’s supposed to be a smaller version of the Vatican, and it is rather special.

So, after doing that annoying waking up at 3am, 4am then 5am, I decided to just go with it, get up and start exploring Montreal.

Now as you’re probably aware Montreal is in Quebec, and they speak French first, then English. My French is passable in France, but I couldn’t really understand very much in Montreal; it’s a slightly surreal experience, knowing you’re in Canada, but everyone around you is speaking French.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went for a little stroll around a park near the hotel and encountered the biggest squirrels I’ve ever seen in my life, honestly, they were like dogs…

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a statue of Robert Burns – the Scots played a big part in the growth of Montreal and he’s revered here…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and then it was time for my tour of the city. My guide took me up to the Park Mont Royal which has fantastic views of the skyline…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and the most beautiful trees – this is a vinaigrier….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…along the way we spotted some wonderful works of art, including this brilliant Chihuly piece…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and this one (I’m afraid I don’t know who it’s by, but I think it looks a bit Picasso-ish.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also had a good look round the Le Plateau district and Square St Louis, which is where you find glorious old gabled houses painted in different colours like this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and this.

I absolutely fell in love with them. The bad news is they are VERY expensive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you might expect with such a big French influence gastronomy is massively important in Montreal, in fact the city has an incredible 5,000 restaurants. So I’m going to do a separate post on the food we ate while exploring Montreal. But the following day we wound up at the market at Little Burgundy, which as you can see looks very like a French market…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and I loved this ice-cream sign, isn’t it cute? Apparently it’s the best ice-cream in Montreal, so now you know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went for a walk along the canal, where we saw these fabulous daisies…

…and then headed into the Old Town, which is much more touristy than Le Plateau, but lively and buzzing. It reminded me of Covent Garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside the Notre Dame Cathedral we saw THREE wedding parties – one of the hazards of getting married on a Saturday, I guess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things Montreal insists on is that any developers putting up new buildings (and they’re not allowed to build skyscrapers) has to donate some money to art, so you see art everywhere you look. This is The Illuminated Crowd by a British artist, Raymond Mason – it’s a bit weird, isn’t it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I rather liked these ladies, they look like they’re having a good time…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and this moose sculpture is rather striking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, my overall impression from exploring Montreal was of a compact and dynamic city, easy to get around and friendly, with a French heartbeat and lots of culture. Tomorrow I’ll share my foodie highlights 😉