Sun. 28th September ‘26
Even though we’d picked a hotel close to the airport, our transfer from Vancouver to Montreal ended up taking the whole day, and even though there was a whole lot of just sitting around it was still very tiring. There just seemed to be an endless string of frustrations – we should have known when there wasn’t any fizz in the airport lounge (no alcohol before 11am?) or on boarding the plane. Then there was the flight delay; the interminable wait for our bags to appear; the car rental office with no cars for rent – yes really, another wait. We eventually get to the hotel at 10:05pm, desperate for a beer – only to be told that the bar shut at 10pm! What??!!! Fortunately, the barman took pity on us and opened up the self-serve drinks fridge.
Mon. 29th September ‘26
We lost 3 hours with the time zone change and so our 7:45 alarm was not a happy occurrence. Claude the slave-driver originally had a sunrise-to-sunset itinerary for us but we spotted that and have switched around the two days’ itineraries in order to give ourselves a bit gentler start to the day. Heading down to breakfast we were immediately reminded that we could be in France – not just that all the signage is in French, but also the dismissive attitude of the waiters. As a side-note, Canadian Federal law states that there are two official languages, Québec’s Provincial law says “non”. You’ve got to love the French (or not!).
After giving Claude feedback on what we did & didn’t enjoy from the Vancouver itinerary, he(?) re-vamped the one for Montreal to be in some of the less touristy places. For example, today’s sightseeing starts in the Plateau, a residential district of the city. Here we are looking at houses with Mansard (square, steep-pitched) roofs, and spiral staircases perhaps half a mile long and 5 or 6 blocks wide. They are certainly striking enough but, at first, we struggle to turn that into acceptable photographs. Tree-lined streets, cars, bicycles, black painted ironwork all conspire against us. But, as is often the case, persistence pays off and I think that these work well.
Flush with success, I decide that it is time for coffee and find that the Happy Cat café is 4.5 rated on Google and is just round the corner. What I hadn’t appreciated, is that cat cafés are a thing and that this will have got its rating for the cats rather than the coffee. You’d think that the French would know how to make coffee! After admiring some of the huge murals in Boulevard Saint-Laurent (apparently, there is an annual festival of murals), we did do rather better for lunch though when Janet found a nearby Pho restaurant. One of the key findings from our trip to Vietnam was that I am very partial to a Pho!
It’s been obvious all day that Montreal is a much older city than Vancouver (C17th vs C19th) and we get the proof when we get to the slopes of Mount Royal (the hill was named in 1535 a century before there was a French settlement). On the hill is Saint Joseph’s Oratory, a huge domed basilica on the north slope (the second-largest church dome in the world). The long pathway leading up to the basilica emphasises the size and scale of it – and all the steps don’t look so scary from a distance! Ignoring the protests from our legs we climb the stairs. The inside is very sparse and austere – a very different look from the Notre Dame Cathedral we’ll visit tomorrow (spoiler alert).
Our resident slave-driver has a much longer agenda for us today, but are legs are saying enough. So, after pausing to admire the Angels Unawares bronze sculpture outside of the basilica we head back to the hotel. We ae missing out on the huge Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery and the Jean-Talon Market, one of North America’s largest open-air markets. Normally these are both things that we’d love to see but there is only so much you can do.
We need our energy for sunset photography from Kondiaronk Belvedere on the summit of Mount Royal. There is a path to the summit, up the ‘Grand Staircase of Mount Royal’ but the key word is ‘up’ – over 500 steps worth of up! No thank you very much. This is what Uber was invented for! A throng of tourists and photographers beats us to the summit, but with a little patience we get a place by the balustrade in time to catch the last of the sun’s rays hitting the top of one of the skyscrapers. After the sun has set, as the sky gradually darkens, the lights of the city become more prominent. A 30” exposure has the added benefit of making light trails from the car lights down below. A great way to end an interesting day and a good start to the second, eastern half of our Canada trip.