GOOD FOOD TIMES IN CANADA - THE MAIN COURSE.
Day 14 Monday 22nd September
The two hour train journey to Montreal went without incident and it was a short taxi ride to our hotel, the David Hotel. It was a bit strange, inasmuch as it did have a front desk, but that really was it. It consisted of a series of apartments that came with everything you could possibly need. Ours was very well appointed and it looked like I imagine a New York loft would be. It was, more or less, a single space, although the toilet was happily separate. The shower was closed off, but there were no secrets, despite the mirror effect screens. This was me standing next to said shower.
Looking back the other way, Sharon was in the kitchen/diner
Once we were in and had found where everything was, we hit the street to find lunch. We almost immediately found Mandy's round the corner from the hotel. It was very French looking.
It did amazing salads, so it said. It also had cold beer, which worked for me.
The salads were, indeed, excellent, as was the staff. Our server told us where to go and what to see, once he found out we had just arrived. He also helpfully told us the underground workers were striking!
Sharon had a Fave - romaine, avocado, parmesan, carrot, corn, toasted pitta bread, rocket, broccoli and sunflower seeds.
I had a Wrangler - slow cooked beef on the top, with chimichurri sauce, roasted onion, blue cheese, kale, carrot, corn and tomatoes.
Both salads were really good and just exactly what we were looking for.
Time to go for a walk and find our bearings. The first thing to catch my eye was this, clearly, old, building. It turned out to be a hospital. It was run at one time by Margaret d' Youville. She had a pretty difficult life despite being of reasonably high birth. She was engaged to be married to a young nobleman, but her mother's remarriage brought that to an end. She married Francois d'Youville in 1722, but it was not a happy marriage. 4 of her 6 children died in infancy. Whilst in pregnancy with her 6th child, her husband died and she was left in debt. She set up a business to pay her husband's debts and to educate her sons. She helped as many of the poor as she could and was joined in this charitable work by three other women. They took vows of chastity and dedicated their lives to the poor. They formed the Grey Nuns and they were asked to run the general hospital. She died at the hospital in 1771 and ultimately became the first Canadian saint when she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990.
You can see an effigy of a Grey Nun at the window.
From this peaceful and historic site we found our way to the port area and river front.
Whilst it was grey, it was still warm. The river front, was, however, a bit on the tired side. It had clearly been improved in the past, but it didn't seem as if there had been much in the way of ongoing maintenance and investment.
I could not decipher this sign, until I realised it was in French and it was announcing the Grand Quai of the Port of Montreal!
Montreal, is really the port of Canada and became so through the vision of John Young, who was the first Chairman of the Port Commission and he was responsible for enlarging and developing it. It was and is hugely important to the Canadian economy. Neptune at John Young's feet symbolises the St Lawrence River.
Young was born in Ayr in Scotland and emigrated when he was 15. He was involved in shipping from the start and was passionate about free trade and expanding the role of Montreal in that. Allegedly, he and his supporters were so passionate that they were involved in a duel with others who doubted their views. Shots were fired, but nobody was hurt.
The river dominates this part of town and there are signs of a trading heritage still to be seen. This clock tower dates from 1922 and it commemorates sailors lost at sea.
There is even an artificial beach complete with umbrellas. They weren't needed today.
Montreal had tried to make the water front more friendly and attractive to tourists. It has a large Ferris Wheel like a London Eye, but the surrounding streetscape is in need of refurbishment.
Having said that, we did quite enjoy our walk.
It was back to our apartment, buying some basic stuff for ourselves on the way.
Later in the evening, we took Michael's advice and went to Garde Manger for dinner. This was not as straightforward as it might have been. The restaurant was not far away, but it does not have a sign outside the door. Either you have to be in the know, or else they are just too pretentious for their own good.
Once we found it, it was packed. Clearly, they believe the food will do the talking, not the sign. Our table was a good one and the maître d' looked after us really well.
They do a chef's tasting menu, but neither of us fancied the oysters, which featured a lot on the menu, so we decided to go a la carte. The Maître d' had other ideas. though. He suggested we share main plates and he would pair the dishes with wines. Great idea, we thought, and so it turned out to be.
I started with beef croquettes, with a smoked tomato sauce and horseradish. They were delightful.
Sharon had Snow Crab on brioche with brown butter. I can confirm that this was exceptional as well. Sharon really liked it.
Then we had lobster Agnolotti, wild mushrooms and rosemary. Goodness, but it was good.
This was followed by hanger steak with mushrooms, peppercorn sauce and crispy onions. It was outstanding.
We finished with Petit Fours and ice wine. Fabulous.
It was a really superb meal, with great service and good atmosphere. We really did enjoy it immensely, and it was only a short step away from our hotel and sleep.
Day 15 Tuesday 23rd September
Oh dear, it was raining today. The first real rain we had seen, and today we had prearranged a walking tour of Montreal, so there was nothing for it but to get out there.
We met up with our guide Louise, and the other tourists in Place D'Armes at the appointed time. Everyone was a little damp, but Louise assured us we would be inside some of the time and it was going to get dry!
It was certainly wet when we started, but then we immediately went inside the Aldred Building, where we had been sheltering anyway! The Aldred Building is in the Art Deco style and dates from 1930. It is known as Montreal's Empire State Building and was built for New Yorker John Aldred. He was a financier and he had a large moustache. That was a bit odd, because he was the Chairman of Gillette Razor Company. He had financed the inventor of the razor blade, King C, Gillette in 1901. None of this was mentioned by our guide, she, rightly, concentrated on the lovely Art Deco details inside the lobby.
You can see the resemblance to the Empire State Building from the outside. The statue in front of the building is Paul de Chomedey, the founder of Montreal. He had gone to the island (yes, Montreal is, in fact, an island in the St Lawrence river) in 1642, to ensure the safety of new colonists. The colonists were under constant threat from Mohawk tribes, although there were good relations with the Algonquin tribes. They in turn, however, fought constantly with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). The latter were a constant threat to the new settlement. Ultimately, de Chomedey went back to France to gain 100 more volunteers and this, ultimately ensured the survival of what was to become Montreal.
Much later, the British defeated the French at Quebec City and began to develop Montreal, particularly as a financial centre. This resulted in the construction of grandiose bank buildings along Rue Saint-Jacques. The one we were visiting was the Bank of Montreal, the oldest bank in Canada, founded in 1817. This building was designed in 1847, based on the Commercial Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh.
It has more than a passing resemblance to the old Caledonian Bank (then The Bank of Scotland) in Inverness.
The Inverness Bank is now a pub and restaurant. The Montreal Bank is still a bank and a very smart one at that. The inside is quite spectacular.
We also visited the Old Molson Bank building a little further down the street. As an aside, Molson were the first brewers in North America - Canada had beer before the USA, which was a source of pride for Louise!
This building was used as a coffee shop and various community and private uses. This was because some historic buildings had to retain their original features beyond the façade. Look at the ceiling.
For the same reason, even the elevators are original. Are they not splendid?
This is the old fire station. It was originally built on the site of the first parliament of Canada, which was, ironically, burnt down by an anti French crowd in the 1840's.
The tower was originally for hanging out the hoses to dry!
Not far from here, two rivers once met and the settlement of Montreal - Ville-Marie was the original name - was founded. As we have see, this French settlement was at risk from attack from First Nations peoples. These peoples also fought among themselves as they vied to choose the right European partners in the fur trade. Alliances and counter alliances were formed and peace was never long lasting. Ultimately, this was hurting the profits of all involved and we know that money talks. Eventually, a peace treaty was agreed and signed at this very spot by the French and 39 First Nation tribes.
The various tribes and sects had no writing in the same way as the French did and they signed the document with pictographs of what was important to them, usually particular animals. The French phonetically translated some of the names of the signatories. This explains why some peoples are described with letters and numbers, commonly 8. The indigenous language would often make a weet sound, which the French translated as huite - eight, so they wrote the name of Elaouesse of the Nassawakatons as Ela8esse.
This carving on the site of the treaty signing, shows some of the pictographs used to sign the original treaty in 1701. Interestingly, the indigenous peoples involved still consider the treaty to be valid to this day.
We briefly visited Chateau Ramezay, which was the house of the then French Governor of Montreal in 1705, Claude de Ramezay. It is one of the few French buildings from this period still extant in Montreal. It has extensive gardens which are important for their historical significance. The gardens were almost certainly constructed and planted using the knowledge of indigenous people - how else would they have known which plants would thrive here?
There are both edible plants and decorative flowers grown here.
The excess produce harvested from the gardens is used in soup kitchens or other centres for the needy in the city.
The chateau is near to the Bonsecours market, which is an iconic building in the past and present of Montreal. It has and does function as a market, but it has also housed great exhibitions and any number of cultural events.
Just nearby is Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours church. This is known as the sailor's church as it sits close to the port. It was traditional for sailors to leave models of their boats in the church awaiting their safe return from voyages far and wide.
By now it was well past my lunchtime. We found a little, newly opened, place which specialised in stuffed pitta breads. This was in Place Jacques Cartier. Our guide had suggested that this was the street with the best food. If it was here it had to be good to survive.
Sharon had a Montreal Cheese steak pitta.
I had the grilled chicken with za'atar and spicy green sauce. They were both delicious.
As you can see, the rain had stopped some time ago and it had become very warm and sunny.
After lunch we went to the Archaeological museum, which is built on top of the remains of some of the oldest buildings in the city. You can walk through the remains of these buildings which illustrate different phases of the development of the city.
Here is Sharon absorbing some lore from the original indigenous inhabitants.
You could have the totem animals of indigenous signatories to the 1701 treaty projected onto your hands.
You could also meet the signatories!
You could also walk through the old sewers, which happily were redundant.
It really was very interesting, but we were running out of time as we had things to do later in the day.
We went back to the hotel had a rest and a freshen up, before we went to Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. This is the first Gothic Revival style church in Canada and a place of some significance for Montreal and the country.
However, we were there to see a Son-et-Lumiere within the enormous church nave. We were not allowed to take photos of the light show, so here is the church interior to give a bit of a feel for it. It was amazing and the church was absolutely packed with spectators.
The interior of the church is impressive as well.
We had originally intended to have dinner on a nearby roof terrace, but they had cancelled our booking due to the weather. I have to say it was quite warm and sunny by now, but I guess they had to give plenty notice to people.
We decided we would just go for a wander and find somewhere nice, which we did.
Mama C, was a Greek based restaurant which looked nice and had a good menu, so they got the vote.
We were not hugely hungry, so we ordered a few mezze plates between us.
We had Tyropita - feta mousse, crispy filo, fermented thyme honey, feta and truffle. Prawn saganaki - prawns in a tomato-lobster bisque, ouzo and feta. Lamb kebabs on creamy hummus, and some very good flatbread.
We managed a small pudding between us - a salted chocolate and pistachio tart with salted pistachio ice cream.
It was all rather good and we certainly went to bed quite replete after that.
Day 16 Wednesday 24th September
It was a bit cool today, but the forecast promised us that it would brighten and warm up quickly. That turned out to not quite be the truth.
In any event, we had intended to go to the Botanic Gardens.
These are one of the most important botanical gardens in the world due to the extent of its various plant collections. It was founded in 1931.
Luckily, it has a large complex of greenhouses, so we could get as warm as possible, given we had dressed for the optimism of the forecast.
Here is a sample of some of the plants we saw.
There was a very fine fernery.
With a waterfall!
There were lots of orchids.
There was also this aptly named Butterfly Bush
The Hibiscus was enormous.
Nana with a banana plant.
We couldn't shelter in the warmth forever, especially when there were lots of outside gardens to explore. There was even a chilli tasting in the vegetable garden.
There was a dazzling display of chillies. They were helpfully arranged from mild to hot, through to explosive!
Nothing to it!
Sharon was less adventurous after the first couple. Once burnt, twice shy! Luckily, they had wedges of lime available to soothe the tongue.
I would have to say that most of the garden had begun to lose colour, but there were little oases of brightness.
The Japanese garden was very serene.
There was a garden illustrating the plants that were used by indigenous peoples.
It was near a pond with a strategically placed Muskoka chair, but it was a bit damp to actually sit on.
That noise was offset by the calmness of the giant water lily pond.
It was still a tad cool and misty. So much so, that you could barely see the top of the Montreal Tower at the Olympic Stadium. It is the tallest inclined building in the world at 541 feet high.
We went to the nearby Insectarium, because that was bound to be interesting, and warm.
It certainly was both of these things!
Apparently, this is what we look like to flies!
An improvement, some might say.
There was a huge gallery of specimens of 3000 insects. So far as I understand it these are from populations of insects that sustainable and they are ethically sourced so as not to impact on existing populations. It is a bit weird, though.
Some are displayed by colour.
Others are shown to illustrate particular characteristics, like colourful armour.
Once we had left the insectarium and had a bite to eat, the sun was out.
Time for us to head back into town.
Before we left home I saw there was a Lego art exhibition on and we went to have a look.
An inspired choice if I may say. The artist, Nathan Sawaya used more than 1 million Lego bricks to create copies of famous artworks as well as creating individual pieces of what, I suppose, you could call sculpture.
The first is a rendering of what is said to be possibly the most reproduced image in the history of art - The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai. It was painted in 1831. The Lego version is not that old, but it is striking.
Just as famous, but perhaps less striking, is the Mona Lisa. You needed to be a bit further away from that to get the picture!
As well as versions of famous paintings, there was a collection of animals.
The artist also showed a collection of his own work.
We spent a lot longer there than we had expected and I think we were both astonished at the range and inventiveness of the creations made from a toy that is probably in much of the western world's houses.
We had heard about a labyrinth of underground shopping, eating and entertainment in Montreal. We had no idea and no time left to really explore this. However, we did stumble across a small section and we took the chance to have a wee look. It turned out to be a shopping mall and exhibition space. The exhibition was about making the city more liveable. It was all very stylish and smart.
We made our way back to the hotel, where we decided that we had done enough walking today and we would have a night in, with some wine, ham, cheese and crisps that we had picked up. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing and a bit of chilling out is the only antidote to gluttony!
Day 17 Thursday 25th September.
It was now time for us to leave Montreal for Quebec City. We had booked a bus this time, just for a change, and hopefully a scenic journey.
As it happened, it was a bit on the wet side, so the views were a little dreich, to say the least, so there are no photos.
Michael and Cindy were flying from Toronto to join us and they had very similar weather.
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