Out Spokin': Chapter 21: Montreal Highlights

July 5 - July 7 (Wednesday - Friday): Montreal

In planning this trip, we discovered that Quebec has a network of bicycle trails called La Route Verte (that's French for green). In 2016 Rob and I toured Prince Edward Island, which also has a bike trail network. If you haven't already, you can read about our experience with that bike trail here. It was not a positive one. But we are always willing to give any bicycle network a try so we ordered the maps, which included information on places to stay that are friendly towards bicyclists. That's how we found our accommodation in Montreal, which I would highly recommend.

When we arrived at the Hotel Chateau de 'Argoat we parked our bicycles inside a utility room and left them there while we explored Montreal on foot, easy to do given our hotel's central location.

Hotel Chateau de l'Argoat

We walked down to Old Town Montreal, the part of the city that Montreal is perhaps best known for. First we stopped to sit outside and enjoy a beer at Chez Eric. Then we wandered through Old Town in search of the perfect restaurant for dinner.

Old Town Montreal has many quaint alleyways with outdoor dining options.

Rob and I generally don't use guidebooks to direct us to restaurants. Instead, we like to wander up and down streets and in and out of alleys, reading menus. The quest for the most appealing menu at the most affordable price is part of the adventure. If the menu looks good we'll pop inside to check out the atmosphere. But tonight we didn't do any popping inside as we were looking for a place with outdoor seating.

We settled into dinner at the Vieux Port Steakhouse where Rob enjoyed a steak and I had linguine with fresh lobster. My dinner was as delicious as it looked.

We decided to share a Creme Brulee Flambee for dessert. I always feel rich when we order something that requires the server to perform tableside, in this case setting our dessert on fire. The flames atop our dessert were lovely. I tried to capture them in a photo but they didn't show up. You'll just have to take my word for it.

The next morning we climbed Mt. Royal. Lots of stairs and a well-maintained path through a wooded park took us to a view of the city. After visiting a few of these inner-city mountains I've come to the conclusion that any time there is a mountain in the middle of a city, climbing it appears as a must-do in every tour guide, probably because it's a challenge for your typical tourist whose main activity is climbing the stairs to get into a tour bus and for whom this may be the only time on their trip that they get out into a little bit of nature. We found the climb and the view to be over-rated.

Another over-rated attraction was the "Underground City" that we visited later in the afternoon. Although it sounded fascinating in our tour notes, it was really just a giant mall underground. But in between these two ho-hum places we spent several very enjoyable hours in the Montreal Museum of Fine Art which was free for old people on Thursdays. (We decided years ago, when we were given the old-age discount without even asking, to embrace our dotage whenever it saves us money.)

When it was time for dinner we explored the Gay Village, also walking distance from our hotel.

We walked down St. Catherine Street which in the summer becomes a pedestrian mall bedecked with thousands of rainbow colored balls overhead.

We both love Vietnamese food but there are no Vietnamese restaurants near us in New Hampshire. So whenever we find one in our travels we eagerly pop in for a meal that is always inexpensive and delicious. Le Gout du Vietnam provided outdoor dining and front row seats to some unique entertainment.

These two young women on stilts stopped by and played some music. (Click on this link to see the video I uploaded to youtube.) And your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a cello the woman in the foreground is carrying.

After dinner I wanted to head back to Old Town for dessert. The night before I had seen people wandering around eating soft-serve ice cream cones with chocolate dip on top. I remembered the deliciousness of a dipped cone I'd had last summer on Les Isles de la Madeleine. I had to have one. But we had already had our flaming creme brulee and not even I will have two desserts, one right after the other. So tonight was the night for a chocolate dipped ice cream cone.

But we didn't have to go all the way back to Old Town because we discovered an ice cream shop just down the street from where we'd had dinner.

We found the most delicious soft-serve cones dipped in dark chocolate at La Diperie, a local chain that serves soft ice cream with a long list of dip selections. See the happy twinkle in Rob's eyes? I'm hoping that in the next few years this chain will work its way south into New England.

After dessert, there was still much more to do and see in this part of Montreal, which we enjoyed more than Old Town. It didn't feel as frenetic, maybe a little more authentic.