From Montreal to Quebec

Saturday 20th August 2022

Today we are leaving Montreal and travelling via Trois Rivières to Quebec City.

The plan is to have a leisurely drive to Trois Rivière where we will stop for a picnic and play in a park spotted on the map (thank you Google). 

All goes splendidly to plan until…

About 15mins away from the park the E40 comes to a standstill. The navigator spots an alternative route about a kilometre further along. We turn of with an abundance of other cars. let’s hope their not all heading for the same picnic spot.  Happily no, and we arrive there about 35 minutes later than planned.

The play park proves a great success for BMN as it includes a number of climbing and sliding frames plus a toddler driven disco. Dancing comes as second nature to this little one.  The picnic tables offer good views and more importantly, are in the shade. 

Back in the car we head for the Quebec apartment. As we are a little early for the book in time we try a small detour. If you’ve been following the blog for a while you may remember the picture of Chute Monmerency that we took from across the St Lawrence when were staying in Levis. We always said we wanted to go and have a closer look at it, it’s just taken eight years to actually do it.  We opt for the car park at the bottom of the falls with the intention of taking the cable car to the top and then walking across the bridge over the falls and back down the four hundred and seventy six steps. As luck would have it, typically the cable car was out of action, so the choice was whether to walk up the steps, across the bridge and then back down the steps again…hmm. As the temperature was around 35 degrees and sunny with no wind we decided the climbing up the steps option would be madness. Our other (and only) option was to view the falls from the bottom, so this is what we did. 

From a distance

A closer look - you can see the bridge over the falls

And these are the steps we did climb, although some of us made it to the first landing stage. Other stayed in the play park and the shade of the trees. 

Did we bring Paddington Bear on holiday with us? A self portrait by the little one.

Time to book in to the accommodation, which is another basement flat, but rather posher than the last one.it’s in the university district and a very pleasant area.   

 Friday 19th August 2022.

This morning was a local adventure for the grandparents and little one while the adults in the room went to see some of the sites (or maybe have a sleep).  We return to the park where we went yesterday, but this time we are fully prepared for not only the sandpit and play area but also the splash pad - as it is very hot and sunny.  We are in the play area by eight thirty in the morning!

 First of all Eric and the little one have it nearly all to themselves, then the playgroups and childminder gangs started arriving, in crocodile form, or in one case a push along bus for six children under two.

Having found a few new friends a happy few hours was spent in the sand and on the play equipment.  By ten o’clock we thought it was probably hot enough to risk going in the wet area. With the littlest one changed into suitable gear, and shoes off for the grandparents, there is lots more fun had with the water fountains. 

Of course, the fountains come on intermittently and someone who was not suitably dressed was caught out standing under one of them and got thoroughly soaked - at least it is warm enough to dry off quickly.

We return to the accommodation for the boy’s afternoon nap.  

Another adventure waits this afternoon, a trip on the metro to one of the islands in the St Lawrence river, where there is the Biosphere, woodland, beaches, all sorts of other entertainment and hopefully a walk back to the metro along the Jaques Cartier bridge.  

The weather is extremely hot so we try to keep to the shade as much as possible.  Walking through the woodland we suddenly realise that we are being bitten by the insects.  A stop to put on some repellent-although it’s a little late for that now!

A view of the selection of not tea “teas” that abound in this part of Canada. To our taste non of it is drinkable. 

The Jaqueline Cartier bridge is one of the iconic sites of Montreal and there is supposedly a dual purpose walking and cycling track along the side of it.  We find our way onto the bridge, but the dual purpose path is not quite what we expected, there are mostly cyclists and scooter people using it. We do notice one or two others walking, but we are in the minority, being passed by bicycles going a zillion miles an hour - think it must be a commuter route. The traffic on the other side of the path is also very very busy and noisy.  Luckily, although it is steaming hot there is a pleasant breeze blowing on the bridge.  Views across the city and up and down the river made it worth the effort. 

A cafe beckons the the other side, plus some delicious almond and apricot vegan biscuits. The metro is not far away and we make it ‘home’ to a pre-prepared chilli. 

 Thursday 18th August 2022.

Todays adventure is a trip to Parc Monte Royale. We think that a single fifteen minute bus journey will get us within spitting distance. Then it’s a bit of a walk to the lookout point.  Leaving the house, we were turned around at the end of the street as there was a small of gas, and the next thing about five fire engines turned up with the fireman wearing gas masks.  

There had been a gas leak yesterday in the street where the shops were and they had evacuated people (including a lady with a parrot on her shoulder and six kittens). As we did not want to go out for the morning and then find we would not be allowed back in on our return, we played safe by taking some snacks and drinks plus spare nappies and Paddington for the little one. Safe to set out now, we walk to the bus stop.

There is a lot of traffic and the bus is rather slow making it’s way along the street.  We decide to alight two stops earlier than we originally thought.  This turned out to our advantage as we walked past the Museum of Contemporary Art, and there are some interesting sculptures outside, as well as a mural on the actual road road itself.

You might just be able to make out some of the sculptures on the LHS.

A few streets further uphill and we arrive at the foot of some wooden steps - looks like this is the way to the top… four hundred and fifty two steps later we finally arrive at the top, after a few breathers on the way. 

The view back down some of the steps.

And the view from the top…

Eric said he was bit low down and couldn’t see.

That’s better 

We have a drink and a cake - can’t think of a better deserved chocolate donout. 

Think it may be good idea to catch a bus and the the metro to get back. The bus from the top only runs every half hour and we have just missed one but it’s a pleasant enough place to wait. 

After an early afternoon rest (the fire engines had now gone and the street was no longer cordoned off) we set out to a local park so the little one can have a run around, and we follow this with an early dinner out locally.  The first restaurant seemed OK and we choose what we wanted from the menu. After four of us had ordered with no problems, the last one to select their meal was told that it was not available, nor was the freshly squeezed orange juice that was on the menu. Someone had supposedly given us the lunchtime menu and we needed to choose from the evening one. Start again, but this time there is nothing that one of us wants to eat, and for a change, this time it is not the usual awkward vegetarian. Decide to go elsewhere, and settled on a pizza restaurant, where an enjoyable meal was had sitting outside under a canopy.  Time for a quick game of Monopoly deal before it’s bedtime. 

 Wednesday 17 August 2022.

Awake early this morning, well with a small child in the house what can you expect!

Today’s itinerary involves a day out in the Olympic Park area. The Biodome, The Botanic Gardens and The Insectarium are the planned events.  It is an easy ride on the metro, with only one change. Montreal hosted The Olympics in 1976 and some parts of the site were undergoing regeneration, consequently the route to our first stop, the Biodome was a bit convoluted but we arrive in time for our pre-booked ticketed entry. This attraction includes four different habitat zones, a tropical rainforest area, a Laurentian maple forest, representation the Gulf of St Lawrence and sub-polar regions representing the Labrador Coast and sub-Antarctic islands.  We enter the tropical zone first, and boy is it hot and humid.

What’s that Eric?  An Alligator or a Crocodile?

A tamarind monkey? (There appeared to be no interpretation around so we were never quite sure exactly what we were looking at!)

And some Capybaras?

Too hot to stay in here for long so it’s off to the Gulf of St Lawrence

The diver cleaning the viewing glass caused as much entertainment as the fish we also had a not so usual view of the underside of some ducks.

The next stop was visiting the penguins and other fauna in the sub polar regions, followed by the maple forest but, shame on us, we didn’t take any photos of either biome.

Leaving the Biodome we admire the Olympic Park’s iconic building - the Tower - it’s the tallest inclined tower in the world - designed by French architect Roger Taillibert. 

Apparently you are supposed to be able to take a funicular railway car to the top.  Looks like it’s not open today. Wander along the ‘Esplanade’, an urban park of nine platforms with good views over the Olympic Park,  to the Botanic Gardens.  Time for some lunch - the location for lunch is very pleasant but lunch choices are limited. We have a pre-booked entry for the Insectarium later and time is running on. Consequently we do not have time to give the Botanic Gardens the attention they deserve. Some very scenic fountains and flowers though.

Once tickets are checked the entrance into the Insectarium was through a winding cave like tunnel, with lights at sufficient intervals for it to not be too scary, but still made it atmospheric. There were various interactive chambers along the route. These demonstrated some aspect of an insects life in novel ways.  Some little cubby holes to climb into, so you could experience what it would be like.  There was also a wall representing what you would look like through insect eyes - you could stand in front of it and wave your arms about to see what you would look like to an insect. The next section had lots of insects to look at, like hissing cockroaches, giant millipedes, stick insects and the like. The little one loved all of this.  There was also a room with a whole array of museum pinned insect cases and the colours, sizes and sheer variety of butterflies, stick insects and beetles was amazing. 

                                                       Jewel beetles

Couldn’t quite believe the butterfly on LHS in the case - the one with the tiny wings and incredibly long body.

We then wandered into the zone with the butterflies flying around you, some of them were ginormous,  plus other insects doing their thing, but not in glass boxes.  Like these ants following each other in line across the ‘branch’ all carrying pieces of leaves. 

Outside there was a miniature ‘art installation’ with various insects doing very human like things, like this beetle having a bath.

The garden are was very pretty too. Eric liked the representation of prairie with the sea of Rudbekia

We think that perhaps the ‘museum’ is the best so far today. 

It’s been a very long day today but very enjoyable.

  

16th August 2022

Our UK watch said three thirty when we went to bed, and we were awake again at six thirty feeling relatively refreshed.  This felt rather weird, but this was because the wake-up was local Montreal time and there is a five hour time difference, so really we went to bed at ten thirty.

As we are not meeting up with the family until four thirty-ish, and we do not have to check out of the hotel until noon, we had a leisurely morning.  Watched the local news and weather on TV, and then sauntered down to have breakfast - two ‘continentals’ comprising fruit, yogurt, orange juice, toast and tea.  We noticed that the hotel had a quite pleasant looking garden, but upon enquiring how we would get out there we were told that under normal circumstances that wouldn’t be a problem, but… at this point in time some company had hired out the first two floors of the hotel and exclusive use of the garden. As an alternative we wander outside the front of the hotel and across to the car park, which overlooks the airport runways.  Surprisingly, between blocks of car parking bays were patches of grassland, and we spotted these 

Branched Century, Centaurium pulchellum; 

Annual Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia; 

Horseweed, Erigeron canadensis; and 

White Sweet Clover, Melilotus albus. 

There was also a blue butterfly using this resource, not sure of species though.  

Not many planes taking off so the novelty of wandering about the car park looking at the flowers soon wore off. 

Back in the hotel we pack up and prepare to ship out on the eleven o’ clock shuttle bus back to the airport, to catch a bus into Montreal.  Although we are about five minutes early for the shuttle, it is already there and we start chatting with the driver while he is waiting to see if anyone else wants the bus too.  The usual start off question - from the driver - where are you from? Of course, we had the often visited discussion on being Welsh as opposed to English. The driver cheerily says “so you were colonised and oppressed by the English too” - there is a lot of laughter at this point.  He was originally from Guyana, but came to Canada with his father when he was fourteen. His mother still lives in Guyana and he visits often. He did tell us a very good pub quiz trivia question, which was “ which is the only South American country that has English as it’s national language” - the answer was, of course, Guyana ( formerly known as British Guyana).  He also told us that although it is in South America, the South Americans do not consider it to be part of South America, but rather that it forms part of the Caribbean nations. 

Back at the airport we buy a day travel pass and set off towards Montreal, or more accurately, Lionel Groulx metro station, with intention of catching another metro line out to our accommodation. The journey is quicker than we expected and we are too early to go straight to the accommodation. 

Riding the 727

Might as well go and have a look around the city. Back on the metro we have not quite mastered using the travel card resulting in one of us being on different sides of the ticket barrier, but having used both tickets. Luckily a man takes pity on us and lets the one on the wrong side of the barrier through. He also advises us on which train to catch and where to get off, still trailing a single case behind us.  As luck would have it there was a shopping mall at the stop where we got off that just happened to have a facility for leaving luggage there, and at no cost either.  The mall is part of ‘underground Montreal’ - the are over twenty two kilometres of underground passages linking parts of Montreal - it’s a way of getting about in the city in the winter when the snow is deep. A friend had already mentioned this to us. 

Feeling a lot lighter without the cases we strolled along the main streets, admiring the cathedral 

and statues plus fountains in Phillips Square.  

Sit for a while watching the world go by and the flags fluttering on the Hudson Bay Company building.

 Now for something to eat. Lots of lovely fresh fruit and other healthy food for take out lunches, but we opted for Lebanese cuisine, and very good it was too, accompanied by fresh mango juice. 

Time to retrieve the suitcases and make our way to the orange line metro. Down lots of steps and escalators and jump on the train to Villa Maria. Just a short walk to the accommodation, which is a basement flat in a fairly quiet part of town.  The rest of the holidaying family arrive and we have an evening catching up with what they’ve been doing so far.