rfmcdonald | Finishing Up the Trip Updates (Reply)

I got into Montréal at 8:30, after a sleepless but adrenaline-fueled night. I stowed my baggage and went into downtown Montréal, dropping off the edited story at a Canada Post office, checking the Internet at a downtown Chapter's.

I picked up my bags at the station at noon and then went down to the Hôtel Avenue du Parc, on the streeet of the same name just above Avenue Mont-Royal on the Plateau Mont-Royal. I unpacked in my room, then I went east on Avenue Mont-Royal, eating sushi at a local chain restarant. My feet were hurting me; I had my big left toe's nail was badly in-grown, and since I like walking and biking it's a problem. So, I stopped off for a pedicure at a conveniently located shop. My foot still feels much better, and I had an interesting chat with the Vietnamese pedicurist, in Canada for only one year. (More later, in a post on Canadian sociolinguistics.)

I got back at 2 o'clock and spent time watching the local television before I had a shower and again left. I again went down Mont-Royal towards the Métro station of the same name. I bought a great three-day unlimited transit pass there, and went down to the Sherbrooke station to again wander. I went to a Breton restaurant, Le Triskell, for excellent crêpes bretonnes for supper, stuffed with egg mushroom and ham.

I then strolled towards Sainte-Catherine, stopping at an Internet café before I turned east towards Le Village. (I went to an Archambault music store to buy a couple of albums (Mylène Farmer's "C'est une belle journée" single and a volume of Jacques Brel's greatest hits.)

Compared to Toronto's Church Street, Montréal's village gai on Sainte-Catherine is substantially larger. I wandered past stores and bars for a bit, looping around. The first time I got back, I got returned to Beaudry from Berri-UQAM, so I stayed for a drink. That didn't work at all, so I walked back to the hotel at 11 o'clock

I left the hotel at 9:30 to undertake a tour of the museums of Montréal. I stopped off at the Musée McCord de civilisation canadienne first; it was closed, so I went to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast before it opened at 10 o'clock. It was an excellent compact museum, giving a nice overview of Montréal's social history. Next was the Musée d'art contemporain du Montréal, which had an excellent exhibition of Group of Seven paintings along with a stunning exhibition of Nan Goldin's photography, a corpus almost three decades old which is centered on photo-vérité images of her friends.

From that exhibition, just after noon I turned down towards Vieux-Montréal, to the Centre d'histoire de Montréal and the Mosaïcultures (briefly put, plants sculpted into, well, sculptures by skilled gardeners as part of an international competition, including the Great Wall of China, a Dubai Bedouin in an oasis, and the Easter Island moai). The Pointe-á-Callière archeological museum was equally fascinating, detailing as it did Montréal's extensive remains.

It's at this point that it began to rain. Fortunately, I was able to duck into a souvenir shop by the Basilique Nôtre-Dame and buy their last umbrella before I continued east, past the Place d'Youville and the Hôtel de Ville, towards the Musée du Chateau Ramezay (an 18th century governor's residence, I believe under the French régime), the Musée Marguerite-Bourgeoys (devoted to that famous 17th century French missionary sister, and finally the home of George Étienne Cartier, at the easternmost tip of Vieux-Montréal.

(Incidentally, Vieux-Montréal is beautiful. Go visit, now.)

I went up into the Village again, going to Bato Thai for supper. It's there that I was met by Jean-François, a charming schoolteacher who invited me out for a night. So, that's what I did, returning to my hotel at 3 in the morning, with some early breakfast of souvlaki at the nearby Greek restaurant.

All that was quite fun, on quite a few levels.

I got to the train station at 6:30, left at seven, and made it to Kingston at 10 o'clock. After taking my bags up to my newly assigned room, at noon I went into the town to explore.

And that's it.