Day 10 – Montreal fka Mont Royal. It’s super sunny and hot so we need to make the most of the weather. It more unpredictable than England here, so we wanted to do all the sites and sounds of the big city.
We started off well, when we checked Google Maps the 55min drive was stating 2hr 22mins turns out Wednesday morning is a good time to have accidents.
We made it to Montreal and get parked in the world’s best parking space. We were having flashbacks to some of the parking garages in USA but AutoParc Stanley $21 for the day with massive spaces. Winner.
We walked out onto the streets and planned to attack Mont Royal as it’s very steep, lots of steps and you never know how long the kiddos will last. Some amazing sights on the way to the park entrance.
The mountain site is massive, we wanted to stick to the easy route and get a look over Montreal. It’s supposed to be worth the effort.
The walk consisted of a choice of steep slopes or a series of stairs. Lots of tour groups and older people taking their time on the stairs. Which was then juxtaposed by runners sprinting up and down the stairs getting their workout in.
The boys did so well, but in this heat (temp was 25c as we were in the city now) it was hot sweaty work. But if you remember the other day “Everyone wants the view, but no one wants the climb” we did the climb!
The view from the top had a lovely viewing platform and a chalet that housed artwork and theatre performances.
Once we had a look around the chalet we took a trail through the park and enjoyed the views and sunshine.
Elliott started to mention that the very top of his quad muscle was hurting. We tried to stretch it together and loosen things up, not sure if he banged it or it’s growing pains?
Nate stretching after getting a stitch.
Once we made it down to ground level we picked out a route through the city, on our way the historic Old Montreal. Lots of amazing architecture, with a mix of old and new.
King Nate of Montreal
Now all this walking and hiking can you make hungry, so Mummy researched a bagel place that had some amazing reviews. La Fabrique De Bagel didn’t look like much from the outside, we nearly didn’t eat there. But they made there bagels fresh and they had this mysterious glass case.
That was flavoured cream cheese! Strawberry, bacon, dill and so on flavours of cream cheese for your bagel. Elliott & Mummy went for smoked salmon, Nate went for peanut butter, Daddy had bacon. Absolutely delicious!
The bagel shop was inside an impressive food court that was connected to the Intercontinental hotel.
We finished up the bagels and decided it was time to hit Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. Daddy had visited during his work trip, but everyone was blown away by the scale and grandeur.
Mummy had a Mummy moment before going in, saying to Daddy it’s quite pricy, maybe we shouldn’t go! You can’t come all the way to Montreal and not see this!
Mummy agreed.
Fun fact: It took 15 years to finish the inside.
Fun fact: There is no steel, only stone and wood.
Fun fact: Celine Dion got married here.
Fun fact: in a Catholic church, this says ‘God’ in Hebrew.
Fun fact: The only person buried in the crypt is the architect.
We also walked in while the organ was being played (special event) which was so loud, we couldn’t hear each other talking.
We headed further into Old Montreal to see the sights and find the most important thing: Ice Cream! 🍦
The Old town is beautiful, very clean and tourist friendly. Lots of bars and restaurants with people eating outside.
As much as Daddy likes to teach the boys with the history, they really just wanted ice cream after such a long day of walking.
Mummy wanted a crepe. I can’t come (basically!) to France and not have a crepe! So we walked around and found Crêperie St Paul.
Which you needed to walk upstairs to get into the restaurant, very European. Mummy was very happy, like the man said “Happy wife, happy life” in broken English.
We made it to Mlle Catherine which was a very cool independent shop that had awesome Trip advisor reviews. Nate went for a cookies and cream, sprinkle cone dipped in maple syrup.
Elliott went for a cookies and cream, sprinkle cone dipped in chocolate. The magic was that after about 10 seconds the dipped chocolate hardened and made a crunchy shell around the ice cream.
Daddy just happy.
The ice creams were a resounding success. The boys want to come back just for the dipping ice cream again.
We finished up and walked along the harbour and attractions. Nate full of sugar sprinted off into the distance.
By the end, Nate was done so enjoyed the last 30mins on Daddy shoulders.
We were about finished and took in the final buildings and history before heading back to the car.
We headed out and watched the fire brigade chilling outside, and then fought traffic for the next 1hr 30mins. Home safely! Tomorrow probably chilling after today but let’s see!
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