A Long Weekend in Montreal
- Life at Beech House
- Mar 28, 2024
- 6 min read
After a 7 hour flight I landed in Montreal, whizzed through the new fangled self serve passport control machines and met my long lost friend in baggage claim. It was easy to buy an CAD$11 ticket before leaving the airport for the 747 airport bus to downtown. Of its many stops there was one a couple of blocks from our Air BnB and the streets were easy to navigate. It wasn’t long before we’d checked in and gone to find a supermarche to pick up the essentials any Brit abroad needs, milk (for the tea) and wine. Obviously we always bring our own tea bags wherever we go and although my travel buddy is now a bright, new, shiny American citizen I should have known that that part of being a Brit never goes away so we have 40 tea bags for our 4 day stay!!
Day 1
With a five hour time difference it was a semi restful sleep but we were up bright and early, making the most of those cups of tea and planning our day. It was unseasonably warm and my fear that I would melt in my thermals became a reality. We headed out for a brisk 30 minute walk to find breakfast. The Cafe St-Barth, unassuming from the outside was cosy and warm inside. After stripping off all the layers we sat to drink Chai Lattes and coffee and ate a delicious breakfast of French Toast, avocado toast and fruit. Making the most of google maps as our guide we bumbled to find the Underground City, a network of shops and tunnels. Although we were not sure we found what we were looking for we did find an abundance of clean, not to mention free, toilets (a novelty to those who travel around the UK and Europe). The Underground City connects shopping malls and Metro stations, perfect for when the weather is on the cooler side. We however headed back up top and kept walking through the city discovering pretty churches, cute shops and patisseries full of delicious looking French cakes until we got to the Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal. A peak inside cost us CAD$16 and delivered a stunning display of Gothic Revival architecture. The decor of this incredible building has changed since it was built nearly 200 years ago and exhibits an impressive history of Montreal.
From here we made our way down to the river and spied the melting ice, crisp looking beach and a beautiful view of the city behind us. Ready for another coffee with nearly 5 miles under our belt we walked back into the old town. As it was off season a lot of the cafes, restaurants and quirky shops were closed. We popped into Cafe Paquebot Vieux-Montreal for a cuppa and then made a beeline for the Metro to take on the Rue Peel Steps. Getting off at Peel there was already a mighty fine street hill climb, reminiscent of those in San Francisco, to the bottom of the steps. We didn’t count the steps as we huffed and puffed up them but a quick google search afterwards showed there were several different suggestions ranging between 239 and 500 so answers on a postcard please. The view from the top was stunning and we even found a little snow up there in Mount Royal Park. We loosely followed our noses in the vague direction of our apartment as we headed back down through the trails of the park spying the occasional cross country skier and a large group of snowshoers.
Having hit 10 miles of wandering we recouped with a cuppa before heading out on the oh so easy Metro to find dinner. Another unassuming place was Bar Pamplemousse, warm and welcoming inside with a fiery pizza oven and the lightest dough ever eaten. With a few cocktails to boot we headed back out into the night, the streets buzzing now with life. We stumbled across some light installations from the Lumen Festival - not quite in full swing yet, and Chocolats Favoris where they served ice creams dipped in chocolate with funky toppings (I’ll have the S’mores please) - it would have been rude not to. Time for a brief dip back into the Underground City and then off to bed.
Day 2
This morning we woke up to the real Montreal winter weather with temperatures of minus 15 and a wind chill making it feel like minus 22. With our weekend Metro pass in hand we headed out to Ville Marie and a neighbourhood where a friend used to live. A stroll down Monkland Avenue took us to a friendly neighbourhood lined with coffee shops, bars and boutiques. We called in to the busy Melk Cafe and grabbed drinks to keep us warm in the biting wind as we carried on down through the high street. The second place recommended on our little tour of the neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-De-Grace was closed but we found solace in the boulangerie of Croissant Monkland. This was another place that looked nothing to write home about from the outside but was filled with beautiful cakes, pastries and loaves of fresh bread. Spoilt for choice we grabbed two giant Croissant aux Amandes and sat people watching in this busy cafe. Meandering back through the pretty streets lined with Art Deco and Art Nouveau red brick duplexes with little balconies we picked up the Metro to Berri-UQAM to see some more stunning houses
Being a lover of all things house related the fact that Montreal was home to some of the most magnificent and beautifully crafted houses had some how passed me by. We casually stumbled across Square St Louis which revealed ornate, colourful, Victorian houses. A few clicks on Instagram afterwards and it became apparent there was a multitude of extraordinary homes within walking distance.
After walking through the streets admiring the amazing architecture we headed for Cafe La Chouette, where you can book a table to decorate cookies. We spent an hour or so hiding from the wind in this cutesy little cafe with many others bagging a table to decorate their own cookies.
From here we walked up to grab bagels at St-Viateur along the Avenue Mont Royal, a Bohemian and artsy street packed with book shops, vinyl record stores, unique boutiques and not to be missed bagels. These are boiled in water and honey before being baked in wood fire ovens making them different to the New York bagel.
That evening we headed back up the hill to Beaver Lake in Mount Royal Park to do some night snowshoeing. Our guide was brilliant and there were only 2 others on our tour. We noisily crunched our way through the trees glimpsing the city lights as we went and stopping every now and then to admire the full moon, grab a hot chocolate or look out for trash pandas. And yes we saw one scurrying around over the fallen logs.
Day 3
A quick search of the best hot chocolate places in Montreal brought up Barleys Bar a Cereales about a 25 minute walk south of where we were staying so we made that our destination for this morning’s breakfast. Finding a way around the freeway we made it to the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy dotted with little boutiques, cafes and bars. This little cafe was definitely a stop to make with their cereal milk lattes and hot chocolate with cereal topping. The breakfasts were also delicious.
Not too far from Barleys was the Marche Atwater. We browsed the fruit and veg stalls and quirky shops stuffed with grains, spices, pasta and gourmet sweets. We obviously had to stop at the boulangerie and picked up a Maple Mile Feuille for our journey across the city and onto St Helen’s Island and to Parc Jean Drapeau. The park has an ice skating trail that had been closed the day before as the weather had been unseasonably warm but today they had it up and running. It was like thick glass!! Only a short trail but through trees and with a view of the water and the city beyond it was lovely. But man those slight up hills were dicey, and of course what goes up must come down! We managed a few laps before calling it a day and venturing out on the trails around the park. Sadly with the lack of snow and cold weather in the previous days the trails were either un-walkable ice or large puddles. The ease of the Metro meant we could head back up to Le Plateau and walk through La Fontaine Park where people were braving the frozen lake to walk, throw snow (ice) balls and pull their children along on sledges. We hit Avenue Mont Royal and stopped at Notre-Boeuf-De-Grace for a cocktail and cheese curds. Fuelled up we meandered through the back streets spying the pretty, colourful and quirky houses the area had to offer. We called in to a place in the Latin Quarter for dinner on the way home but the food was so terrible it doesn’t deserve a mention.
Time to head home.
Our last morning in Montreal called for a big brunch before boarding our flights. A walk back to Little Burgundy and into the street-art covered walls of L’Avenue (not to be mistaken for L’Avenue car park where we might have ended up to begin with!) The food here was big and bold and worth the venture back South. Giant smoothies and French toast served with bacon, eggs and bagels. Filling enough to last me the journey back to London.
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