Americans Who Speak French (or, Our Weekend in Montreal)

One of our few friends on this continent - Chris, who lives in San Diego - had his birthday on the weekend, so we decided to celebrate by meeting up in Montreal, Quebec for a weekend of French-Canadian food and culture.  Our expectations were fairly high - after all, they're French, and French people are renowned for having great food and culture!  Chris told us a joke when he arrived:  "Canada could have had British culture, French food, and American technology, but instead they have British food, French technology, and American culture." - that pretty much sums up our experience.  I would say that "French-Canadian" is a bit of a misnomer - they're more like Americans who happen to speak French.  

By the way - in English, it's "Mon-tree-all" or "Mont-ree-all", but in French it's "Mon-rey-al".  

Montreal isn't a really touristy place - in fact, the entirety of the guide book's suggested Montreal itinerary was to have brunch, climb Mont Royal and then catch a train to Quebec City.  We did a little more than this, but a lot of the time was spent shivering while wandering around on our way to various food-related places.

We went to Beauty's for Sunday morning brunch, which is apparently a famous foodie thing.  The breakfast was ok - Chris informed us that the bagels are different to his experience with the rest of America - but it wasn't fantastic in my books.  The queue outside in the freezing cold was another matter.  The entire weekend I don't think the temperature topped 2 degrees, and we thought Toronto was cold - on our return, it seems mildly chilly after our weekend in Montreal.

We climbed Le Mont Royal (the hill that gave the city it's name), which was pretty cool with all of the leafless trees.  We found that it looked much more wintery in Montreal than in Toronto - most of the trees were bare, and the weather much grayer.  

Beware of falling tree stumps?

There were quite a few people in the park who were obviously gearing up for cross-country skiing season with these bizarre wheeled skis.  I just want to know how they get downhill without killing themselves.

We ran into an American Football team training (in the 2 degree weather) on our way back from the "mountain", which was pretty funny to watch.  During our indoor recuperation time (every trip outside necessitated about half an hour inside to thaw out) we watched a fair amount of this on the tv, and I can now say with authority that it is the hands down the most boring sport I have ever seen. 

On Sunday night we visited the Upstairs Jazz Bar for some culture and tunes - the venue was nice and cozy, and the jazz was good.  The entertainment was a quintet with an alto and tenor sax, piano, double bass and drums, playing original music.  A fun evening out :)  

 

Montreal really did have some beautiful old buildings - this was just a random row of houses in the Old Town.  Gorgeous.

The whole French-speaking thing was true, by the way - every person we spoke to spoke in French first, and all of the signs and menus were in French.  It wasn't so bad when we got used to it, and most people spoke English anyway - Chris amused us all by trying his Australian high school French out, and he made himself understood, although Stephen and I found the waitresses' expressions while listening to him to be the second funniest thing of the trip.

The funniest thing of the trip?  Chris's reaction to the poutine he ordered for lunch.  Apparently he didn't know what it was - just that it was a French-Canadian dish that he had to try.  I think he ate about 2 bites.  The operative phrase here would be "Welcome to Canada!" :)

Happy Birthday Chris!  (And not just any birthday - the big 3-0!)  Hope you had a fun weekend!  Next time we'll come and visit you where it's warmer! :)