Montréal: La nouvelle ville

Montréal is famous for its old buildings and storied past. But of course it's also a vibrant modern city that is as bustling and crowded as can be, with lots of intriguing amenities that we were unfortunately unable to sample.

Taking advantage of a very favorable exchange rate (and I mean, very favorable) we were able to stay in a hotel right in the middle of downtown and close to many fine sights. [Including le Parc du Mont Royal, which I told you about last time, but inexplicably forgot to give its official name. Je suis désolé!]

Our room was cozy, reminding us of our boutique hotel in San Francisco two years ago, but quite comfortable, and we were able to leave our car in a lot across the street for our entire stay. This was a real boon, since the downtown traffic we encountered was pretty horrible. I was as proud of my ability to find our hotel (and then find our way out of town the next day) as I was about scaling Independence Pass 5 years ago!

And we didn't starve, either. There were so many food options it was difficult to settle on one, but we ended up having a nice dinner at Le Pois Penché. It looked pretty pricey, but we said, what the hey! our vacation's almost over. Then, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much it ended up costing in US dollars...still a chunk of change, but a much smaller chunk than I feared. And it was delicious.

Our table was outside and right on the street, which wasn't as yucky as sounds, since there's a nice double bike lane between the curb and the cars. What a great idea!

gendarmes waiting in the well-traveled bike lanes

Here are some other samples of snazzy downtown Montréal architecture:

down the street from the park...
that's the St. Lawrence River in the background

And of course there was public art (in addition to the war memorial I wrote about over on Bridges to London)...

that's Le Parc Mont-Royal in the background

But the real architectural attractions around here are the old buildings, and I'll tell you about the ones we saw next time. Here's a taste, with old and new mingled. The lovely Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde (built in the late 1800's) was just down the street from our hotel (which wasn't, unfortunately, the Queen Elizabeth)...