Around town

This week, despite feeling in the dumps because of my knee, I decided that since it was my last week vacation I ought to do something.

Thursday I decided we were going to go to Old Montreal. I hadn't brought Samer there yet, and no visit of Montreal is complete without a tour in Old Montreal. The oldest buildings date back from first colonization in the 1600's. Montreal's oldest building, the Sulpician Seminary build in 1684. It has a clock that was added in 1701, that is the oldest functioning such clock in all of North America. We took the commuter train from our suburb to downtown Montreal with my eldest at 2ish, she was heading for class. For $4.50 it takes 20-30 minutes from my house to get downtown. Handy if you work downtown, and you can get a monthly pass.

We got off at Central Station at Place Bonaventure. From there, we walked along St Antoine to McGill and starting going lower towards old Montreal. We went through Square Victoria. We turned on Notre Dame going east, so he could see the Notre Dame Basilica, next to the old Semenary, as well as Place d'Armes. We continued on Notre Dame for a while and then took St Paul - Montreal's oldest street, and covered in cobblestones like in the past, and went to Place Jacques Cartier, so he could see Montreal's City Hall. I forgot to take him behind the city hall, where you can see remains of the fortifications that were build around old Montreal in ancient days.

We had lunch at a place called 'Le Fripon" in Place Jacques Cartier. I had amazing mussels with fries, and Samer had sausages with fries. This restaurant had a mix of French, Italian, German and English cuisine, and a terasse directly on Place Jacques Cartier. The food was excellent as well as the service. It's a little more expensive then I normally like.. but decent for Old Montreal in a tourist area :)

After lunch we headed towards Marche Bonsecours, built around the 1850's and originally served as Montreal's city hall. Next to the market is the Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours, the oldest standing church in Montreal, built in 1655, now housing the Margerite Bourgeoys museum. Also aroudn the corner is a quaint hotel/restaurant housed in a 17th century building.

At this point we went on de la Commune, to the waterfront, and walked around the old port. First from the distance we could see Pont Jacques-Cartier, behind it La Ronde, and the remains of the Expo '67 of Man and it's world. You can see the clock tower on the waterfront, built to commemorate those who fought in WWI. We walked along the clock tower pier and then just along the waterfront. The other 2 piers were closed off to pedestrians. It's offseason. During the peak summer months the piers are all open. It's one of my favorite places to go in-line skating.

We walked along de la commune till we got back to McGill street and walked back to Square Victoria, where we sat for a while, watching people rushing home from work and a bunch of skateboarding kids. I figured we didn't want to take the commuter train before 7pm because I didn't want to stand on the train with my bitchy knee.