On our way out for the day.
We spent another wonderful day in Montréal. We began our day in Vieux-Montréal, the old city. There are many interesting things to see and do and we had a great time. We began by visiting Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, more commonly known as the sailors' church or Marguerite-Bourgeoys Historical Site. It was founded in 1655 and is the oldest stone church in Montréal. It is knows as the "sailers' church" because many sailers came there to pray, it being on the shores of the river. There are ship lights that hang from the ceiling. The glasswork was beautiful.
The exterior of the church.
They say this part that faces the water looks like the prow of a ship.
I can see that.
We walked through the Marche Bonsecours, an indoor market with lots of little shops selling touristy things, then made our way to a zipline that goes out over the water a bit. When we found the Montréal city pass that gave you all sorts of options of things to do, Isabella was looking with me. When she saw that we could zipline, she marginally freaked out in excitement. She absolutely insisted that we do it, no discussion allowed. We were doing it! I like to zipline and Brandt was game. Kent, however, was not. He doesn't like heights, so we left him below to take pictures as we came shooting across. I didn't want to lose my phone/camera by having it fall from a great height, so I left it with Kent. We all did. As a result, we have no cute picture of Brenda, Brandt, Isabella, and me in our helmets and zipline attachments. We had to climb 120 steps up eight stories. Isabella bravely went first. Brandt and I followed with Brenda bringing up the rear. It was exhilarating and the view was terrific, although no pictures of that either.
La Grande Roue de Montréal was another possible attraction
we could enjoy as part of our city pass.
We opted to do other things, but Isabella really wanted to go on it.
and marginally harassed us about it until we left.
Truth be told, I would have liked to go on it too, but we got outvoted.
Isabella
Brandt
You weren't supposed to take your hands off the handles,
and you weren't supposed to do anything with your feet either.
But I gave Kent a jaunty foot wave as I passed overhead.
Brenda
We continued our exploration of Vieux Montréal as we walked along Rue Saint-Paul, the oldest street in Montréal. We walked through Place Jacque-Cartier, a marketplace dominated by a monument to Admiral Nelson. It's lively during the day and at night. We passed through in the evening too. More on that later.
Along Rue Saint-Paul we passed a darling restaurant called Chez Suzette and Isabella begged us to have lunch there. We agreed we could, but it was too early for lunch; we had to keep walking. We passed a ridiculous store that sold only rubber ducks, but both Brandt and Isabella insisted we go inside.
As we looked around the store, I asked myself,
"Who would spend $33 for a cowboy rubber duck?"
I had the answer standing next to me,
but we made it out of the store duck free.
We continued through the old city, making our way to the birthplace of Montréal. The remnants of the first building are in Place D'Youville. I thought I took a picture of the children standing on the Place de la Grande Paix monument in the same space, but it was video. Oops! Here's a picture from the internet.
We circled around a bit, passing many interesting buildings old and newer. Many had an Art Deco feel. We came into the Place d'Armes. The map of old Montréal says,
In the heart of the historical district, Place d'Armes provides a complete overview of all periods in the history of Montréal: from the city's oldest building to the curch of its very first parish, from the head office of the country's first bank to Canada's first skyscraper, the New York Life Building. Inaugurated in 1888, this building had an elevator to go up its eight floors . . . quite the novelty at the time!
Not in Place d'Armes, but one of those interesting Art Deco buildings we passed.
The New York Life Building on the left (red brick)
is the first skyscraper in Montréal.
The Allred Building next to it is a fine example of Art Deco architecture.
It resembles the Empire State Building which was finished the same year.
The Bank of Montréal
Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve
The co-founder and governor of the island of Montréal for 24 years.
Notre-Dame du Sacre-Coeur Cathedral
We returned to the cathedral in the evening.
We returned to Chez Suzette for lunch. It was delicious! A fine choice for French feeling Montréal.
The view from our table.
We were on the second floor.
I was going to take a picture of the cute front of the restaurant,
but instead I took a cute picture of our boy in front of the restaurant.
He did that on purpose.
All over Montréal, we have passed interesting sculptures. We passed this one on a side street off Rue Saint-Paul. It's by Rose-Aimee Belanger and is called "Les Chuchoteuses" or "The Whisperers." Don't you wonder what they're saying? I do!
Montréal has a bike share program. There are many places throughout the city where you can hop on a bike, ride somewhere, then leave the bike at a station. Although hilly in parts, many parts of Montréal are very biker friendly. Brenda had suggested we bike along the river for a bit and visit another market. We rented bikes and rode along the river. It was beautiful! The path was not crowded, it was out of traffic, and so pleasant. Brenda and I would have biked much farther, but we enjoyed the biking while it lasted.
We biked past Farine Five Roses which was featured
in the puzzle of Montréal I bought.
Five Roses Flower was originally produced here, but the company was
eventually sold. The new company still owned the mill,
but much had been spent to maintain the sign and it was
designated as a protected architectural feature in 2020.
We ended our ride at the Atwater Market, another terrific market with lots of lovely flowers and food stalls. I was drawn to the cheese. So much lovely cheese! We did pop into a bakery and everyone purchased a pastry. We also bought chocolate to take home to Utah.
We returned home on the metro (Brandt pictured above) and Brandt and I went for a swim. The indoor pool in Brent and Brenda's apartment is lovely and the water was cool and refreshing. We had a tasty dinner in, enjoyed our pastries from Atwater Market (below), then the four of us headed back to the old city and Notre-Dame Basilica.
Notre-Dame has an amazing laser light show called The AURA Experience. They describe it as "A luminous experience at the heart of the Basilica."
The AURA Experience immerses you in a captivating visual and musical universe, presented upon one of the most sublime canvases imaginable: the Frech-inspired, Gothic Revival architectural interior of Notre-Dame Basilica of Montréal. The experience offers a four-act mulitmedia display of dynamic light, orchestral music, and expressive architecture.
It was absolutely amazing! We entered the cathedral in the dark, with quiet music playing and lights flickering across the walls and ceiling. We hadn't been in the cathedral during the day, so we had no idea what the interior really looked like. When the show started, the lights covered the walls and ceilings. It looked like the four seasons, with leaves falling in autumn, then a winter storm, with snow falling. Spring brought trees leafing and then summer with lots of warm color. At one point a tidal wave of water spread over the ceiling and looked like the audience would be swept away in the flood. The music and lights were really incredible. We were all astounded at how cool it was. I've pilfered pictures from the internet because we were asked not to take any pictures during the show. I wouldn't have taken any because I was so swept up by the presentation. I can't say strongly enough how fantastic it was.
We were first in line for the show and stood outside this door as we waited.
A picture we took before the presentation began.
A really bad family selfie waiting for the show to start.
It was dark!
The interior after the lights came up.
As we left, Brandt asked if we could speak to the technician/s in charge of the show and we met the one lone guy who ran the whole thing from an iPad. He talked to us about the planning of the show and how he was able to run everything from a program. He essentially pushed play and then monitored the system to make sure everything ran as it should. He was super nice and took quite a bit of time with us. Both Brandt and Isabella seemed keen to work on a similar project sometime.
Kent and I had fairly distinct memories of visiting Chinatown when we made a visit to Montréal when we lived in Albany. We remember shopping and wandering around and having an experience that felt different than being in the more French parts of the city. Brenda told us that Chinatown wasn't much to look at, but it is fairly close to the old city, and as we were nearby and it wasn't too late when we got out of AURA, we walked over.
Turns out, Brenda was absolutely right. Chinatown is one street with few really Chinese shops or restaurants, nothing at all like we remember. We walked the whole length, saw nothing that sparked a memory of any sort, and called it good. Funny how the mind remembers things differently than they are. We were probably there in 1996, so maybe things have just changed.
Another mural we passed on our stroll towards Chinatown.
We took the metro back to Brent and Brenda's apartment. It was another good day. We saw lots of interesting things, ate good food, had new and amazing experiences. Hoorah for travel!
Brandt riding the escalator handrail up.
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