C’est la vie! A la Montreal!!

We found a great campground south of Montreal in St. Phillippe.   Dave gets major “kudos” for finding this place.  We deliberately took the scenic route between 1000 Islands and Montreal down along the St. Lawrence River.  Unfortunately it caused us to  arrive in Montreal during rush hour and through major construction.   Sometimes the lanes were so narrow the orange barrels would “kiss” the side mirrors of the RV.  I fixed him a good drink as we were rushing to set up ahead of the rain! The RV park sites have concrete patios with patio furniture, a great club/bath house and amenities.  My one disappointment so far has been that we aren’t meeting very many other campers.  But truly it’s our fault for not hanging around our campsite more.  We’ve been too busy playing tourist!  I did report to the Wassums in an email that I’m in “bridge withdrawal”….



Every time we went to take a picture of our site... it would rain...

Here's one off the internet!

We had a grand time exploring Montreal Friday.  First we learned what a city that really pays attention to public and green transportation is like.  We drove about 5 miles to a HUGE park and ride lot and took the bus into the city and then took the metro all over town.  Once we got into the city we saw bicycle racks every few blocks.  There were dedicated bicycle lanes separated from the traffic.  We saw many bike rental stations.  We talked to one local, and he told us that you rent them for $5/24 hr and can check one out for a maximum of 30 minutes and return it to any station.  After a minimum of 2 minutes, you can use another one.  You can also buy weekly, monthly and an annual pass is $72.

Rent a bike?

Deb & the Metro

We first went to the Museum of Contemporary Art.  It was closed except for a 3-D exhibit that had you go in a big room and walk around a screen which was showing a 3-D interactive animation of you walking through rooms in a building.  It was interesting but not what we were hoping for after the NYC’s MOMA. 

We took the subway out to the Olympic Village and visited the Biodome which created inside the Olympic Velodrome ….what else would you do with one?  It was terrific.  Sort of like the Georgia Aquarium with animals and small fish.  We spent the most time in the room with the beaver dam.  They had created an artificial one, but the beavers keep adding to it.  They have to keep them in woodchips to keep them from cutting down all the trees!  They had a glass wall fixed so that you could see the beavers going into and out of their den under water.  Then they had a camera in the den.  It was fascinating.  Other rooms had penguins and puffins, river fish including large sturgeon and haddock, a tropical rain forest and a maple leaf forest. 




The Biodome



Beaver Heaven

We then did the metro again back into the city to the Musee de Beaux Arts.  (Fine Arts Museum).  Their big exhibition was a show of Jean Paul Gautier fashions:  from the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.  Think of Madonna’s outfits on steroids!!  In fact they had a section dedicated to her.  It was provocative and extremely artistic.  It was hard to imagine how he thought up some of the ideas and then amazing how they were executed.   One of the fun parts of the exhibition was the mannequins.  Many of them had videos projected onto blank faces so that they looked like they were “alive”.  Sometimes all they did was blink or smile at you and then others would talk (in French of course!)  Here are some pictures… I think you’ll understand what I meant by provocative!

Can you imagine doing this bead work?!

By the time we left the museum, the line to get in was around the block and evening had fallen.  We had heard of a light show at the Notre Dame Cathedral so we made our way again on the metro to Old Town.  Our museum passes didn’t include the cathedral, but our age gave us a discount!  At first the light show seemed a little hokey with bad actors acting out the history of Montreal onto large screens and scrims set around the nave.  But when the history progressed to the architect of the cathedral and the narration began to explain and light up the art in the nave, it became impressive.  We remarked afterward that it was a great fund-raiser for the congregation.  You just would have to have the history and art first!

Now we were really tired and hungry, but with just a little exploration in Old Town we found a great brew-pub and had pork shanks and sausages with sauerkraut simmered in beer.  We made our way back to our bus terminal and then “home”.   Deb fell asleep almost immediately.

Saturday morning we woke up to more rain and Deb decided to give up the “diet”… In 10 days of no grains, sugar or basically any white foods, she has gained 1 pound!

We headed for the mountains and an Oktoberfest in St. Adele.  It was really a fun village festival complete with a midway (we didn’t go there), craft booths (we did stop and look a lot there!) and terrific food and beer.  Deb really enjoyed her French onion soup in a whole grain bread bowl and indulged in an almond pastry.   We both enjoyed some amazing beers.  One of our favorites was made with the local maple syrup.  In the tent set up with tables for eating we talked to a cute young couple and their friend who ran a French restaurant (and didn’t speak much English).  But Gael, our new friend, introduced us to several new beers and gave us directions to an amazing beer store that was sort of like a super-sized Common Market.  It also housed a grocery store for the tiny town. 

Crowd shot at Oktoberfest... note the One Man Band!

  After that we went to Oka National Park to check out the campsites we remembered fondly from our trek up here 35 years ago.  It was definitely primitive compared to the resort we are at now but beautiful and woodsy.  We checked out the section for RV’s and they were very nice, but muddy.  I guess we’ve “matured” in our selection of campsites!!



Oka campsite.... We just don't sleep on the ground like we used to!!

This morning (Saturday) Dave called and got us reservations in campsites in Vermont and New Hampshire.  When we asked about the leaves, one said they were just starting, and the other said they were about to “peak” so I think we’ll  be about “just right”!  Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned....