Montréal, rapidement

Normally in June I post about Quebec City, since we have annual update training sometime in the early summer. I almost always stop in Montreal en route to Quebec City, since there are no direct flights from Vancouver, but I rarely leave the airport. This time, I came up with a way to squeeze a visit in without extending my trip past 6 days. A friend from college had recently moved to the city with her husband, and offered to share their couch. I flew out a day early for the meetings, caught the bus to their neighborhood, and spent the day that the rest of my co-workers traveled exploring a new city! 

the Basilica

 Our first stop upon heading out the door was the bustling market. Outside, tarped roofs covered myriad sorts of edible and flowering plants from the first heat of the summer. Inside the air conditioned market hall were selections of meats, fresh pasta, coffee roasters, and (of course our first stop) a bakery with crusty loaves and delicate gâteaux.

We took the metro into the central station downtown and I relieved myself of my luggage at the baggage room. Outside in the blazing sun, we worked our way down a bustling shopping street and towards the "Old Port." People were eating their lunches in flowered squares and milling around the empty stages area where music festivals are held in the summer. We finally came to Place D'Armes and looked up at the edifice of the Notre Dame basilica.

The area became more touristy as we walked downhill towards the Old Port. The city hall looks down Place Jacques Cartier at the artists and ice cream shops catering to visitors. We stumbled upon a walled garden below the city hall. Through an open gate we found a beautiful pattern of hedges ringed with blooming chive plants. Espaliered apple trees lined a wall facing south, complete with cherry-sized green apples. I can only imagine the sort of fruit that could be grown there with the warm stone wall behind them!

On our way back to the train station, we walked for a while along the canal at the south west corner of the Old Port. A set of locks separate the canal from the St Lawrence River. Farther upstream the canal crosses the route we walked from my friends' house to the Metro station. In some areas, the canal is the boundary between older Montreal and neighborhoods that have been re-developed with condos and town houses. On one side, tall silos to store grain from the prairies. On the other, tall blocks of urban professionals.

We discovered a ruined foundation behind St Patrick's basillica. There were no signs of what had been there before, but looking up at St Patrick's I thought of the story of Montreal. There are huge stone churches that must have once dominated the landscape. A French Catholic church on one block, an Irish Catholic congregation a few blocks down. Today, they are dwarfed by the new worship centers of commercialism and property.

Later in the afternoon we ended up back at the Central Station, Gare Central. I said many thanks and goodbye to my friend, then joined the queue for those boarding the train to Quebec City. I filed into Car 5 and found my window seat. After a short wait we slipped out of the station, across the canal, across the river, and across the southern part of Quebec. We were on the heels of a thunderstorm as we neared our destination and the low sun glinted off of a sparkling landscape. It was especially lovely as we crossed the St Lawrence a second time, signalling the end of the trip.