Beautiful Montreal

Wednesday July 11:   In the afternoon we met with family, John & Peter (aka: The RVGeeks of YouTube fame).  They are transiting Canada and visiting RV parks as part of their business and heard we were in Montreal, so we were excited to have an opportunity for a visit.  We met them at the Port’s main ferry terminal and walked back to show them Santorini.  We sat in the cockpit and had some great conversation comparing land yachts and seagoing yachts. Later we did a mini tour of the Old City, then went for dinner at our favorite French restaurant BARROCO where we had a wonderful time wining and dining.  After our meal we continued our pre-dusk mini tour of Old City to the lights and sounds of bars, jazz clubs with live music and everything else in between.  The streets were crowded, and we rubbed shoulders with an eclectic mix of people from all over the world.

We returned to Santorini to enjoy a planned desert of Champagne, macaroons from the famous Maison Christian Faure Patisserie, and then watch one of the world’s largest pyrotechnics competition of its kind in the world, the Montreal International Fireworks Competition.   This event has been ongoing since 1985 and it remains one of the city's top summer attractions.  The event is so large that the city closes their main bridge, the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, to all vehicle traffic at 8:00pm to permit thousands of pedestrians to have a free front-row-center seat that is guaranteed to give them a spectacular view of the fireworks show.  The show is choreographed to music.  Rather than join the masses, we decided to watch from the luxury of our boat with desert and wonderful company.  Tonight’s presentation was Austria, and their fireworks display was excellent.   It was called, "Let's Dance" and our only complaint was the music did not seem to marry well with the fireworks.

Thursday July 12:   We lunched at Terrasse, a favorite roof top restaurant we visited last year, in the Hotel Nelligan.  It has good views of the Old City and the Port.  After lunch, Karl ran some errands while Donna had a haircut.  The weather has been picture perfect, sunny, warm, breezy and with low humidity.

Terrasse and Kapt Karl looking very pensive...wonder what he is thinking!

Saturday July 14:   A couple weeks ago when we were at Chez Lin and Rays in Essex, Karl had fabulous escargot. The garlic-wine sauce was remarkable and we tried to deconstruct the dish, which had sweetness from perhaps some sherry and a touch of cream.   So for our Saturday dinner on-board, Karl served a wonderful version of the escargot sauce served over shrimp, along with a green salad and crusty bread to mop up the delicious sauce.

The evening’s fireworks display was courtesy of China.   It was their turn to demonstrate their centuries-old craft in pyrotechnics.  We were not disappointed … it was perfectly choreographed and synchronized to Chinese folk music.  The "Butterfly Lovers” was magical, the music and the fireworks were gentle and lyrical, all light and music with little noise.  It began with beautiful pink and green lotus blossoms floating in the night sky.  It ended with incredible layer upon layer of gorgeous shapes and colors superimposed one over the other.

Now having witnessed several of these firework events in Montreal, this one was a definite WOW moment!  We were not the only people to think this performance exceptional.  We could hear roars from the crowds gathered on the Jacques Cartier Bridge, cheers form the masses gathered under the Clock Tower, and of course an irritating cacophony of various trumpet horns from vessels in the Yacht Club. 

Sunday July 15:  Started as a lazy day, beginning with brunch at Jardin Nelson on Place Jacques-Cartier Vieux, a wide pedestrian avenue lined with cafes, stalls selling artworks and street musicians performing classical and pop tunes.  After brunch we strolled down Rue de la Notre Dame and passed a film sound and light crew breaking down their equipment and scaffolding.   Upon investigation, we discovered that they are filming a Netflix movie “Murder Mystery” starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.  Both stars have been spotted around town.  Sandler reportedly challenged someone to a 1-on-1 basketball game, and later crashed another’s wedding here in Old Port.

While walking around the city, Karl noticed that almost all of Montreal's church steeples were the same metalic color.  He speculated that there must have been a special discount on aluminum paint at "Steeples- R-Us".

Monday July 16:  Yacht Club de Montreal’s staff is exceptional.  For example, Donna needed nautical charts for the Seaway Sorel to Quebec City.  We stopped at the office to inquire if the staff would know a purveyor here in Montreal.  The young man and woman on duty immediately logged on to a computer station and found us a shop within walking distance; then called the shop to verify they had the specific charts in stock, and confirm business hours.  Then they printed a map of this section of the City and highlighted the walking route. Gee, great customer service still exists.

 

Tuesday July 17:  It rained heavily overnight and the morning brought some intermittent light showers. We were not deterred and set out for Aux Quatre Points Cardinaux.  The shop was beautiful, arranged in two sections one for land and one for sea.  There were maps, a great selection of globes, guide books, nautical charts, nautical logbooks, etc.  The staff there was also very helpful. 

 

After leaving the store, we walked to Jardin Nelson for a bite of lunch and finally, to the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel for a self-guided tour of the museum, church and climb to the top of the tower.  Donna decided to take a short guided tour of the crypt and archaeological site under the church, while Karl returned to the boat to do some light maintenance in our crypt, called the engine room. 

Interestingly, the tour disclosed that Marguerite Bourgeoys emigrated to Canada from France in 1653 and founded a group of Catholic Sisters.  Refusing to be cloistered, Sister Marguerite and her followers administered to the sick and educated young girls, the poor and native peoples.  In 1657 she persuaded a work party to build Montreal's first permanent church.  She was Canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1982.  A fire destroyed the church and today's chapel was built on top of the ruins.  Beneath the current church, the footprint of the original church, including low stone walls that held up the floor and remnants of the church bell were discovered.  When excavating, a 2400 year old native campsite was discovered.  It is unknown who the people were but they predate the Iroquois.  Shards of pottery, the bones of an animal that had been roasted for dinner and remnants of primitive tool making were uncovered.

 

Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours from the Port

A view of the Port and famous Clock Tower as seen from the church tower

Although the day was not really hot temperature-wise, it was very humid and uncomfortable, the afternoon sun made it even more steamy.  Returning to Santorini’s air-conditioned interior felt very good.  Later, the cold front arrived and it was pleasant to sit outside.  We noticed police and emergency lights in the park surrounding the clock tower across the way.  Our neighbor explained that around 5:00 PM, a man had fallen from the tower and died.  It was unclear whether it was an accident or suicide.

Wednesday, July 18:  News accounts today seem to indicate the man who died as a result of a fall from the clock tower was a suicide.  The man, around sixty years old, was agitated and the police tried to calm him and talk him down but unfortunately he did fall or leap to his death.  It is hard to look at the beautiful tower without thinking about this tragedy.  A neighboring slip holder said there are recurring events at the Clock Tower ... last time was in 2014, when a man jumped from the tower into the St Lawrence and was rescued by a fisherman.

It was a spectacular weather day, high 80F bright sun and not a cloud in the sky made it a good day for us to walk to Atwater Market.  We followed the bike path along the St Lawrence and then the Lachine Canal to the Market.  We bought a baguette, some duck and pork terrine, lamb and pork shish kabob, tomatoes and assortment of fresh berries.

Stash Cafe

Later in the day, and since we walked a total of 7.5 miles along the river and canal, we felt  justified pulling out all the stops for heavy dinner, so we walked to Stash Café for an early dinner of Polish cuisine and rye vodka.  We sampled pirogue stuffed with meat, mushroom and sauerkraut and potato and cheese; also small potato pancakes for appetizers.  Karl had pork and sauerkraut and Donna had fillet of soul almandine for dinner.  No room for desert!!

We returned to Santorini to catch the last of the fireworks displays we would see on this trip.  Tonight it was Canada’s turn, and the program titled “Immortals" featured lesser-known songs from recording artists who have died in recent years.  Starting with Michael Jackson's "Earth Song",  moving to David Bowie's "Under Pressure", Amy Winehouse and other artists.  The event ending with Leonard Cohen’s rendition of "Hallelujah".  We would give mixed reviews to the choreography on this show, although the finale of Cohen’s Hallelujah was perfection.

Bon-Secours Angel overlooking the Old Port