Day 5: Last Day in Montreal

Neither Lil or Soph had class (no-class Fridays are sweet!), so we had a slow morning. I made French Toast for everyone while Lil and Sophia edited a paper that was due in the evening so that we could hang out for the rest of the day.

Yanessa tried her hand at ‘Hit the Spot’, a puzzle which requires some manual dexterity and manipulation of slopes. I thought I had been doing very well the night before, when it turns out the table it was resting on was slanted towards me (I didn’t know, I swear!).


After breakfast and some final edits on Soph’s paper, we all piled into my car. It was the first time we’d been in the car all week, surprisingly. It was really nice to be able to walk most places. On our way out, we noticed that the little café/bookstore/hang-out-spot on the first floor had added a mural facing the parking lot:


Driving in the city of Montreal wasn’t as bad as I feared – it was much less crazy than Boston. I think the city was planned out a little better, with enough space for the traffic (at least at
midday). Yanessa snapped some shots of some highlights:

The Chinatown gates


A big, kinda scary mural. I think the artist may have been somewhat well known (at least in Montreal).


Molson’s headquarters in Montreal. They’re pretty proud of their beer, apparently… Probably the way I would be proud of Harpoon (as opposed to Sam Adams) as a Boston Resident.

Our first stop was at the Parc Lafontaine, which apparently is in the Plateau, the neighborhood where Sophia lived before her current digs. As we walked along the Parc, Lil and Yanessa started discussing the architecture of the brownstones, and how it’s somewhat similar to New York with walkups. I wonder how the walkups fare in the winter though, as since the steps are floating, they must freeze very easily.


We stopped by a restaurant/diner that specializes in pouttine(sp?), Montreal’s ‘unique’ food. Pouttine is basically French fries with melted cheese curds and gravy, but you can add extra stuff as well. Yanessa and I tried the Pouttine Dan Dan, which had bacon, pepperoni, and grilled onions in addition to the regular goodness.


It was pretty good, but really, too much food. Between the two of us, we ate at most 2/3 of the dish.

While at the parc, we saw a few ducklings in the water.


Yanessa also saw a cloud which reminded us of the characters in ‘Partly Cloudy’, the latest Pixar short:


Afterwards we met up with Matt again and browsed through a few stops before going to a Café on Rue Saint Denis called Julienne et Chocolat. They specialize in chocolate drinks and desserts. We of course neglected to take pictures, but if you’re ever in Montreal, you have to go! Very delicious. A great assortment of alcoholic drinks as well – Yanessa had a ‘Chocolate Ruby’, which is dark-ish chocolate, some brandy (I think), and a scoop of raspberry sherbet which melts into the rest of the drink over time. I had a chocolate fondant with salted caramel melted all over it, which was (of course) amazing.

After that, everyone was pretty full and tired (and it started to rain!), so we went back to the apartment. Sophia’s friend Yoshi brought over a bottle of wine, and we watched Lars and the Real Girl (very good, touching movie).

Yanessa also found this on Rue Saint Denis: