Day 32 started with a trip to the Jean Talon Markets. They are fresh produce markets that have everything from fruit and vegie to seafood to cheese to meats. Even though not being able to buy any fresh produce we did an exuberant amount of product sampling.
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| Jean Talon Markets |
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| Pecan pies. |
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| Mitch sampling some pear. |
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| 'Where's all the samples?" |
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| So many berries |
Prior to leaving Toronto to come to Montreal there was a foodie style show on the TV that recommended a restaurant called 'Pizzeria Neopolatana'. Conveniently for us the markets were situated in close proximity to Little Italy and Pizzeria Neopolatana, and by now our bellies were grumbling like the bass pipes of an organ. We were a little early for lunch but we were lucky we were early as by 1200 the restaurant was getting full. We ordered to Neopolatana pizza as recommended on the TV program, It was a very simple pizza; mozzarella, mushrooms, tomato sauce, anchovies (on Jo's half) and parmesan on a crispy base. It was delicious, the sauce was thick and rich, the base was crispy and tasty and the cheeses were salty and complementing.
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| Mozzarella straight on the base and tomato sauce on top. Never shredded only sliced Mozzarella. |
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| Mitch loving his pizza |
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| Stringy Mozzarella |
After lunch we jumped back on the subway and headed back to 'borough' - Le Plateau de Mont Royal. We had a little walk around a street festival before heading home to put our 'joggies' on, we are going to climb Mont Royal (roughly 250m summit). It was a nice walk thorough Park du Mont Royal, it was challenging at times when we ascended a few sets of stairs. It was a very popular activity for both locals and tourist alike. There were bicyclists, joggers and walkers all enjoying the peace and tranquility of the park. The park was designed by Fred Olmsted who is also responsible for New York's Central Park. It was approx. a 5 km round trip to the summit which was great exercise for us, not that we need to do any extra walking.
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| Montreal from Mount Royal |
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| Mitch soaking up the view of Montreal. |
We went to a Portuguese restaurant for dinner, were we had a range of Peri Peri style grilled meats. We had Chicken, Quail, Sausage, Prawn and Calamari. The food was ok for what it was but it definitely won't win any M&J Canadian Culinary awards.
Day 33 and we're eating waffles!!! Jo had the classic waffles with a rhubarb compote (sweet) and I had Waffles filled with 3 cheeses (savoury). We both enjoyed them a lot, the waffles themselves had a neutral flavour which allowed the additions to create the taste.
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| Classic waffle and rhubarb |
We then jumped on the subway and made our way towards Old Montreal. This is the area in which a a lot of the old buildings reside. It also used to be the fortified section of Montreal, the forts were completely removed by the early 1800's due to the expansion of the city. We saw the oldest building in Montreal, the Saint-Sulpice Seminary built in 1687 and was where they trained priests who were sent to 'New France' to assimilate the native people to Catholicism. Interestingly it was the french who began to head to the surrounding forests during the winters and established a huge fur trade with the native people, a sort of reverse assimilation, if you like. There was also the Notre Dame Basilica, which is famous for it's gothic style architecture and stained glass windows, the Bank Of Montreal building which was the first bank in Canada and the Place d'Armes which is a monument to the founder of Montreal - Paul de Chomedey and the newly recognised co founder - Jeanne Mance. She was as important if not more important than Paul de Chomedey in founding Montreal, but has only recently been recognised as a co founder. Yay, go women's rights (only 350yrs late)!
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| Hotel de Ville |
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| Old church |
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| Founder and co-founder of Montreal. Oldest bank in Canada in the background (Bank Of Montreal). |
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| Notre Dame Basilica. Mitch taking a well earned breather. |
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| Notre Dame Basilica |
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| Jeanne Mance |
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| Oldest building in Montreal. Clock in the background still works. |
We walked down Saint Paul street, which is a cobblestone style street with restaurants and souvenir shops before starting to make our way back. First stop on our way back was Chinatown, which is were we grabbed some lunch.
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| Rue Saint Paul |
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| Papaya salad, wonton soup, vermicelli and spring rolls |
After lunch we walked through the 'Latin Quarter', which was very interesting and a little scary. Only steps out of Chinatown we had a near miss with public urination. As we got deeper into the area we became increasingly wary of all puddles on the ground. This area to us seemed to be Montreal's seedier underbelly; more homeless people, police patrolling the streets and a fair few people who appeared to not be on this planet. On the plus side there was some nice street art and a adult erotica cinema. We hastily made our way back to the seemingly safer streets of the 'Plateau'.
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| Latin Quarter |
A La Prochaine
Mitch & Jo
xoxoxox
