Day 19 - Vive Montréal

Today was a day for walking.  We are spending two nights in Montréal and what a wonderful city it is.
Our digs, Hotel St Denis (pronounced 'otel san Den-E by the locals) is in the Latin Quarter which is dominated by a university.
This is about start of the school year so there are lots of shenanigans happening with the students.  Also a week long festival which includes a bandstand just a block away.  They played house music (?) last night but shut off at 11pm.  Tonight there are several different bands, much nicer, and the last is to be Folk Hip Hop.  That'll be interesting.  We can hear it quite well from here and only slightly muffle the sound with our double-glazed windows.

But to our day:

It began with a short walk to breakfast then to view an exhibition of photographs of earth from 350km up, called Gaia.  It concentrates on the many places in the world that lack water and warns of its over use.  Hard to reconcile in this land that has a full lake for every 50 people and is next door to the largest freshwater waterways in the world, which we have been driving past for the last week.  But as Australians, we understand the point of the exhibit.

The Gaia exhibit was all outdoors

Next we entered the underground malls.  This is a series of shopping centres all connected by tunnels, so in winter, the people can stay in the warmth.  The tunnels are pretty much deserted today as everyone is out in the bright sunshine.

Underground shopping mall and practically empty connecting tunnels.

Then a wander south to the old town to wander amongst the fascinating architecture of 18th and 19th century stone buildings.  Mostly cafes and souvenir shops now, there were some worth looking in to.  Some of the streets are cobblestone and would be dangerous for bicycles, which are a-plenty in the City.

Rue St Paul runs left to right.  Click for larger.

Mostly souvenir shops but yes, the piano was very red.

I think we found the Bundy Bear, but he doesn't look happy. 

Lovely old architecture

Inside this refurbished building were several clothing and craft stores and a nice cafe.

Nearby was the wharf area, also transformed to shops and galleries and on this fine day, well attended.

By now we were a long way from Rue St Denis and we only had to consult the map twice to find ourselves surprisingly approaching our hotel from the opposite direction.

All walked out, we had nana naps in the afternoon, then out again down Rue St Denis which has been closed off for the festival.  Plenty of bars and eateries along here, some of them quite worrisome.  Let's just say Montréal is quite liberal.

Street performers on Rue St Denis

However there were plenty of nice places so we chose a Mexican eatery called, 3 Amigos and had a nice dinner.  Nowhere near as authentic as Albuquerque, but nice anyway.

Ah!  Mexican food!!

Montréal Contrast.
This grand old church towered above the bandstand and echoed the rock music.