Montreal: Energy and Diversity

Montreal is an exciting City because it is full of energy and diversity.

Montreal is diverse because of its ethnic groups and neighbourhoods.  There are French Catholic Cathedrals and Chinese Temples.  On Sundays, Africans and Jamaicans get together and play Tam Tam's at Mount Royal Park. There are Jewish deli’s selling sesame bagels and famous Montreal smoked meat sandwiches.  Habitat 67 and the Biosphere are unique buildings that were made when Montreal hosted the Olympics of 1967.  There are more than 1,000 restaurants within a one km radius of Jacques Cartier place in old Montreal. Jean talon is an outdoor fresh food market near Little Italy.

Montreal is energetic because, like New York, it has lots of people on a small island. Subways, pedestrians, trains, cyclists, cars - everybody is going somewhere. Bridges, landmarks, and buildings are lit up at night.   Movies are even projected onto buildings. Buskers provide entertainment at metro stations, parks, and public spaces.  There is a mountain in the middle of the city. Science and art museums, fountains, festivals, and attractions; even a Formula 1 race track, this place has got it all!

old montreal at night

biking the formula 1 racetrack in montreal

Picnic in mount royal park

The Metro...by Spot(dot)It

On the Metro subway in Montreal we popped up in lots of places.   

We took the Metro to the Jean Talon market and bought figs, Gelato and strawberries.  It was the first time I had figs. They were yummy!  I saw purple, orange and green broccoli too.

We popped up the science museum and made design challenges at Funatic (one of the interactive exhibits).  I made a car on wheels with Popsicle sticks and paper cups that could move by wind.   My brother's challenge went on a clothesline. We had fun with the giant bubble exhibit too.

We took the Metro to Mont Royal for a picnic, a nice view of the whole city and biking.  I learned that Mont Royal  was a volcano a long time ago.  (And the name 'Montreal' comes from Mont Royal.) 

We took the Metro to a bagel shop for breakfast, a smoked meat place for lunch and a Brazilian BBQ for supper.  After supper, we had ice cream and played with friends (they use to live in Sioux Lookout).  

We took the Metro to the art museum.  There were so many paintings and sculptures.  I liked the interesting forest shadows that were actually fruit and figurines.  I think I can be an artist too!

And every time after we went on the Metro, we came back to our camper and cooled off with a dip in the pool at our Campground.

Mars Exploration by Exotic Chicken

During our time in Montreal we went to the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium.  The planetarium has two dome-shaped theaters.  They played two shows. One of them was about asteroids and the other was about Mars. I preferred the film about Mars because it had actual footage from the Mars rover Curiosity.  The museum’s artifacts included asteroids and moon rocks.

Mars is only half the size of Earth. It is the 4th planet from the Sun.  It is red due to the iron and rust in its soil.  Mars is covered in craters formed by asteroids.  Mars has many asteroid collisions because there is an asteroid  belt in the solar system between Mars and Jupiter.   The Valles Marineres Canyon is 3 times deeper than the Grand Canyon and about as long as Canada.   Mars has enough ice on the polar caps that if it were to thaw it would cover the planet with 11 m of water.  Curiosity took pictures of dry river basins and rounded pebbles suggesting that there has been liquid water on Mars in the past. This probably occurred when volcanic activity was on Mars and the temperature was higher.  Olympus mons Is the highest mountain in the solar system. It is 25 km high (3x higher than mount Everest).  It is almost as high as the Martian atmosphere and it is the only point on the planet that does not get covered by dust storms.  Mars has two small moons called phobos and demos.  During spring and summer, basalt sand and CO2 gas form geysers because the temperature rises to -5c allowing C02 to vaporize.

   olympus mons



 the rio tinto planetarium

Petanque by zipline

Petanque is a French bowling game played on a rolled sand court.  It is very similar to the Italian game of Bocce.  Petanque boules are 73 mm, and are made of hollow metal.  We had learned about petanque balls on TVm "How it's made."   The goal of the game is to roll your petanque ball closer to the small wooden cochonet (piglet).

They had petanque courts at our campground in Tadoussac and here in Montreal.  We played Petanque after dinner tonight.

Quebec City by zipline

Adventure of the week.   Exploring Quebec City.

Of course you have to explore the old city when you are in Quebec. First settled and fortified as a colony of New France, the cobblestone streets, old brick buildings, and original fortifications remain intact, giving this city an old world European feel and world heritage site status.

Rather than just driving to the city and parking, we drove instead to Levis (on the south side of the st Lawrence).  Here we got on our bicycles and went 3-4 km down the paved Transcanada trail to the fountains and ferry terminal.  We locked our bikes there and crossed the st Lawrence by ferry (1 km, 10 minutes, $3) which arrived at the old wharf near the funicular and downhill from the imposing Chateau Frontenac.  Because of Canada 150, we had free entrance to the archeological finds located in the historic site of Governor Frontenac's original residence.  The ruins and artifacts (such as dishes and golden bejewelled hatpins) are located beneath the Dufferin Terrace on the site of the famous hotel.  We were also proud to tell our kids that we had stayed at the hotel with Meritt when he was 5 months old.

chillin' on the ferry 

The food in Quebec is (of course) great.   Although we didn't eat at the many restaurants in the old city, we've been exploring regional foods in our own way.  So far we've had crepes (twice), poutine (shared as a family for a snack), eclairs, strawberries from ile d'orleans.  We also went to the grocery store and bought ingredients to make a meal modeled after a prix-fixee menu at aux anciennes canadiens restaurant:
- Glass of red wine
- Baguette with Cranberry Black Pepper Boursin (Gournay) cheese
- Split Pea soup
- Tortierre, (classic French meat pie)
- Roasted Vegetables
- Maple Sugar Pie

Wish we had pictures of this great food, but we don't.  You'll have to trust that it was delicious.


We also tried to explore places where locals like to visit.

Les Loupes hiking trail with a view of the Jacques Cartier River

Cedar maze at domaine les maizerets

Time for studies at camping de la joie - the fall colors and red maples at our campsite were stunning,

Quebec by Spot(dot)It

Can you spot the two missing teeth?  

My favourite words right now are thistle and whistle.

(The tooth fairy is busy!)

Can you spot the porcupine?

We saw it walking down the road while driving to Jacques Cartier National Park (but didn't get a photo).

 Can you spot the colour changing trees?

I hiked up a humongous hill to see this view.

 Can you spot the fallen leaves?
(Quebec City)

 Can you spot the difference between the painted leaves and the real leaves?

 Can you spot the beluga in the water?

(The white spot above my head is a beluga at Tadoussac.)

 My Mom thinks this sign is funny...
how exactly do you measure 16 kms an hour?

 Can you spot the ferry?
We went to watch the sunset on the Saguenay fjord.

 Can you spot the Girl having fun on a ropes course?

There were 23 different challenges to overcome.  It was awesome!

Can you spot the minki whale? 

 Can you spot the St. Laurent river?

Can you spot our truck and camper on the ferry?

Tadoussac Whales Comparison by exotic chicken

The St. Lawrence estuary / Saguenay fjord is a unique marine environment.  The water is very very deep near the shore.  Therefore, it is a great place to see whales.  The two most common whales at Tadoussac are Minke whales and Belugas.

                                                                   Beluga                                     minkie                                       

Food	herring,Salmon, shrimp, squid,cod	krill / small schooling fish
Length / Weight	5m/ 1.6 tons	10 meters / 9 tons
Color	White / Light grey	Mostly black with white bellies
Teeth	Yes	No they have baleen plates
Fins	No fin, low dorsal Ridge	Sickle fin
solo/group	Group	Solo
At risk?	Not threatened, small population in st-lawrence region	least concern
Habitat	Icy cold water; St-lawrence is south-most. Population. Water temp in saguenay fjord is 1 degree C. (3000 ft deep)	Tropics to Polar All oceans that don't have ice including st-lawrence
Other names	Sea Canary	Petit rorqual, common rorqual
Surfacing Behaviour	Playful jumping.	Shows snout, dorsal fin, but not the fluke
relatives	Narwhal	All rorquals including fin whales, humpacks, and blue whales.

minke whale tadoussac fjord

beluga whale tadoussac at pointe noir

krill in acrylic at saguenay/st lawrence marine interpretive center

Vertical Beach by zipline and exotic chicken

Adventure of the week...

It's got to be the whales for sure.  We saw lots of minke whales (common rorqual) sitting right on the rocks at Tadoussac.  For the first three days, you only had to be at the saguenay fjord for 1-2 minutes and you could hear them blowing and see them splashing and breaching. This was better whale watching than we had even on whale cruises at other locations in the past.

I think we also saw 2-3 humpback whales.






On the ferry, we saw dolphins, seals, and belugas as well.  One of the belugas jumped right out and we saw the fluke.  This was neat.  Minke whales do not show their flukes when the surface and dive.

On day 4 and 5 the elusive creatures were elsewhere and we went exploring.


This led to our misadventure of the week...

What if the sand on the beach was nearly vertical?

At Tadoussac, there is a huge sand dune probably 200m high which plunges down to a small strip of sand and the St Lawrence below.  We called it the vertical beach.

Watch what happens when mr M runs down the steep bank of sand at domaine de dunes tadoussac.

Update.  We saw lots of belugas on day 6 (as we were leaving) at point-noire, st catherines observation deck.