This morning I was wide awake at 7am, following just 7 hours sleep.
We grabbed high quality, take-away coffee from our corner store, and had this with a fruit, muslei and yoghurt 'parfait' for breakfast: Delicious, but like several things I've tasted here, thus far, both items suffered from a distinct lack of sugar. This tells me how sugar dependent Australians have become over time: Pas Bon. Later in the day I spent some time in the IGA Supermarche at Complexe Desjardins specifically seeking sucre, but to no avail. I did locate sucre, but only in the cooking section in large pack quantities for 6$ and upwards, which is mad. I don't want that much sucre!
I later obtained a few coffee sized sachets of raw sucre from a nearby gourmet cafe, so all is well in my world again now. So many healthy drinks are available here. For breakfast this morning I had an Aloe Vera juice, with pulp and wheatgrass. It was delicious. With lunch, our daughter had some delicious iced green tea infused with various fruits. I do want to reduce my dependence on sucre, but going cold turkey completely is not my preferred approach, especially while on holiday!
This morning the birds were tweeting melodically outside our apartment, and a man in a neighbouring apartment was singing from time to time, it seemed, though it could have been Charles Asnevour on vinyl... We have him at our place. On the topic of sound, I must mention that the floorboards in our apartment are insanely squeaky, and the whole loft slopes toward the corner where our internal front door meets the central corridor. If you pop your suitcase down unsupported it will roll away. Even the chair I sit on to type in the morning leans forward at a funny angle. The walls are paper thin on one side, as well, so now that the owners of next door are staying overnight, we hear every noise they make. Little wonder it was tuned into an Air BnB!
Anyway, as for today, we walked across town to visit the Tourist Information Centre because we needed a map and some really basic info. On the way there we happened upon the most magnificent Cathedral: Marie-Reine du Monde. It was extraordinary, and I'm glad we came across it.
We also had to obtain some necessities that I'd neglected to pack in the midst of our excitement over welcoming our house-sitters. We therefore went to a range of stores downtown (which for us is uptown) and then walked across the main shopping thoroughfare of Montreal, which is called Rue St Catherine. It was during this period that we realised how manageable Montreal is as a city. It is far less populated than it's global cache may suggest. Less than 2 million people live here, and it's just such a lovely city, sitting beneath the most beautiful green hill range, where Mount Park Royal is, and we intend to go on Friday.
We did our grocery shopping with the locals at Complexe Desjardins which was fun once we regained our mojo after the long walk. We enjoyed noting all the little, intermediate and large differences. Stocked up with enough provisions for three evening meals, plus milk and juice for breakfast, we trundled back home with our heavy bags. Thankfully that was all down hill, in a good way.
Having dropped all our stuff off back at the apartment, we then went for a gorgeous lunch of gourmet paninis at O&G a block down from our place. We enjoyed that well earned break, as we'd walked about six kms by then, which should not seem like much at all, but it felt like a lot more. We've seen two Quebec cook books we want to buy: 'Made in Quebec' and 'Montreal Cooks'. We'll have to make a decision on this matter by Saturday. They're both hard backs of course!
In the afternoon, we spent an hour at Musee Pointe-e-Calliere, the archeological birthplace of old Montreal. It was well worthwhile. I'll be writing a travel article on it, or at least incorporating it in one. Thereafter, we saw their feature exhibition on the life work and influence of Emile Hermes, and the family's love of horses. It was excellent, I thought, but by then we were very weary and about to collapse. We wound up doing so much walking today, which is great, but it took an early toll on us all, and especially our daughter who was asleep for the night by 6pm. All the better for her endurance tomorrow, I hope. We have much to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment