June 15-18, Chambly & Quebec City-Excellente`

Fort Chambly

Some really nice condo's & Waterfront

While docking in Chambly, we really hadn't taken any time to explore Chambly so we decided to stay put a day, get our bikes out & see what this town had to offer.  We were not disappointed.  They have a dedicated bike path around town & the basin.  Fort Chambly is a well cared for historical building and of course true to Canada, their parks are great.  We checked out the local grocery store & have to say I was impressed.  When we would travel to Canada in past years, I always felt the grocery stores in Canada were lacking in relation to brands & choices.  I know we in the States are spoiled with all the food choices we enjoy.  This grocery store was lovely, it reminded me of a Publix, which has become my favorite grocery chain.  We biked through some charming neighborhoods with well landscaped older stone homes along the water.  The Marina staff had recommended a nearby Italian Restaurant: Tres Colors and it was delicious!

A dam in the Chambly Basin

The next morning, we were up early and headed out with our suitcase in tow to catch the bus to Montreal and then the train to Quebec City.  Everything went without a hitch.  Our bus ran on time and we found our train easily.  The train was clean & fast.  I grew up riding trains because my Dad worked for the New York Central RR and eventually Amtrak, so we were able to ride free.  I hadn't been on one for years, this one didn't smell like what I remembered.  It was raining when we arrived in Quebec City but our hotel was only a half mile from the train station, so we donned our raincoats, opened our umbrella & started to walk.  We couldn't tell how hilly it was going to be by looking @ the map.  QC's streets are narrow, hilly and curvy.  Also the names of the streets change @ every curve.  We didn't get lost due to Doug's excellent map skills.  Couldn't use my navigator on the phone, because that uses data & the Canadian plan that I purchased through Verizon allowed me a whopping 400MB's of data, which is less than a half of a Gig. Our calf muscles got a good work out on the ups and downs.

Our hotel Le Manoir d'Auteuil was located inside the wall of Old Town.  I had picked it because it had good reviews on Trip Advisor (which I am not going to use anymore) and it is owned by Ex-Pats, so I figured English would be spoken there, which it was.  We met Linda, the owner who is from Colorado and was very nice.  Breakfast was not included and there wasn't a nice lobby or place to sit, other than the restaurant.  I would have preferred more of a B&B, which I thought we were getting.  Live & learn.  We dropped our luggage in our room & went back out to find lunch & explore.  One of the streets close by: Rue St Jean was filled with bistros, cafes, bakeries & bars.

One of the gates to the wall of Old Montreal

The Boardwalk

Chateau Frontenac

The boardwalk, Frontenac & St
Lawrence Seaway

One of the many parks

One of our purchases, before arriving was a travel book, so after lunch Doug took us on a walking tour of Old Town using the book.  It was still raining off & on, but that didn't stop the tour.  We found the centerpiece of QC's 17th century old lower town, narrow Rue du Petit-Champlain.  It has been voted the prettiest street in Quebec.  It is cobblestoned, narrow & shut off from traffic. The building fronts are covered with hanging baskets, and window boxes filled with flowers.  There were murals painted on some buildings.  We found the former red light district which was adjacent to a dark stone cliff and the buildings had lots of balconies and elevated walkways.  By the time we reached the Chateau Frontenac, we were thrilled with the picturesque beauty of the Chateau, the mountains, St Lawrence Seaway & a double rainbow all at the same time & place.

The Funiculair

Overlooking the St Lawrence Seaway from Old Town

Archeological site

Under this boardwalk, is where the site is

The next day was beautiful, sunny, blue skies & warm.  Cafe DuMonde had been recommended to us and is located overlooking the St Lawrence Seaway.  You know us, can't stay away from water, so we finished touring inside the wall in the morning, then we headed outside the wall to Old Port.  People were biking & walking along the shoreline.  We planned it right, late lunch, so even though the restaurant was very busy, we were able to snag a table on the elevated patio, waterside.  Lunch was excellent & fun. We watched the swift current pushing a sailboat backwards with it's sails up.  St Lawrence Seaway current can be as much as 4-5 knots and our trawler cruises @ 7 knots. After lunch, we toured the St Louis Fort & Chateaux National Historic site: the archeological site of the former French & British Governor's Mansion & forts from 1620 thru the 1700's, which is hidden under the boardwalk @ Chateau Frontenac.   These structures were excavated between 2005 & 2007.  They found some beautiful artifacts, interior rooms and even their private privy. We also walked to Plaines D'Abraham, a huge park with a fort which is the National Battlefield historic park where the 1759 battle between the French & British Empires in North America became their defining confrontation.

A fountain for the horses to drink

After embracing the french tradition by enjoying a light dinner of french bread, great cheese & lucious grapes with a superb red wine (in our hotel room), we were off to another festival.  The French Canadians find every reason they can to have a festival-this one was for opening of the terraces! It was just outside the wall from our hotel and they had closed the street and set up 3 stages down the blocks with bars set up in the street and tons of people & this was on a Wednesday night! The street was mostly restaurants with outdoor terraces (hence the name of the festival).  It was a lot of fun-the music was great, especially one of the bands.  They played a mixture of English & French music and everyone sang along to the english songs that we knew too.

Not sure what it means in French, but I know in English!

Our last morning in Quebec, we found a great Cafe for breakfast and then walked some more streets, did a little shopping.  We found an indoor/outdoor Market that was like a permanent Farmers Market with produce, seafood, meat markets, wine, ice cream and lots of flowers. We caught the 3:00 PM train back to Montreal and the bus to Chambly.  We really enjoyed our time in QC, highly recommend a visit.

Fountain in front of Train Station

Outside the wall, Parliament

Too many good pictures I wanted to share.

Doug standing on the historic
wall of Old Town

 For those of you, safety or construction minded, Doug thought you would get a kick out of the following pictures: observe closely this truck & how they leveled it while they work on this public street.

June 12-15, Montreal, Canada

Our Marina in Chambly

Waiting @ the bus stop

Doug had decided it would be less hassle & easier to keep the boat in Chambly and take the bus into Montreal.  To get to Montreal & Quebec by our boat we would have had to cruise up or down (I can never get that straight) the St Lawrence Seaway, which has a fast current, sometimes as much as 4 knots.  We only go 7 knots.  Plus we figured the language barrier would be tougher, which now that we have been to Montreal & Quebec we found that the small towns are tougher with many more french only speaking people than in the 2 metropolitan areas.  When all is said & done, I am glad that we stayed in Chambly.  Chambly was a charming place.  Canada's public transportation was very user friendly.  Everything coordinated very well.  We picked up the free Chambly bus just a block from our Marina, which dropped us off @ the Main Chambly station, right next to the waiting bus that took us to Montreal.

of course we're in Canada, ice rink
in the Bus terminal

Marche Bonsecours, former city hall
now houses designer boutiques

Montreal was a happening place! First stop after getting off the bus was Starbuck's-yahoo!  I know I should have waited for that quaint french cafe but I hadn't had my Starbuck's fix in weeks.  Over the next few days, we did sample crepes, croissant's and belgium waffles, so we definitely experienced the french flavors!  We headed to Old Montreal and the Ole Port, the waterfront.  They have many narrow, cobblestoned streets with old well kept buildings which house many, many restaurants & bistros.  We couldn't believe how many restaurants there are, I don't know how they all survive.  The streets are clean & busy with cars, people & bicycles.  It began to rain in the afternoon, so we ducked into what they call their underground city, but I just call it many small malls which are above ground but have tunnels underground connecting them.  Lots of shopping, too bad I don't have room for anything else in the boat.  Although our money right now is worth 20% more than Canadian money, they charge 15% tax on items so it's almost a wash. The only items they don't tax are groceries.  We found an Apple Store & we can not go by one without stopping, so.....  We had one of their techies, give us a detailed pitch regarding the Apple watch, which we had seen cuz our good friend Kathy already has one.  I priced them and then had Kathy tell me the price in the states and Canada's Apple Store had jacked up the price to make up that 20% difference, tricky them!  So no purchases were made!  

a Cathedral

Our view of Montreal  

Our second day in Montreal, we walked up and up and up 194 meters (you figure it out) to Le Mont Royal.  Mont Royal is Montreal's Mountain in the middle of the city.  It is mostly parkland & a cemetery.  We were rewarded with a spectacular view of the city.  I would tell you more about places but most of the brochures we have are in french.

A selfie from atop Le Mont Royal

On down the mountain, we stumbled upon an area closed off to traffic with bars, food, clothes & you name it vendors all set up on the street.  There were street musicians scattered in each block and it went on for at least 10 blocks.  We saw a guy on a JLG lift spray painting a big mural on a side of the building and asked someone who was watching and they told us  we were @ the French Mural Festival.  Artists from all over the world participate in this.  We didn't see all of them but the ones we did see were pretty amazing.  When we decided to take a break & sit down, we found a Barefoot wine stand with fun seating on the street.  We bought a couple glasses of chilled white wine & rested our tired feet.  Well, we have found, you can't sit anywhere too long without someone talking to you.  We met Vincent, who was helping promote the festival and told us more about the city and made us reservations for dinner @ a GREAT restaurant called Bremner's.

Mangoes on a stick, cut pretty

The next Festival (same day) we stumbled upon was the Fringe Festival, quite a bit smaller and mostly in a big park and one block of street.The Fringe Festival was boasting a NO Censorship theme.  What we saw was a band playing & a lot of people dancing, having fun.  It reminded us of Lonz Winery lawn parties.

The entrance to the restaurant

The back of the restaurant

Dinner @ Bremner's-well, first I have to tell you how we found it.  Vincent had said there is no sign out front & they don't advertise so he had given us the address & directions.  We were back in Old Montreal & we could tell in the high rent district.  We find the address and all there is under the address is a flight of stairs down in an older marble, stone building. It's still daylight, so we walk down the stairs, open the door and we are greeted by a bartender behind a beautiful big bar to our right. Food & service was excellent.  We were entertained by the bartenders, wait staff & host.  We had one of the best drinks we ever had & it had whiskey in it-the bartender invented it.  I sampled the fresh Prince Edward Island Oysters which they were preparing right @ the bar.  We shared a lobster appetizer, feasted on Atlantic Char for our dinner and enjoyed homemade chocolate truffles for dessert. We sure enjoyed our splurge!

Our happy duck has been
taking steroids!

Our third day in Montreal, we shopped @ the famous Simon's Department store, right downtown & many floors.  We also hit the well known Hudson Bay Co.  In the afternoon, our friends Sheila & Gerry picked us up in their new car.  They live in Montreal and we met them 3 years ago on a Panama Canal Cruise.  We celebrated Happy Hour with them almost every day while on the cruise.    We stopped @ a Bistro for an expresso and then they toured us around, by car, to some of the areas in Montreal that we hadn't made it to, like the Le Village, Plateau Mont Royal & Mile End.  The parks were packed with people and so were the streets.  They took us to a charming neighborhood Italian cafe where you can bring your own wine & Sheila brought 2 excellent reds for us to share.  It was so nice to have Sheila translate the menu to us, I was able to get Eggplant Parmesan which I never would have figured out on my own, because it's Aubergine in french. We really enjoyed our visit & catching up with Sheila & Gerry, thank you for being wonderful hosts.

One of the stages

After dinner, Sheila & Gerry dropped us off Downtown, so we could stop by the French Music Festival: Francofolies de Montreal.  Again with a different area of streets blocked off (I would hate to drive in this city) they had 7 Main big stages set up scattered in this area plus bands playing at different bars & restaurants.  Food & clothing vendors were set on the streets and of course bars.  We did have to walk through a check point to have our backpack checked and there were several checkpoints.  The music was good, although we couldn't understand any of it, but then again, we can't always understand the words to english music either!  Every night was an easy bus ride back to Chambly.  They even have free strong wifi on the buses here.