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Hotel
Montreal:
♥♥♥♥♥
Perfectly located in Old Montreal, this boutique hotel is beautifully renovated. The rooms are modern but still offer an old world charm. The staff are wonderful and the breakfast is delicious and plentiful.
Guides and Tours​
Montreal by Marie. This walking tour of Old Montreal covers the history of the city. Marie is an informative guide with lots of stories and anecdotes along the way.
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Montreal with Mary. Mary offers a variety of tours in and around Montreal. We chose a food tour. This tour is unique in that Mary drives you around in her car. We got to try tasty food and see different parts of the city. She was very accommodating and customized the tour to our interests and needs.
Montreal is the largest city in the Province of Quebec. It is an island located in the St. Lawrence River and is named after the mountain located in the centre of the city, Mount Royal. The official language of Montreal is French and it is one of the oldest cities in Canada with a distinct European influence. While Old Montreal maintains the charm of a French European town, the downtown area rivals any big city. It's a great place to visit with a beautiful waterfront boardwalk, interesting shops and boutiques, good museums and lots of delicious restaurants.
Day 1
Montreal
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Afternoon
We arrived in Montreal at mid-day and headed to our hotel to check in. The Hotel Bonaparte is a lovely hotel ideally located in Old Montreal. It is in an old building but the hotel has been completely renovated. The rooms are modern and very nice but still offer some old-world charm.
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After checking in we headed for a stroll in Old Montreal and stopped for lunch at Jardin Nelson. This busy restaurant in the heart of Old Montreal has a beautiful back garden with large parasols for shade and plenty of plants and flowers. The food is quite good - we ordered the classic French Onion Soup.
After lunch we walked down to the waterfront to check it out. From there we walked over to Rue St. Catherine which is the main shopping street in Montreal outside of the old part of the city. We walked around and went in and out of shops.
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Evening
After a short rest in our rooms, we headed for dinner in Old Montreal. We had a reservation at Modavie. This restaurant is known not only for its delicious food but also as one of the best spots for live jazz music in the city. Our meal was very good. Although there was a band and singer who had a beautiful voice, we could not see the band from our table. That was fine for us as we could hear them well, but if you want to see them you should request this when making a reservation.
Montreal itinerary in 4 days
Noteworthy Restaurants
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Jardin Nelson. This busy restaurant in the heart of Old Montreal has a beautiful back garden with large parasols for shade and plenty of plants and flowers. The food is quite good - we ordered the classic French Onion Soup.
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Modavie. This restaurant is known not only for its delicious food but also as one of the best spots for live jazz music in the city. Although there was a band and singer, we could not see the band from our table. If you want to see the band you should request this when making a reservation.
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Marche de La Villette. - a cute French bistro in Old Montreal that serves fresh fare including delicious salads.
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L'Express. An iconic Parisian style bistro in central Montreal. It has been around for over thirty years. It serves classic French cuisine.
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Restaurant Su. While this restaurant may be out of the way (about a 25 minute drive from Old Montreal) it is worth it. This charming eatery offers traditional and modern takes on Turkish cuisine. It was delicious and the food was very unique.
Favourite Museums
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Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. This beautiful museum has an extensive permanent collection but we spent our time at the special exhibit they had on Picasso.
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Aura. This special music and light show is currently inside the Notre Dame Basilica. This spectacular show lights up the basilica and allows you to see it in a vary unique way. If you like fireworks, you will love this colourful show.
Day 2
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Morning
This morning following breakfast, we went to meet our guide, Marie, for a walking tour of Old Montreal. The tour started at the Pointe-a-Calliere, which is the archeological museum in Montreal. Not only does this museum give a history of Montreal from its beginnings but it has a free observatory balcony where you can see great views of the city. We started the tour on the museum balcony and Marie pointed out various landmarks in the city to give us an idea of the city layout.
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Marie did a great job explaining the history of the city. We spent two hours with her. The tour took us by the waterfront, Place Royale, along Rue St. Paul and Marche Bonsecours (the old market hall). We heard about Marguerite-Boureoys and the Chapelle Notre Dam de Bon Secours.
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We saw the City Hall, Chateau Ramsay and the Palais de Justice - all three beautiful and majestic buildings. The tour ended in the Places d'Armes in front of the Notre-Dame Basilica. I highly recommend MM Tour with Marie.
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Afternoon
After the fascinating tour we headed back to Rue St. Paul (Old Montreal's main street) and had lunch at Marche de La Villette - a cute French bistro that serves fresh fare including delicious salads.
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Following lunch we headed to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. This beautiful museum has an extensive permanent collection but we spent our time at the special exhibit they had on Picasso.
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From the museum we went to St. Catherine Street to walk around the arts centre which is pedestrian friendly.
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Evening
This evening we had tickets to see Aura, the special music and light show currently inside the Notre Dame Basilica. This spectacular show lights up the basilica and allows you to see it in a vary unique way. If you like fireworks, you will love this colourful show.
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Following the show we had dinner reservations at L'Express, an iconic Parisian style bistro in central Montreal. It has been around for over thirty years.
Day 3
Morning
After breakfast today we went on a food tour. Mary, of Montreal with Mary Tours, offers a variety of tours in and around Montreal. I always love a food tour when visiting a city, so we chose this tour.
Mary picked us up in her car and drove us to the Plateau area. This residential area is filled with small restaurants, boutiques, some beautiful street art and lots of students. There are a few iconic Montreal food establishments here.
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We started at St. Viateur Bagel Shop. These bagels have made Montreal famous. We watched the bagels come out of the wood-burning oven and then got to try a warm bagel. From there we went to Schwartz's Deli which is known for its smoked meat. The warm brisket is thickly sliced and placed between two slices of rye bread. It was delicious.
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We also got to experience the unique Quebec dish known as poutine at a restaurant that's open 24/7. Poutine consists of french fries, gravy and cheese curds. What's not to like?!
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Since we couldn't eat another bite, Mary drove us up Mount Royal which is located in the centre of the city. We stopped at a look-out point to enjoy the expansive view of the city. On our way back down, Mary drove through a beautiful residential area, called Westmount, where we saw the gorgeous homes dotted along the mountain.
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Afternoon
Our tour with Mary continued as we headed to the Atwater Market which is a farmers market one the west side of Montreal. It has been open since 1933 and is filled with stalls of fresh produce, fish mongers, butchers, local cheeses, bakeries, beautiful flower stands and small restaurants.
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Mary took us to Satay Brothers which offers Singaporean street food where we sampled their bbq sandwiches on steamed buns. They were delicious. For dessert we went to one of the artisanal bakeries where we ate a chocolate eclair filled with whipped cream. It was the perfect way to end our food tour.
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Mary dropped us off at the hotel where we had a short rest before heading to the waterfront for a nice walk along the promenade.
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Evening
This evening we booked a Turkish restaurant called Restaurant Su. While this restaurant may be out of the way (about a 25 minute drive from Old Montreal) it is worth it. This charming eatery offers traditional and modern takes on Turkish cuisine. It was delicious and the food was very unique.
Day 4
Morning
After breakfast we went for a nice walk in Old Montreal and did some shopping.
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By mid-day we headed to the airport for our flight home.