Cross Canada and Back, Part 45

More of Montreal, Québec

August 17th and 18th 2011, days 94 and 95

Mount Royal

The two next days we spent in Montreal, we just enjoying ourselves. Three days in a great city like Montreal is not enough, one could spend weeks and not see and experience all.

One day we spent walking around Mont Royal. What a great view point to see the city.

Liz on top of Mount Royal

View from Mount Royal, over-looking Montreal

Some claim that Mount Royal is an extinct volcano. But it is assumed that the mountain is not a traditional volcano as such. However, it is the deep extension of a vastly eroded ancient volcanic complex, which was probably active about 125 million years ago.

This mountain was an important place for the first settlers and the religious pilgrims. A large cross was first placed on top in 1643. In 1924 it was replaced by the current over 30 meter high metal cross. In the last few years the type of illumination has been updated and modernized.

Liz on top of Mount Royal

Wonderful gardening

Mount Royal Park is one of Montréal's largest green spaces. We walked for about an hour through some of the forest. Beautiful and tranquil. It is hard to believe that it is in the middle of an city with over 1.5 million inhabitants.

The main viewpoint is well worth visiting. There is a semicircular plaza with a chalet, overlooking downtown Montréal. The chalet or Belvedere was built in 1906, it is named for the Petun chief Kondiaronk, whose influence led to a major peace accord between the French, Iroquois and other Indian tribes in 1701.

It is a very interesting building. Unfortunately it is currently sort of empty. We believe there was a restaurant or lunch place there before. The landscape and the flowers around the buildings and the plaza are amazingly beautiful.

Hiking on one of the many trails

On the slope up to Mont Royal live many Montréalers. Some areas are now very posh and famous, some house the bohemians, artists and writers and students, but formerly it was mostly a working class neighbourhood. Pierre E Trudeau, Mordecai Richler and many more famous Canadians grew up around Mont Royal.

The Plateau Mont Royal is bordered to the south by Ville-Marie, to the west by Outremont, and to the north and east by Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.

Jean Talon Market in Little Italy "Petite-Italie"

Here is an other great outing:

One day we spent visiting the Jean Talon Market in Little Italy "Petite-Italie" on Mozart Street. If you like open markets, fresh produce, happy shoppers, loud merchants, Basil a meter long, colours so vivid you need sunglasses, this market is for you.

We love the markets.

We walked around and bought fresh vegetables and fruits. Way too much we possibly could store in our tiny RV fridge or eat in the next little while. But the temptations were just too much. We wanted to spend a half an hour, we ended up spending a half a day.

Shopping at the market

The food in the stalls we tasted was also excellent. If you want to read more about this great market:  http://www.marchespublics-mtl.com/English/Jean-Talon/Mission/

By the way, to reach these two places, we drove the truck. There was no problems finding parking.

Back at the campsite we started cooking and eating from the wonderful fresh produce. Ah, c'est la vie!

Here are some shortcuts to all the blogs from our Cross Canada Trip. Just hover over the number to see where it will take you

 1,    2,    3,     4,    5,    6,    7,    8,    9,   10

11,   12,  13,  14,  15,  16,  17,  18,  19,  20

21,   22,  23,  24,  25,  26,  27,  28,  29,  29b

30,   31,  32,  33,  34,  35,  36,  37,  38,  39,

40,   41,  42,  43,  44,  45,  46,  47,  48,  49,

50,   51,  52,  53,  54,  55,  56,  57,  58,  59,

60,   61,  62,  63,  64,  65.

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