More Walking in Montreal

Sunday was a beautiful day in Montreal. As Jerry said "this weather is why I keep saying Montreal is the place to be in summer!. We went for two long walks...first we drove up to the around the 3800 block of St Laurent and walked up and down a quiet early Sunday morning street making mental notes of shops and restaurant to return to sometime when they are open. There are a lot of restaurants. The shops aren't typically the high end stylish ones that you find on St. Catherine's or Sherbrooke. Rather they tend to be neighborhood stores, fabulous old time "gourmet" specialty food stores, fun bordering on kitsh stores, and reasonably priced boutiques.

We burned through our small breakfast pretty fast so had a mid morning "snack" at Coco Rico...a rotisserie "take-out/eat-in" at 3907. Rotisserie ("roti") chicken and pork. YUMMY! Good cole slaw and carrot salad. Didn't have the potatoes but they looked good. As did the egg custard tarts. VERY reasonable. Apparently the "regular" would be to have sauce and spice over the crispy skinned chickien...don't know what that is like...I just wanted the chicken. The place is run by Portuguese owners which judging from the poster on the wall as you exit are related to Jano's a sit-down portuguese restaurant we ate at years ago just down the street.

After some errands (Costco, Reno Depot). We popped down to Mile's End to look for a bike shop where we can have a riser and basket put on my bike. Being Sunday, the bike shop was closed. However, it brought us in close proximity to my favorite Bagel Place...St. Viateur...and another even later morning snack. A fresh out of the oven sesame seed bagel!!! We strolled a bit on Ave du Parc and on St. Viateur. There was a festival in preparation on two short blocks of St. Viateur (at Waverly)...one of the patron saints of the humongous Catholic Church (St. Michael's) was going to celebrate his feast day....looked like there was going to be a lot of eating on that street last night!

After a long nap and some reading (and watching the last 2 seconds of the Nadal/Federer Wimbledon Finals match) we walked up to St. Catherine where the last day of the Intenational Jazz Festival was under way. We'll spend more time there next year. They block off several blocks of St. Catherine (and other streets) in the general vicinity of the Place d'Artes. They have numerous stages of various sizes scattered over a large area and a number of food stalls...including one where they were busily sculpting fresh whole mango into "rose lollipops"...yummmy. More hungry for dinner than music (which wasn't going to start for a bit). We headed out east on St. Catherine.

Between Rue Berri and Rue Papineau they have closed off the streets to vehicular traffic for the summer (last year they only did it on the weekends). Restuarants have built temporary summer patios out from their storefronts. During the Jazz Festival white festival tents popped up like mushrooms housing the work of artists and other craftspeople. We ate at Le Planet which had good moules and salad...but the worst service and burnt carrot/celery soup. However, we had the "best seats in the house"...the corner table on the streetside terrasse from which we watch the early evening promenade. Tourists, locals, dogs, a few "goths" and a very large segment of the Montreal Gay community who live and socialize in that area of St. Catherine. Young and old, fit and not...everyone very happy to be out on a lovely summer evening with a lovely and interesting place to walk and eat and meet up with old friends. And, no, gay men do NOT only have little "pocket" dogs...at least not in Montreal...retrievers, basset hounds, were just as common.

We walked down Rue St. Denis to Old MOntreal around 9:30...spotted a few new restaurants along Rue ST. Paul...made a few appropriate mental notes...and then just couldn't pass up my favorite gelati place - Les Delices d'erable - once again enjoyed the melon and the meringue gelati.