Montreal: Highlights Festival 2010

• 
  

This week Jerry and I are enjoying our favorite city, Montreal. The City is celebrating its annual Montreal Highlights Festival which is a celebration of arts, food, and winter activities. There are culinary extravaganzas and shows (we went to a Celebration of Cheese last weekend). Musical, dramatic, and comedy performances at a number of theatres. And then all the fun activities in the Old Port/Old Montreal, our favorite. Ice skating, ferris wheels, bands on the nighttime stage, fireworks, acrobats, bonfires where we can roast sausages and marshmallows (my fave). And on Sunday there will be the annual musical concert comprised of the horns, bells, and whistles of the ships wintering in the port. (maybe a few church bells as well). I'll have more about that with pics after sunday.

The weather has been beautiful: a little snow, a lot of sun, temps right around 32. But snow is coming over the next 3 days. Maybe up to a foot. I'm smiling, because that's what we come here for in the middle of winter.

Eating? Of favorite Montreal activity (next to naps in the winter afternoon). Breakfast at Le Cartet on McGill: excellent omelet with asparagus and comforting hot chocolate bowl. Dinner: Marichi's a new Indian restaurant on Place d'youville in Old Montreal. Very good. nice atmosphere, warm and inviting, not too noisy. Late afternoon lunch: Cafe Griffintown on NotreDame West. Odd little neighborhood spot with limited menu but excellent meatballs! At home: great cheese, mandarin oranges, almonds, and baguette

Rain, Rain, Rain

Rainy and low clouds. Sounds of cars swishing through the streets of Old Montreal. Bells of Notre Dame toll as Saturday weddings culminate with a mad dash for the limo in between rain drops. We had breakfast at one of our favorite spots, Le Cartet, at 160 Rue McGill in Old Montreal. High ceilings and old wood floors. Long narrow space with high windows at both ends. Shared tables. Great foods ranging from a "traditional" Quebec breakfast: eggs, toast, potatoes, baked beans, and saugsage AND bacon (jerry was hungry) to fruit plates, Montreal bagels (chewier than New York style) with salmon, poached eggs etc. We read the Gazette while listening to the animated conversation of 3 mid-30 Montreal women next to us (our other table mate was a shy Asian university student reading an English spy novel). Annette was fascinated by the 3 women as they conversed in a constantly fluid exchange of French and English. All seemed to be native French speakers (because their English was slightly accented). But they slipped in and out of the two languages sometimes in mid sentence. It was really interesting (at least to Annette who is linguistically fascinated with language). An example of the "new montreal" where at least 20 percent (I think that is the number) of younger citizens are considered "allophones", which means if asked which is their native language: French or English...they will say they were raised with both. We're both hoping to take French classes once we're up here for longer periods of time than just a week Bonne Journee!