Peg and Jeff flew in from Ohio late this afternoon. We had dinner at 3 Brasseurs on Rue St. Paul in Old Montreal. Good hamburgers, a quebequois Flamm (like a REALLY thin crust pizza), and a chevre chaud salad. Enjoyed their beer...I had a beer "cocktail"...called the Brit...a dark beer with a shot of Irish Whiskey in it...yummy! (Why it's called the Brit and not The Irish is, I suspect, best left uninvestigated).
After dinner we decided to stroll down to see the Ice Rink in the Old Port. It sits right on the edge of the quays on the St. Lawrence. One part is an artificial ice rink that is open all winter and the other part is a huge "circle trail" which becomes a rink once its cold enough to freeze the water thick enough. Not cold enough yet...
We heard music and saw bright colored lights. Little did we know that there was a party going on...sponsored by Telus. There was an Ice Bar (but not made of real ice...just everything white within a white senu-transparent white tent with windows) which served all sorts of things including hot chocolate with a delicious apple liquer in it...double yum. We went outside to listen to a Quebequois band for a bit. Then the lights dimmed and everyone huddled over by the ice rink. It was FIREWORKS....a spectacular display of fireworks synchronized to music...the theme Moon Dust. It was incredibly beautiful. There we were standing amidst winter trees, hats and gloves, spiked hot chocolate, faces lifted to the sky....mesmerized. What a dreamy evening. Jeff thought they were the best fireworks he had ever seen. Courtesy of the City of Fireworks!
Then to top it off as we left we saw these small bonfires (inside grill boxes for lack of better description). They were handing out sticks and marshmellows...and yes, we roasted a marshmellow to go. Fantastic.
Showing posts with label Montreal International Fireworks Competiation fireworks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montreal International Fireworks Competiation fireworks. Show all posts
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Saturday Evening in Old Montreal
Old Montreal was BUSTLING last night filled with US tourist on their 4th of July holiday, Jazz Festival goers looking for a pre-concert meal, and even locals strolling the Old Port in anticipation of Korea's contribution to this year's International Firework Competition.
L'International des Feux Loto-Québec was founded in 1985 at La Ronde, Québec's largest amusement park, which was created for Expo '67. From the very first year, La Ronde was filled to capacity and the city of Montréal witnessed unprecedented levels of crowd movement. More than 5.7 million people (spread out over a number of evenings) attended the displays in the first season, setting a record in Canada for this kind of event. As a result of this extraordinary level of success, the Competition was repeated the following year and has been an annual event. In the beginning, the Competition included two types of shows: traditional, so-called "classical" fireworks shows; and pyromusical displays, which involve the careful synchronization of fireworks to a musical score. Since 1987, the displays have been exclusively pyromusical. (http://www.internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com/en/a_propos_des_feux/communiques.aspx)
This year there are 10 evenings of fireworks in June, July and August. "Teams" from Austria, China, Canada, the US, South Korea, Italy, and France. You can buy tickets at La Ronde and see everything close up. Or you can do what we did, walk down to the St. Lawrence River with your beach chairs (and a book to read until it gets dark). We watched the fireworks explode above (and below) the Jacques Cartier bridge and listened to the accompanying music blaring from the stereo system of a pleasure boat floating in the waters below us (nice of them to provide the background music). We saw the "team" from South Korea who were responsible for the display at the Seoul Olympics opening ceremony.
Beforehand we ate dinner at Tai Nature (Cuisine Sante Thailandaise - Healthy Thai Cusine) on the corner of ST Laurent and Rue Notre Dame in Old Montreal. Food was good, air conditioning was working, and it wasn't crowded (a blessing on a Saturday night during festival seating). However service was less than attentive...not rude...just non-existent. However, we had a good fish (poisson) stirfry (turbot) and phad thai noodles with shrimp, and a shrimp mango salad.
L'International des Feux Loto-Québec was founded in 1985 at La Ronde, Québec's largest amusement park, which was created for Expo '67. From the very first year, La Ronde was filled to capacity and the city of Montréal witnessed unprecedented levels of crowd movement. More than 5.7 million people (spread out over a number of evenings) attended the displays in the first season, setting a record in Canada for this kind of event. As a result of this extraordinary level of success, the Competition was repeated the following year and has been an annual event. In the beginning, the Competition included two types of shows: traditional, so-called "classical" fireworks shows; and pyromusical displays, which involve the careful synchronization of fireworks to a musical score. Since 1987, the displays have been exclusively pyromusical. (http://www.internationaldesfeuxloto-quebec.com/en/a_propos_des_feux/communiques.aspx)
This year there are 10 evenings of fireworks in June, July and August. "Teams" from Austria, China, Canada, the US, South Korea, Italy, and France. You can buy tickets at La Ronde and see everything close up. Or you can do what we did, walk down to the St. Lawrence River with your beach chairs (and a book to read until it gets dark). We watched the fireworks explode above (and below) the Jacques Cartier bridge and listened to the accompanying music blaring from the stereo system of a pleasure boat floating in the waters below us (nice of them to provide the background music). We saw the "team" from South Korea who were responsible for the display at the Seoul Olympics opening ceremony.
Beforehand we ate dinner at Tai Nature (Cuisine Sante Thailandaise - Healthy Thai Cusine) on the corner of ST Laurent and Rue Notre Dame in Old Montreal. Food was good, air conditioning was working, and it wasn't crowded (a blessing on a Saturday night during festival seating). However service was less than attentive...not rude...just non-existent. However, we had a good fish (poisson) stirfry (turbot) and phad thai noodles with shrimp, and a shrimp mango salad.
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