Three weeks from today, we’ll be in Montreal. We’re both getting pretty excited about this. (I get excited in August, Chuck reserves his eagerness for the 21 days before we embark.)
This weekend, he’ll be calling restaurants to line up reservations, while I choose a handful of things we might do while we’re there.
We’ve been to Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal before, but there’s an exhibition on rock and roll that could be fun. There’s also a Warhol exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts that looks good. As far as historic tours go, we’ve had Chateau Ramezay on the list for a couple of years, but at the top of my personal list is the Margeuerite Bourgeoys Museum at Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secoures Chapel. There have been some amazing archeological finds underneath the church and you can walk amongst them. After touring Pointe-à-Callière Museum last year, which has excellent walking tour of some of the oldest ruins of Montreal in the basement, I’m excited to see what’s beneath the chapel.
We’re firmly of the opinion that one planned activity (besides dinner) is plenty, so a couple museum visits over 8 days seems a good balance.
We eliminated shopping from last year’s trip – the first time we’d done that. But I think we’ll spend a couple hours scouting for bargains here and there, and doing so is even easier now that many stores and chains roll out “Boxing Week” rather than “Boxing Day” sales.
We’re coffee people, all four of us on this year’s trip, so there will be at least a couple stops at Cafe Myriade to sample what locals have been raving about in the weeks since it opened. Cafe Veritas is near the auberge where we stay, so we’ll go there, as well.
Three weeks out, that’s the extent of our planning. Our transportation to Montreal is the cheapest it’s been in at least 3 years; the Loonie will possibly give us our best value in 3 years; and the weather – well who the heck knows? Regardless, as the Thanksgiving holiday becomes history, we have Montreal on our minds.