An interesting discussion about purchasing wine in Quebec has popped up in Chowhound in the past couple of days, and if you travel to Quebec and like to buy wine, you might find it worth reading.

SAQ is Quebec’s provincial liquor monopoly; you can buy some wine elsewhere, in grocery stores and dépanneurs, but it’s only a small amount compared to what SAQ moves every year.

The conversation thread on Chowhound adds some depth to my knowledge and also provides some options for getting access to a wider variety of wine. For tourists, this isn’t optimal because it entails ordering wine in advance and then picking it up at a SAQ outlet. If you have friends in the province, perhaps they can do this for you.

A couple other observations that took us a SAQ visit or two to figure out:

• There are different kinds of SAQ outlets. The Wikipedia entry is helpful here. We discovered through trial and error that Sélection and Signature offer the kinds of wines and the selection that we desire. Express sells a lot of popular wines; it’s a good fall back if it’s the only SAQ outlet near you.
• We’re constantly reminded of the near invisibility of US wines outside the United States. The first time you walk into SAQ and see a couple of shelves devoted to California wines, and the shelves are filled with Beaulieu, Bogle, Mondavi, Fetzer and other such wine producers, you can get quite a jolt. California wines are world class, but finding anything but commodity California wine outside the US takes an effort. That said, there’s often excellent French and Italian wine. So if you “retune” your expectations, you’re likely to leave happy, with some excellent wine under your arm.

I’ve spent hours “walking the streets” on this site, looking up building after building, reading about the previous owners, the construction history, the changing uses of the edifice over decades and even centuries. It’s the kind of exploration that exposes the history of the city, layer by layer. I can’t get enough of it. Unfortunately, most of it is in French only, but the site offers up a few English records, “for demonstration purposes only.” (Apparently, this is to demonstrate that translation is actually possible.) Among them is the record for 171 rue St Paul ouest, the present day auberge where Chuck and I stay every year.

Check out the detailed history of the buildings, as well as a very complete timeline of events in and around Old Montreal from the 17th century to the present. It will give you a deeper understanding and appreciation – not just of Old Montreal – but also of the way cities and buildings change and morph as time passes.

The Metro has two stops that are convenient to the Old City – Victoria Square and Place d’Armes. We’ve used each interchangeably. Taking the Metro in the direction of Henri Bourassa gets you to Berri-UQAM, where you have access to the other Metro lines. Each ticket is approximately C$2.50 and you save a little bit by buying in quantity. You get paper tickets that you deposit in a box and the stationmaster manually unlocks the turnstile for you. It’s not hard to do, not confusing, and the trains are frequent. You’ll probably save lots of cab fare this way.

The Undergound City is another very good option, especially in the winter. There are a couple routes that get you downtown to St. Catherine – one goes north from Victoria Square Metro station and another goes north from the Place d’Armes station. These two paths are interconnected through the Palais du Congres and you can easily enter or exit the Underground City to stop at other destinations. The signage is quite good and there are maps posted, too. When you’re outdoors, look for signs that say R E S O, with the “O” being the symbol of the Metro. From our experience, the first trip is a little confusing, but we’ve never been lost and after our tentative exploration of the Underground City last year, we felt like old pros this time around.

More about the Metro
Metro Maps
Metro System Map
More about the Underground City
Underground City Map