Incredible Weekend for Two in Montreal

We enjoyed our evening meals the most, with the wine, all of the courses, and the French menus. We especially enjoyed a restaurant that was outside of the city. Their menu had no English, and the restaurant was full of French-speakers. It was fun trying to communicate with the friendly staff. The service we received was excellent everywhere that we went. The fine arts gallery had some beautiful pieces, and their museum shop was a dream! They have everything from Christmas cards to journals, china, and toys. The cathedral's alter was lit up in blues and reds and was one of the most dramatic I've seen. We also enjoyed finding all kinds of chocolates in the shops downtown. As a couple, we had some wonderful deep conversations over wine and made some amazing memories together.

Quick Tips:

Things that we learend the hard way - to call anywhere in the local area, you must use the area code first! If you are planning on getting your taxes back at the border, your purchases on each receipt must add up to or more. So try to find a great shop and do all of your buying there. Also, you only get some of the taxes back, so don't plan on saving an incredible amount of money. You won't get taxes back for fuel or restuarants. Oh, and the Biodome and the Biosphere are TWO DIFFERENT things that are in two different locations!

Best Way To Get Around:

We traveled mainly by car, with occasional walking to enjoy the city. Traveling by car was relatively simple, but only because I had my husband with me to help navigate. There are a good many one-way streets, and of course the street names are in french. If you are unused to northern driving, you may get frustrated at times. People have a way of cutting in front of you with no warning, so you have to get on the offensive really quickly if you are going to stay sane on the roads. The parking meters get expensive, and we did get a ticket for going a little over our time limit. But there are many parking lots that charge by the hour, and I would recommend those. We enjoyed relatively little traffic, but that's because we were there in the off-season. The traffic definitely picks up at night, unlike most cities we've visited. Montreal really does come alive at night!

This hotel is rated 3 diamonds by AAA, but only has a 2 diamond price. That's why we chose it, the value for the money. Its location is about ten minutes from the heart of the city, and it's a simple drive with a map. The staff was friendly; the room was very clean; and the bed was nice and comfortable. They had movies to order and room service, as well as a free continental breakfast. The breakfast was even substantial, with real croissants and great coffee. There was also an indoor pool and a hot tub.

If you plan on enjoying some excellent French meals while in Montreal, I would highly recommend staying in a hotel like this one. We saved a lot of money on our hotel room and could use it on meals and purchases. This hotel also offers an AAA discount.

This restaurant was recommended by the staff at our hotel. We were thinking of going to downtown Montreal on our first night, but there were so many good restaurants that we couldn't choose. So we went to this AAA 3 star restauarant not knowing what to expect.

What we found was a genuine French atmosphere, and incredibly friendly waiters. They made the perfect recommendations of wine and entrees. They started us off with a bubbly blackcurrent wine with bread and salad - superb. We joked that we could eat the bread until we were full and then leave, it was so good. Then they brought our entrees with another french wine that they chose for us (we loved it). I had roast duck a la orange, and it was the first time I'd had duck. The meat was very tender and full of flavor with crispy skin. There were scalloped potatoes underneath the duck (the dish itself was beautiful), and they were also delicious. We split the creme brulee (their specialty)for dessert with coffee, and it was the perfect end to our meal.

We would give this restauarant four stars for its authenticity, decor, atmosphere, and service. The prices were excellent considering the outstanding quality of our meal.

We skipped the modern and Canadian section and went straight to the Levels 3 and 4. These exhibits were 19th and 20th century European Art and Masterprints of the Fifteenth through the Seventeenth Century. There were some excellent Italian, English, and French works here. The gallery was a nice size, and it took us a full hour just to go through two sections. Admission was free, so if you have any interest in art whatsoever, this gallery is worth your time.

We bought most of our souvenirs at the museum shop. I found a beautiful French journal, Christmas cards (in English), an artsy calendar, and a few gifts (notecards with paintings on them).

When we first walked in, I was truly taken aback by the beauty of the alter area. It wasn't necessarily all of the icons, but the unique lighting that grabbed my attention. There were deep blues, reds, and greens in the background of the crucifix and marble Biblical icons. We were greeted by two ladies who gave us the student admission price of $1 and pointed us to start walking around the left of the pews.

I've seen many cathedrals and abbeys in the UK and Europe, but this one was definitely different. There was a lot of color on the ceiling, which strangely reminded me of the ceiling of Grand Central Station in NY, a bit tacky. The floor was a bit tacky also, with bright teal tiles that went along the main walkways of tourists. There were three wraparound balconies which, unfortunately, blocked the overall view and effect of the stained glass windows along the walls. The Basilica is worth seeing, if for nothing else, for that fascinating lighting. It was a disappointment overall, though, after seeing cathedrals and abbeys in other countries.

This little chocolate shop has so many kinds of chocolates, and they are much better than Godiva! Handpick your favorite truffles, or go for a hollow chocolate high heel shoe, cat, tool box, etc. They have beautiful decorative tins and boxes for gifts. And the truffles are excellent - everything from pecans to caramel and more. The lady who helped us was also very friendly. We got a box of sixteen truffles for about $8-10 US.

We were really excited about the Biodome, which boasts four different climates and all types of animals that live in those climates. We arrived to a VERY crowded site, where we paid to park in a dimly-lit garage and had a fun time trying to find the actual entrance to the biodome. Please do not confuse the BioDOME with the BioSPHERE. The Biosphere is a large clear sphere that was built to impress (reminds me of Epcot), and it is now devoted to the power of water, especially the Hudson River. It is on an island, so it's VERY far away from the BioDOME, where you will most likely want to go.

The student admission (including college) was $7, and we entered to find bunches of children everywhere. The whole experience was kind of like a 'Where's Waldo?' book. I don't know about you, but Waldo always frustrated me. There were animals in each separate climate, but you had to search for them among the grass, trees, water, etc. Pictures were allowed, but flash was not, so my pictures did not turn out well (sorry). We did see some beautiful animals - but the Biodome probably doesn't have any more animals than your local zoo does. And you only experience a couple of the climates. The arctic climate is safely boxed in, so visitors do not experience the cold (we were actually looking forward to experiencing it!). And they had penguins but no polar bears, which was also disappointing. Some features were fun, like all of the windows where you could see animals above and below the water line.

Overall, the Biodome brought out the kid in me, but left me a bit disappointed. I can imagine it would be PACKED with people in the summer, since it was crowded in mid-November.