Adventures with Abigail

I went to montreal, quebec, Canada in april of 2024. This is my story.

Is there an event that comes to mind when you hear April 2024? If you’ve found this blog a while after it’s been posted, then probably not. I’ll tell you anyway: the North American Eclipse! Yes, I went to Canada to see the eclipse. Montreal was one of the few places in Canada that was on the totality line, and it just so happened to be rather cheap to fly to it. We also wanted to get my boyfriend’s Global Entry interview completed, but more on that at the end.

If it was cheap, then it was also very very annoying to get to. We had a stupid early (6am!) flight with a three hour layover in Detroit. Long enough to be annoying but short enough to not be able to do anything with it. We landed in Montreal around 5pm, and took a shuttle bus about 30 minutes to the edge of the train system. You have to make sure you have your metro card before you leave the airport. We found the airBnB easy enough in the heart of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal neighborhood.

After settling in to the airBnB, we set out to find some food. we didn’t get very far from the building. In fact, we literally went one door down from the apartment building we were staying in. I can’t even begin to tell you the name, the Canadians in Quebec take French very seriously, but the food was great. This was my first experience with poutine, and boy was it very much not my last. I’m really not sure how to classify this restaurant. I did not yet know that basically every place, no matter what they sell, they will have poutine on the menu, so I thought this was a poutine place that also had health food grain bowls. For the uninitiated, poutine is a french fry bowl primarily with cheese curds and a type of gravy. The bowl I had for dinner also had delicious grilled chicken and grated cheese.

The next day was the main event of the trip: The Eclipse. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had found a nice park that was having a big event and seemed to expect 100,000 people to show up. I’m not sure how many people were there, but they seemed to have everything well in hand.

This park is Parc Jean-Drapeau. It takes up most of of St. Helens Island. Had the trip been scheduled at another time, maybe we could have even gone to the amusement park on the other half of the island. After trying a coffee place in the morning (it was okay), we went ahead and got to the island early. It was a good thing that we did because there was already long lines waiting to get in an hour before the park even opened. This was 9am. The park would open at 10am, and the eclipse didn’t even start until 2:15pm.

Needless to say we had plenty of time to look around at what all the event organizers put together. It was a free event, and the food trucks and drink carts were reasonably priced. I ended up having a hot dog and a big bag of popcorn that lasted until the eclipse was over. There were a few booths set up around the park where park rangers were explaining (mostly in French, but a few in English) how the eclipse worked (aka moon blocks sun). There was a big stage in the main area, but the early entertainers were musicians (with a bad sound engineering setup) and the late entertainers only spoke French. After translating a sign, I found out that the person speaking in the hour before the eclipse started was a scientist talking about the phenomenon.

I found a nice spot near the edge of a walkway (that later became a small isle of passage) and enjoyed the view. Nearby was the edge of the island with a great view of Montreal. The second photo below is during totality. We had just under 3 minutes! Everyone cheered and clapped for the moon (or the lack of sun?) when it finally completely covered the sun.

We left about 20 minutes after totality ended and just started walking down the island. We had intended to see more of the island, but we ended up in a dense crowd on a small bridge waiting to merge onto a larger bridge. The traffic on the bridge was really fast, but the pedestrian area was well protected. It was definitely slow going, but the metro was probably equally as crowded in addition to also being under ground.

It took about an hour to make it back to Montreal. We ended up walking down Rue Sainte-Catherine, which is the main drag of Montreal’s Gay Village. I was wanting to find some food, but the area we walked through was really mostly bars. We did end up finding a brewery with some really interesting beers. I had a giant corndog.

The next morning I had scheduled a walking tour of Old Montreal. After another just-okay coffee we took the metro over to Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal which was near the starting point of the tour. Our Anglophile (someone speaks English natively) tour guide told us all kinds of interesting things about the history of the buildings and the area in general. Fun fact: Montreal is the original Sin City because it was easy to get to for Americans in the area when the United States had prohibition.

We had a small group of only eight people. We went inside an old bank that now hosts a small coffee shop and art/writing studios. We went up to the top of a tower to get a good view of the surrounding area (the distance photo of the bridge previously is from this point). The area that looks like three mounds of shipping crates is actually a set of condos that millionaires live in. The complex was created for the 1967 World’s Fair. [extra fun fact that I found out after fact checking my World’s Fair year: Japan is hosting the next World’s Fair in 2025]. Our tour ended at Bonsecours Market. It’s got a silver dome and hosts some boutique stores inside. For lunch, we went to a crepe place.

After lunch we decided to tackle Montreal’s “mountain”, aka Mont Royal. Before we could even begin the climb up the mountain, we had to climb up the residential hill (very steep) to get from the metro to the park itself. The climb was short by hiking standards (mostly because it’s really closer to a big hill than a mountain), but it was steep and offered great views at the top. There’s a big lodge with restrooms and a little shop, too.

After the climb to the top, we took the long way down through the Mont Royal Park. There was a wide road with a few cyclist and runners, but you were otherwise cut off from the hustle and bustle of the city. Below are videos of the park, one panorama and another minute walk.

The path we were on ended up at a statue and conveniently a few blocks from the airBnB. I really liked the bricking on the house in the middle photo. For dinner I, of course, had my international McDonalds experience. They had poutine on the menu (as well as the snack wrap), so I had to get it to see. Yeah, it was about what you’d expect: a McDonald’s-ified version of the dish.

We spent the evening in bar nearby that had ostrich heads on the wall. Thirteen ostrich heads to be specific.

The next morning we started out walking around the Mile End area trying (and ultimately failing) to buy a Montreal Bagel. If you end up in Montreal looking for Montreal Bagels, then make sure you have cash on hand. After giving up and just getting coffee and a pastry at the best coffee place ever (Cafe Olimpico, an Italian coffee place), we set off to the Botanical Gardens. It was early spring, so everything was dead. We had not considered that when we decided to check it out. At least it was free. It’s clear these gardens would be beautiful when in bloom. They have lots of different climate areas, too.

Next we walked over (and completely around the Olympics arena) to the Biodome. This was super cool. They had five biomes, including an arctic one with penguins and a cool fully iced tunnel (it doesn’t photograph well considering it’s a completely white tunnel). There was also rainforest area with parrots and monkeys, another area with alligators, and an area with a big aquarium.

After the Biodome we explored a small part of the Underground City. It was difficult to find, but once you find your way into it there are plenty of maps around. I will admit it was hard to figure out the system, but as we kept coming back over the next few days it started to make more sense. There were stores and restaurants and hip places to hang out interspersed with empty giant rooms.

We finished up our journey underground and went to Montreal’s Chinatown for dinner. Kim Fung (the in person sign says Kam Fung, but the menu’s say Kim Fung) showed up as one of the best places to get Dim Sum, so we explored the area until we found it. It’s inside a shopping mall and a little difficult to locate, but it was very very good.

The next morning, after yet another coffee place, we went to the Archaeology Museum. This was a really cool museum about the history of the area and the building. The basement of the building dates back to the original foundation in the early 1800s and still has some of the original wooden posts in the foundation. The small river running through town (that was used as a sewage system) was eventually boarded over after the town drained some of the area. This area can accessed via the museum today.

My video of the experience is below. I had to retake the video on our walk back (the tunnel connects to a different part of the museum) because there was a large group of children coming through towards the end of my first take and the tunnel is very echo-y.

It started to rain when we were finishing up the first museum, so we decided to have lunch before going to the next museum. We ate at Slice and Soda. They have some good pizza that they sell in large slices. Their soda menu was quite unique, too.

The next museum we went to was the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. I felt weird taking a photo of the wall paper, but isn’t it cute?! The whole building had some interesting sculptures around, too. My favorite exhibit was the Stargazing exhibit with it’s neon colors, but I always have a place in my heart for impressionism. The modern art section always leave me with strong feelings, so I guess it’s doing its job. Also, why does every museum have a The Thinker? Strange.

I got us a fancy dinner reservation at Gaspar Brasserie Française this night. We got all dressed up and made our way back to the port area. The food was really good and the ambiance was very nice. It was a nice ending to a long day.

The next morning we set out to find my trip art. Our tour guide from earlier in the week had pointed out a shop that was all Canadian indigenous peoples work. I found the wooden art below at this location. It was made by a man who uses historical methods to make more modern styled carvings. Another location of Cafe Olympico was nearby, so we stopped there for breakfast first. It was just as good as the other location.

After I found my art (They gave me free shipping) we back to Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal and actually went inside. It does cost money (church service is free, I’m told), but it is a unique experience. There’s plenty of plaque to read if that’s your thing, and there’s a giant organ at the back of the church up high, too.

After visiting the church, we went to a brewery for a late lunch. We were expecting a big storm to roll through this evening, so we explored more of the Underground City before retiring to the air BnB for the night.

We finished out the trip with another stupid early flight. We had a three hour layover in Detroit again where we planned to have boyfriend do his Global Entry interview. That did not happen. We went through customs in Canada. Apparently this is a new thing “they” are doing, so our flight was too early for the interview on our way out of Canada and we deplaned in the domestic terminal at Detroit. So, lookout for that if you are planning on getting your Global Entry Interview upon Re-entry. Your plans might be thwarted if you are flying back from Canada.

All in all, it was a great and memorable trip. I do recommend Montreal Canada for those looking for a French experience without the France flight/price tag.