Tour de Montreal

In order to see the city, Allison, Caitlin, and I signed up for a bike tour by Fitz & Follwell called "Hoods & Hidden Gems." Starting at 10:30 am, we biked around northern Montreal and visited the villages. Sunjay's friend, Tom also joined us.

Although the tour started out a little slow, we enjoyed our friendly guides (Martin & Mimi) who took us through Mile-End, Outrement, and Little Italy. We got to eat at the best bagel shop called St-Viateur and had coffee at Cafe Olympique. Both were great and the bagels are supposedly closer to the original invention.

We then visited an amazing food market called Marché Jean Talon. The food was fresh and well-presented. We couldn't get enough of the fresh tastings of fruit - juicy orange slices, tomatoes which are in season, and peaches. We also treated ourselves to strawberry sorbet in this amazing market.

We also visited an old hardware store in Little Italy called Dante that sold typical stuff, but had evolved to sell top-notch cooking supplies and arms. Yes, there were guns and rifles in the back - one of two places in Montreal. Supposedly this is one of the top four places to visit in Montreal according to Anthony Bourdain. The other three being Schwartz's, La Banquise, and St-Viateur bagel shop. We have already hit all 4!

Cooking Supplies

Guns

We rode through parks, backstreets, highways, and main roads. When we crossed large streets, we did so in a Tour de France manner. In parks, kids cheered and were excited when we rang our bells. Truly a Tour de Montreal!

Throughout the city, you could see really interesting staircases to the 2nd and 3rd floors. This is done to maximize tenant space and so that people can walk straight to their doors. Also, houses are set back ten feet from the road, so there were lots of gardens and terraces.

We picnicked in Fountain Park after picking up sandwiches at an adorable bakery and buying some local beers. There are quite a few microbreweries in the area. The tour was suppose to end around 2:30 pm, but since we were enjoying ourselves and our group, it went closer to 4 pm. We had couples from Boston and Ohio also on the tour.

The bike shop is very close to Mont Royal, the mountain of which the city is named with a "Disco Cross" which changes colors and a famous lookout called the Chalet.

Caitlin, Tom, and I decided to rent bikes from the bike-share system which abounds in Montreal. The city is incredibly bike-friendly, so it was a great way to explore.

As we went up the mountain, we realized there was a big difference between the light road bike and the heavy bike-share one, ten speed vs. three speed, and that we were exhausted from biking since 10:30 am. Slowly but surely, we made our way up to a beautiful lookout to see the entire city. Well worth the effort and embarrassment (I mean, Denise managed to lap us on the mountain while running).

What was also nice was that we could bike down the mountain and then downhill to our hotel. All for $7! Plus the marijuana waft up and down the mountain was interesting. Smelled like Chinese herbs, as my dad would describe it.

So the plan was to nap, but Caitlin, Allison, and I proceeded to have a difficult time figuring out a place to eat, a place near the party tonight, or a place that would take a large group. We were starving as we had burned like 10,000 calories and ate only 800 according to Caitlin's scientific measurements.

We finally decided on Moutons Noir on St. Denis and went with Tom and Jeff. We tried to go to Au Pied de Cochon, but it was packed. The company was great and dinner was delicious with calamari, salads with duck confit, and lamb filets. The restaurant's specialty was lamb. It was also BYOB so we brought the wedding welcome bottle from Sunjay and Katie and another bottle meant for our bus ride up.

In the evening, everyone congregated at Macaroni Bar which was the rehearsal dinner venue. Seriously, Sunjay and Katie have so many friends! And I can't wait to celebrate some more tomorrow!