Au Revoir Mont Tremblant, Bon Jour Montreal. It’s about an hour and a half from Tremblant to Montreal. I passed that time listening to the audio of the women’s final from Roland Garros Radio (via ATP Tennis Radio on Tune-In). Fortunately it was over by the time I got into downtown Montreal as new cities are always tricky to navigate. But I found parking in the old town and the morning was pretty quiet.

I walked up to Mont Royal from the Vieux Cite first, through a street fair that was all about cars and car racing. The weather was beautiful and on a Saturday everyone was out and about. Once I reached the base of the park, there are a lot of steps through the forested park (so it was shady) up to the viewing area. The view was worth the hike. Montreal is a beautiful city on the St. Lawrence River and from the top I could see the water and many bridges.

I walked towards the old city through McGill University which has lots of old buildings in the middle of the city, but was pretty quiet on a June Saturday. I then joined Rue Catherine, which appeared to be a popular shopping street that eventually turned into a pedestrian mall.

I walked through Chinatown next, which, though not very big, had a lot of restaurants. Duck seemed to be a popular option.

The old town was packed by mid afternoon. There were more street fairs and down by the river the vibe was similar to a fair. There’s a big Ferris wheel, there was music, tons of booths selling food etc., a zip line and more. And everywhere there was ice cream and poutine (fried potatoes topped with cheese curd and gravy and sometimes other things such as beef stew (I saw this one at a food truck). There’s a big cathedral in the center of old town which is lovely.

And with that I bid adieu to Canada for this time. It’s been great.