Shopping, syrup and a show: Montreal Day 2 (27 April 2014)

Before we write about our second day in Montreal we’d like to make a clarification. (This is what happens when you write your blog posts at midnight after a long day!) Yesterday we wrote that people should be flocking to EVOO restaurant. We appreciate of course that many people can’t afford to do that and also that many of those who can would choose not to. The comment was made in the context of our discovering that another restaurant of similar ilk, but in a more hipster location, was completely booked out, while this one run by three lovely enthusiastic young people was only a third full. Please read our comment in this vein.

Brunch

Hannah’s gourmet tour of Montreal continued with Sunday brunch at a cafe in the popular Plateau-Mont Royal area of the city. We expected to have to wait in line, and we did … but fortunately we could wait inside the restaurant where it was not only warm but we could watch the dishes coming out of the kitchen thereby helping our decision when our time for choosing came.

The cafe was the Arts Cafe and the food was wonderful. For around CAD12, you could have an interesting, beautifully cooked and very filling breakfast with eggs, potatoes and other vegetables, fruit, granola or black beans, toast, and additional options like polenta and/or bacon. Sue particularly liked the polenta option. Hannah and Sue were impressed with the perfect poaching of their eggs, and Len enjoyed his Canadian ham special.

Exploring Le Plateau-Mont Royal

We then spent the next couple of hours exploring this area that revolves around the famous Boulevard Saint Laurent, famous, that is, for trendy shops and restaurants, for street-fairs and festivals. We enjoyed looking at the buildings along this Boulevard and those around it, many of which were old factories and warehouses. As our travel guide told us, the Boulevard “is representative of Montreal’s shift out of the economic decline in the 1980s and 90s.” Sue didn’t buy anything, but Len surprised himself and us by finding a rather nice wallet, and Hannah had fun, particularly in a vintage clothing shop where, after trying on several items, she ended up with a pretty top and a fun skirt.

Meeting Cheryl and Tony

Next up was meeting Cheryl, another of Sue’s longstanding Internet Bookgroup friends, and her husband Tony, at a funky little restaurant on (or is it in?) the Plateau, called Santropol. Cheryl and Tony surprised us with a gift of three sample bottles (airline security approved size) of different strengths of Tony’s home-made maple syrup. We learnt all – or, more accurately perhaps, a bit – about the art of making maple syrup. They harvest from eight trees in their yard and apparently Tony collected around 115 litres of sap which he boiled down over 15 hours to get the syrup. You apparently get an output of around 1 litre of syrup to 40 litres of sap! Liquid gold! We felt honoured to be recipients of some of his latest production.

We only had an hour, unfortunately, but we had a good chat about the weather, education, needlework, Quebec history and politics, among other things. As English people they are the oppressed minority in the state, they said, and things became tricky in the recent election campaign when there was a strong and rather ugly push from one party for separation. Thankfully that party was trounced. As tourists of course we enjoy the pocket of “Frenchness” but we don’t have to live in a sensitive bicultural and bilingual environment. Anyhow, Cheryl and Tony were great people and we had a lovely time.

Oh, and Sue loved her raw vegan lime and coconut tart. Yum! Suited her perfectly.

Cirque du Soleil

Although we could have bussed to Quai Jacque-Cartier in the Old Port, where Cirque du Soleil had pitched its tent, we decided upon Cheryl and Tony’s advice to catch a taxi down.

The show we attended was their newest one that only opened a few days ago. It’s steampunk inspired and is called Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities. Our Sunday show went from 5pm to around 7:15pm with a 25 minute interval. Great value, in other words.

Unlike some Cirque shows this had no real story, though a mad scientist or inventor seemed to be controlling the action. It was full of nineteenth-century-cum-steam-era-cum-Victorian-life motifs, including the steam train, early aviation, hot air balloon, diving bell, a formal dinner party, freak shows, concertina, bicycles, gramophones, and so on. Its organising framework was in fact the “cabinet of curiosities” resulting in many of the traditional circus acts being built around these motifs, such as aerial acrobatics using a suspended bicycle, and balancing acrobatics using chairs to reach a suspended dinner party.

The design aesthetic was definitely cosy Victorian browns and other neutrals, though some of the costumes were highly colourful, perhaps suggestive of the Victorian mania for collecting pretty objects and creatures.

It was hard to pick favourite acts, though we all loved the live music and the skat style singing. Len and Hannah particularly enjoyed the “high” routines, which of course Sue liked too, but she surprised herself by really enjoying the clowning. One that was a lot of fun was the animal trainer sketch in which the animals were invisible, though we certainly “heard” the lion! A fun reference to the absence of animals in modern circuses.

We were pretty tired by the end of this, so found a cosy little French place called Papillon, in the Old Town, which had some good value meal offerings for around CAD15. It wasn’t fancy and we all just had one course, though Hannah tried two cocktails when, not liking her (first ever) vodka martini, she passed it on to Len and had a Kir Royale instead. That hit the spot somewhat better.

The daily slideshow …

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And a video of a street of staircases …

And a video of the Cirque du Soleil preparatory activities