Me: “Bonjour”
Them: “Yes, can I help you?”
Me: “Uh yes…can I get combo #1 please… Merci.”
I wanted to impress the locals with my rudimentary command of French but in the end, nobody had time to entertain a tourist. They just want to do their jobs and get on with life. Fair enough. Unless I was planning on going out of the city, I don’t think knowing French is really needed. The Québécois are still Canadian and they need to know how to converse with their fellow Canadians from non-Quebec regions.
What’s there to do in Montreal and Quebec City (QC)? Walk around. Take the subways. Ride a bike everywhere. Eat.
I didn’t take many pics of Montreal itself. A subway looks like a subway. A row of shops looks like a row of shops. Nothing truly stood out as different. I’m not saying it wasn’t a great city; it had a great vibe and its own identity which leaned more toward young and hip. It’s worth a visit and in another life, I could even find myself living there.
Quebec City was a short 2.5 hour drive from Montreal and worth a night’s stay. More than that and it could feel long. Much of the interesting sights are concentrated in one tiny area in QC, the tourist district which includes everything below.
TIP: I would absolutely recommend that a visitor make reservations at ‘Restaurant Aux Anciens Canadiens‘ for lunch and asking for the ‘table d’hote‘, which is the set lunch menu, to get a good feel of Quebecois cuisine, such as the meat pie below. Also, according to locals, for the best poutine in QC, visit ‘Chez Ashton’, which is a fast food chain. Order the poutine only.
