Canadian Vacation

Montréal was cold. Went to Mont Royal Park (frigid), McCord Museum of Canadian History (reasonably interesting), Montréal History Centre (more interesting), and Old Montréal (old).

Here we are on 40 heading westbound between rival two cities about a couple of hours apart. No, we're not going from Nashville to Memphis. This is Provincial Autoroute 40 from Québec to Montréal.
The city of Montréal from the top of Mont Royal. Yes, that's where the name Montréal comes from. It was a big climb in very cold weather. But the view is quite nice.
Olympic Stadium, also taken from Mont Royal. This facility has gone from being a state-of-the-art center of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games to the dilapidated home of the doomed Montréal Expos.
If you browsed through my snaps of my first trip overseas, you will know that I like to take pictures of adult establishments in foreign countries where they speak a different language. I give you the Château du Sexe. They have a thing in Montréal called contact dancing. It's apparently like lap dancing, but you get to touch the woman. Well probably not in the special area, but certainly on the bumps and the butt and all the curves in between. It only cost $10 Canadian. Such a bargain. I should have given it a try. The reason I know about this is because there was an article in the Montréal Gazette on Wednesday, February 13. Honestly.
The cathedral of Notre Dame in Old Montréal.
Like I wasn't having enough trouble with French, I took a stroll through Chinatown.
An old building in Old Montréal. It has some historic significance. I forget what that is.
Molson Beer, the national beverage of Canada, to go along with the national food, doughnuts.
From the Molson brewery to the Molson Centre. This is where the Canadiens now play hockey. I don't know where the old Forum used to be or if it is even still standing.

Ruminations on Montréal. It seemed a little more English-friendly because of the percentage of anglophones living there. I found out in one of the museums that until fairly recently English was the dominant language in the city. Too many people in Québec were speaking English, so when the French Canadians got control of the government, they passed language laws that forced children to attend French schools. The only kids that are exempt were children of Québecers who had also attended English schools. Had a decent pint of cider called Dumont or something like that in a pub called Mad Hatter in an anglophone area of town. On my way from Québec to Montréal, I stopped off at a gas station and completed my only completely French transaction. It consisted of two words, "un", which indicated the pump I had used to fill up and "merci", thanking the man when I left. Sale and Pelletier were robbed in the pairs skating competition and you'd think Canada had been invaded by aliens.