Montreal & Mont Tremblant, Quebec

I'm tapping this one out from our treacly-sweet site at Achray campsite in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. This is a massive, heavily forested park which seems to be best explored by canoe. Most people here arrive with at least one on the roof of the car. Of course, the canoe was the one thing that we didn't bring with, so we're going to be forced to foot it around the picturesque lakes and ponds in search of moose, bears, beavers and wolves. How did we get here? We were told about this magnificent spot by Denis, our new friend and bilingual tourguide – partner to Lish's long-time friend Tanya. Denis showed us around Montreal and Mont Tremblant, bargained and pulled strings for our lodgings, educated us on Canadian history – human and geological – introduced us to Canadian Tire (sic) and remained convincingly enthusiastic about our national parks plans and lame French skills.

The first thing that you need to keep in mind when thinking about Quebec (Provincial Motto: “I Remember”) is it's age. It was first explored by Jacques Cartier in 1534 – just 42 years after that famous Italian, Christopher Columbus, made his journey – and settled by Samuel de Champlain in 1608 (avid readers of Green Blazing will note that it was also Samuel de Champlain who gave Mt Desert Island its name). This settlement has been maintained – initially as a trade-post for the fur trade and then the lumber trade – ever since and hence Quebec City boasts many age-related superlatives such as oldest street in North America, the oldest basilica in North America – the Basilique-Cathedral Notre-Dame de Quebec, oldest stone church in North America - Eglise Notre Dame des Victoires, 1688, and even the popular Shrine of Sainte-Anne-De-Beaupre was built in 1658. (BTW, unfortunately we did not visit any of these sites). This makes European colonial settlement of Canada one of the oldest in the world (India was settled by the Portuguese in 1502). (At any rate, older than USA (1607), South Africa (1652), Australia (1788) and NZ (1822)).

With this perspective, it is easier to understand why Montreal has such a European feel to it. We stayed in small B&Bs in a residential area within the Island of Montreal called the Plateau (one of the obvious differences with New York, ordinary people own townhouses in trendy areas and rent out the bottom floor or basement). Within the French section of Montreal, the Plateau is prized for the variety and quality of its restaurants, bars, cafes and boutique shops. Montreal pioneered the system of municipal bicycles that Paris is now famous for, and biking is generally well-supported in Montreal. I like a city that supports bikes. It sets the right tone. It makes people more visible, reduces road rage, keeps people local and discourages the carriage of excessive belongings and so makes people more decisive and focused. My only complaint is that the system is limited to residents because it only accepts plastic with a local billing address.

So we caught the bus to the top of Mont Royale Park. This spectacular park was designed by one Fredrick Law Olmstead, our man who also designed Central Park in New York City. Mont Royale has a similar feel to it, with rambling tree areas mixed with lawns. There is a lovely panoramic view of the city from one point of the park.

From the top of Mont Royale it is an easy walk down to McGill University, which consists of a series of old stone European style buildings. We then walked down through McGill University to Schwartz' – the Montreal equivalent of Katz' – and then down to the Vieux City. Although the smoked meat sandwiches Schwartz' was probably the highlight of the day (picture below says everything that needs to be said other than that Schwartz the musical will shortly be showing in Montreal), it only just beats out the tunnels. Montreal has a famous warren of tunnels beneath its downtown streets. We explored these, exuberantly and seemingly at random, for most of the afternoon also passing through Saint Laurent Boulevard, Chinatown, Rue Crescent and the uber trendy St Paul Hotel.

We finished up Saturday back in the Plateau sipping French beers (varieties offered by Boreale Brewery), snacking on baguettes and pate made by the bar owner and watching a group of university freshers dance in the Saint Denis fountain in the midst of a torrential rainstorm. As the music of local musician, Leonard Cohen, came over the stereo in the bar, our tour guide Denis pointed out the perfection of this particular moment in time, and I agreed. “Parfait”.

Don't be misled, the life of a blogger is an easy one. We tripped up to Mont Tremblant on Sunday afternoon (1 hour drive) where we sampled some poutine (Quebecoise dish mixing fries, chicken gravy and cheese curds) and some more local beers at La Diable Microbrewery. Spent the afternoon wandering through the village indulging in the architectural cuteness, until our next meal at “The Grill” in the town (as opposed to the village part of Mont Tremblant).

The highlight of Tremblant – dare I say it – is the Scandinave Spa (www.scandinave.com). It shares an idyllic forest setting with the Diable River, has a well-respected complete silence policy and clean facilities without any birch whipping. The spa's philosophy is 15 minutes in an extreme heat environment, then immediate plunge into cold environment, and finish with relaxation session for 20 to 30 minutes. The extreme heat environments include the Finnish sauna, Norwegian steam bath, hot bath and thermal waterfall pool, and another hot bath without waterfall. There are several cold plunge pools including the Diable River itself. Relaxation sessions are to be held in the Scandinavian themed solariums, the best one being the Zero Gravity Solarium. All of the solariums have deck chairs facing large windows that overlook the river or the forest. Just heavenly.

Afterwards we said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts. Parting gift from Denis – a bear bell – to ensure our safety during the next stage of our walkabout - Algonquin Provincial Park. Stay tuned...