This year, finding a furnished apartment was much more difficult than past years. Whether it’s the “end of the pandemic” or the housing crisis or some other reason, it was not easy to find a furnished apartment that would be willing to give us a 5-month lease.… [Read More]
Author: Sylvain Descartes
Nous sommes de retour
When we first decided to embark on this adventure, it seemed like half a year was a long time to spend in a place. But how quickly the winter just flew by!… [Read More]
Part 1. What Happened.
We had some associates from the US visit us here, whom I will call Régis and Léontine (many of you reading will know who they are, but as this blog is publicly accessible this post will have some intentional vagueness).… [Read More]
Sylvain’s sister and parents have been visiting this weekend, so there has been excursions to many places: Île St. Hélène, Parc La Fontaine, Parc Mont Royal, and, of course, the Jardin Botanique!… [Read More]
Rose Mallow
We’ve tried to make a weekly ritual of biking to the Jardin Botanique Sunday mornings for a coffee in their café and a wander around the gardens. As mentioned before, our Accès Montréal card gives us free access to the outdoor (best) parts of the garden.… [Read More]
St. Joseph’s Oratory
Montréal has a couple of sites that guide-books inevitably label with the overused adjective “iconic.” St. Joseph’s Oratory tends to be near the top of that list.
It’s one of the largest cathedrals in the world, perched high on the southwest-facing Côte-des-Neiges side of Mont Royal.… [Read More]
I’ve been an enthusiastic user of the métro in Montréal ever since we first visited. Over our various stays, I’ve traveled most of the routes. I’ve been to the ends of the lines, or one stop short, on all of them.… [Read More]
Crowds of Summer
Things are busy. Manon and I are both taking six hours of French classes per week, along with homework and the usual quotidian grind.
Summer is a glorious but brief season, so Montréalers are anxious to be out and about when the weather’s good.… [Read More]
Butterfly Week
The summer season is short here. You can see the changes in things from day to day. This week, it’s the butterfly’s time.
Up at the top of Mont Royal, it was a hot and very very humid day.… [Read More]
This past week, I attended an activity with a local intercultural group: learning to kayak. Now, this group is big into canoe camping and white-water kayaking, but they have to entice us newbies into the sport a little more gently.… [Read More]