Farnsniente

At breakfast with Gregg about to stab me with a fork

Well, at least I think the trip is going well

—

in
📍 Jardin Botanique de Montréal, Quebec

Photos

Trip index

Summary

We spent several hours at the Montreal Botanical Garden and it was fantastic! One of the volunteers told us it ranks as one of the ten most important gardens in the world. (#1 is Kew Gardens.) It is definitely in my top ten! Afterwards we perused the stalls at the Jean-Talon market and drooled over the gorgeous produce. Then a walk around Little Italy which we were not impressed with. Had a great dinner at Mon Lapin, a very difficult reservation! Took a very long walk home and enjoyed seeing Little Italy become a lively, bustling place in the evening.

Details

We start our day having the hotel’s breakfast which is pretty good. We can’t find the plates. It turns out they hold them hostage until you give your room number (breakfast isn’t included). The toaster has 33 buttons on the front. I can’t figure out how to make toast and have to ask the manager. 

Across the street we catch an Uber over to the botanical garden. Our driver is Dmitri. I’ve figured out where to find our driver’s names for past rides. Since leaving our house in Austin we’ve had (with spelling and capitalization as they appear in the app) Dang, Zahra, Navjot, Meer, Gurdial Singh, Paulo, Fadi, Andre, Abdoul, Housem, Athmane, Alireza, Mahamadfarook, Georges, and Ganeshalingam. 100% guys. 

Admission paid (discount for being old) we go into the glass “green” houses. There are five or six of them ten of them, all in a long line. There’s one whole greenhouse for begonias. We learn that all begonias have asymmetrical leaves. There’s a cacti house, a fern house, and an orchid house. One of the greenhouses has edibles. No not that kind of edibles, but we do see banana, vanilla, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cocoa, pepper, cayenne, papaya, coffee, arrowroot, jasmine, ginger, hemp, cardamom, curry leaf, star anise, allspice, black pepper, pineapple, avocado, (Barbados) cherry, tamarind, jackfruit, star fruit, mulberry, turmeric, grapefruit, gin berry, and date plum.

We’re there for an hour before we head out to explore the plants outside. We learn this is one of the top ten botanical gardens in the world and we believe it. We’re sad we spent so much time in the green houses as there’s so much more to this place, but we have to push on. 

Next stop (by Uber) is a (mostly) outdoor covered market: Marché Jean-Talon. We’ve been here on a previous trip but it never gets old. We buy suitcase gifts (spoiler alert for family back home) and lunch. They have places to eat, to buy meats and fish, gifts, plants, and oh so many fresh fruits and vegetables. There’s more than they can sell so if you’re willing to buy in bulk (for canning) you can get a really good price. US$60 will get you 30 pounds of fresh blueberries. US$10 will get you a huge crate of perfect tomatoes (they won’t be so perfect in a week, better get canning). 

Post market, we wander off for a walking tour of Montreal’s Little Italy. When you’re there, you know. Out of the coffee shops and bars you can hear Italian arguing going on. We go to a big, famous cookware/gun store where Karen buys a couple of things. We’re looking for appetizer toothpicks in the shape of hockey sticks but strike out. 

At a cafe we get an espresso and a piccolo (and espresso with a bit of hot milk in a small glass). When ordering we indicated we wanted the refreshments for here (glass and ceramic versus paper and plastic, plus a bit more expensive). We finish our coffee quickly but hang out in the nice air conditioned cafe for another hour, awaiting dinner. There’s a golf competition being aired on the huge TV near by. The ladies believe they maybe could become golf fans, possibly due to the athletic, well tanned guys playing is my guess.

We have a dinner reservation somewhere nearby. It’s a popular spot so if you want a reservation you have to put CA$50 on the line, per person, which we’d done. If you want to cancel, do it three days in advance or kiss your CA$200 goodbye. Waiting at the cafe, ogling the golfers, we look at the restaurant’s menu. It changes every day, so it’s a bit hard to find. We look at all the things on offer from a month ago and decide there’s nothing that appeals. But walking away from CA$200 isn’t in our nature, so we agree to have a stiff upper lip and tough it out. 

Walking on we exclaim how warm it is, but we can feel it already cooling off for the evening.  A squirrel on some nearby steps, splooting, disagrees. With its fur coat it feels it’s much too warm. 

Dinner? It’s fabulous. Everything is to share. We get the written menu, which tells us precious little, but our waitress’s detailed explanation of each dish makes it hard to decide. We end up getting six or seven things to share and each is more divine than the one before. We accompany it with wine by the glass, mostly served from big, ungainly (but fun) magnums or jeroboams. The wine’s good too, and not pricey. 

Karen and I are big walkers but Melody and Gregg, not as much (yet). The walk back to our hotel is listed at 55 minutes, which we think sounds great. Eventually we all set out, and we take a route recommended by our waitress. First thing encountered is salsa music and dancing in the park. Free and well attended. Lots of dancers who know their way around a salsa. Walking on, we see lots of bikers and walkers and some cars. We periodically see lines of humans which signals gelato or soft serve. We join one of the lines and are glad we did. 

The girls have an app that identifies plants and use it regularly. Our 55 minute walk turns into a 75 minute walk and it’s pitch black by the time we reach our hotel. The last quarter mile is the park across the street from our hotel (La Fontaine Park) which I thought might be a tad scary after dark. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It is full of people walking, running, biking, sitting, listening to music. It is fully alive but quite dark. 

Finally to bed after a very full day. Tomorrow: More battles with the toaster, I imagine.

Photos

This is the toaster at our hotel. I counted 33 buttons on the front. I tried to puzzle out how to get the bread to go down (to start toasting) but never could figure it out. I finally had to ask the hotel manager. (Spoiler alert, there are levers on either side).
While awaiting our Uber to the Botanical Garden we were amused by this train of youngsters being herded somewhere. It’s kind of like a leash. “Everyone hold on!”. Trying to avert disaster.
The olympic stadium is across from the botanical garden. We didn’t go over there but it’s very recognizable. From the maps app I gather that the tower is closed. (Maybe you used to be able to go up there and see the view?)
Our first stop at the Botanical Gardens was the green house, or rather green houses. Ten of them. All in a row. Each with a different theme. We were there for such a long time, but the displays and plants were just truly fascinating.
I loved the symmetry of the cacti.
Such variety of color and design for the flowers (and butterfly).
Melody turned Karen on to an app that helps identify plants and phone batteries were pretty dead by the end of our visit.
Outside of the greenhouses the flowers and plants continued. We were told this is one of the top 10 botanical gardens in the world. (I bet you say that to all the botanical gardens.) We were highly impressed.
After seeing so much color and pretty and bizarre plants I’m not sure were were ready for the two ladies in cosplay attire coming into the botanical garden. I believe they were here for a photo session.
An Uber whisks us over to the Marché Jean-Talon. It’s an indoor/outdoor market, but all covered. Fruits, veggies, meats, fish, baked goods, packaged goods, snack bars, food stalls, on and on. We imagine what life would be like if we lived near here (during the good weather times of the year only).
If it grows, it’s available here for sale, and it looks perfect. You don’t get to choose when things are ripe so they have too many of some things. You can buy a huge crate of perfectly ripe tomatoes for $10 or $15 dollars. You take them home, stew them and can them for the winter. A 30 pound basket of perfect blueberries will only set you back $60 which is very cheap. Again… home and can for the colder months.
From the market we navigated ourselves on a walking tour of Montreal’s Little Italy. It’s very authentic. We took a break and stopped in for an espresso, a piccolo, and a biscotti. Yum.
Walking by bars we could hear Italian arguments going on, loudly. It seemed very authentic.
For Texans the 78 degree weather was warm but lovely. To this squirrel, with his fur coat, it was too warm. Splooting [look it up] on the wooden steps helped to cool him down.
We have reservations at Mon Lapin (my rabbit) which is no small feat. Karen called exactly 30 days out and could only get us a table for dinner at 5:15. We’ll take it. This is the number one restaurant in Montreal.
After all the hassle to get the reservation (including having to put up $200 to ensure we won’t be no-shows) the prior week’s menu scares us. We don’t see anything we think we’d even like. In the end pretty much every one of the shared dishes was spectacular. We can see why they’re number one. We were lucky to have eaten there.
The inside looked cute but we opted for a table in the nice outside weather.
The wine, too, was good and surprisingly reasonable. We did it by the glass and they prefer to pour from big bottles like magnums or jeroboams. What fun!
The walk back to our hotel is listed at 55 minutes, but with the weather being so nice we opt to walk. We take the route recommended by our waitress and soon we’re listening to free, live Salsa in the park music and watching a lot of Salsa being danced.
Our long walk home led us past some pretty buildings.
We also encountered many businesses with long lines of people. We soon learn these are all ice cream stores and we do get in line at one of them. What a delightful habit.