Judy and Dan - Montreal In The Fall

Montreal In The Fall

I've always wanted to visit Montreal, somehow the idea that north of New York are all these French speakers has always amazed me, I had to go see if it was really true. Spoiler alert, it is!

At four million inhabitants, it's the second largest city in Canada after Toronto. It's also the only city in Canada to have hosted the summer olympics in 1976.

The American's occupied it for a while, Ben Franklin lived in the Governors residence. But ultimately he was sent packing by the Brits and so Canada stayed British for around another 150 years, until gaining legislative independence in 1931.

Transportation in Montreal is excellent, a solid bus network, Metro/Subway spanning several lines and now a new "suburban metro", the REM which features high speed, driver less trains that will in the next couple of years link the airport through the city across the mighty St Lawrence River out to Brossard in the other direction, think Elizabeth Line in London, or RER in Paris. We have nothing like this in New York!

Of course getting around was easy, positively European in fact, I was able to visit Old Montreal including the stunning Notre Dame cathedral and Governors mansion, several other districts including North America's largest underground city (It gets really cold here in the winter) and the lovely Botanical Gardens and some quirky areas as well, it has the largest Gay district in North America, so take that San Francisco!

All in all a fun trip, which hopefully I may get to do again some time.

Botanical Gardens