On then, to Montreal, where we met up with "The Girls" (and their Boys) from when I used to work at the SPCA. Funny how after so long, and so many changes to our lives, we are still such a strong group.
After an awesome BBQ at Heather's (and a sighting of raccoons by Ty), we headed out the next day for what turned out to be a few days worth of fun in Montreal, just condensed into one day.
We walked down St Denis street, wandered through the Old Port and Old Montreal, then went to the Gay Village, where DiverCite was happening, and all the terrasses were full of everything from families to transvestites. We rounded out the evening with an outdoor techno concert, then headed back to Katrina's place, via a detour driving over Mont Royal with views of Montreal's lights on all sides.
The next day, we went to the Biodome at the Olympic Stadium, and checked out the wildlife, before heading off to Quebec City in the pouring rain.
It was about this time that Ty was starting to feel a bit ill, so we were quite happy to have a quiet evening in Quebec with Madeleine (who visited us in Korea last year) and Bruno (who spoke English all evening, while making us wicked awesome sushi rolls).
I'll let Ty write a bit about what he thought of Montreal - and the French part of Canada in general - then continue tomorrow with the rest of the trip up to La Pocatiere....
We’ve really managed to extend this Canada blog to far more than we usually would have written, so I’ll keep it brief, and mostly let the photos do the talking.
The drive to Montreal saw the landscape go through several changes, and yet again, I was struck by the beauty, and vastness of the country. One change that I noticed far more than others on this drive was the immediate and sudden one crossing over the border into Quebec province.
If you have not been to Canada, or have not known a Canadian, it is likely that you have heard that there is a French part of Canada or that French is spoken there, but not much beyond that. I had a little better idea, having heard Virginia speak of her time teaching and living in Montreal, and Le Pocatiere. Still I was not prepared for the abrupt and absolute change after crossing the border. 
The first thing you notice is that all signs are in French, place names are French, even the styles of housing suddenly changed away from what I’d become used to, to what I assume are more Francophone style houses. From Heather’s place, instead of going down to the liquor store as in Ontario to get a few beers, I ran down to the nearby dépanneur after first having to find out that this was the French for a corner cafe, and was served by an elderly woman who struggled to speak English. Out in the country everything seemed overwhelmingly French, while going through Montreal things were more bi-lingual, but still majority French.
I had not expected the line between French speaking Canada, and English speaking Canada to be so clear cut, especially after noting the sheer diversity of groups in Toronto. This split has strong political-historical basis, and from what I gathered, has plenty to do with laws in Quebec which aim to keep it’s French heritage as intact as possible. I started feeling like I’d left one country and entered another, and that feeling only grew as we headed to LaPocatiere and back to Quebec city.
Here’s some more pics from Montreal, a very arty place, full of street performers of all kinds, artists painting everywhere, plenty of eccentric people wearing anything from a wedding dresses to skimpy thongs (or both in one case). It’s an astounding place, packed with more old buildings than you can wave a stick at.
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