Eat and Be Merry in Montreal

BLOGGING FAIL! Don't you hate when you log into your account to realize that a post was left in Drafts and never published? Yea, me too. So accompany me on a blast from summer past... 


You don't know what you have until it's gone. I had 10 days in Montreal see, do, and eat the things I love. In Montreal a lot of what you do is centered around food and eating with friends and family. This city personifies "Eat and be merry."

1. Watching my 80+ year old grandfathers wrestle in the kitchen. They aren't allowed to sit beside each other at family functions. 

4. Taking a solo nostalgic walk from my alma mater to Vieux Montreal where I met my parents for a stroll at dusk.

5. Chocolate decadence at Juliette et Chocolat. 

5. My grandfather's pride and joy (aside from us of course) is his garden. He guards his garden like a sentry or an angel posted at the gates of the Garden of Eden-just him, his bible, and the bell he rings at birds and squirrels. No one so much as looks at his garden without an interrogation fueled by conspiracy theories that the neighbors are trying to steal his secrets.

6. Crossing the Mercier Bridge with my best friend. It went a little like this:

Me: Why are you rolling down the windows?
Melissa: In case we plunge through this patch-work that they call a bridge. We can bale out and swim...Then again, the fall will probably kill us.
Me: Thank you Miss Optimism.
Melissa: Start praying. Out loud. Maybe we will have a chance
30 seconds later...
Melissa: I don't hear you praying! Are you praying?!
Me: Why is the pavement concaved?! I can't look!

7. Reunion of my friendship trifecta. Just Melissa, Jess, and I sitting on the back porch and talking about everything and anything : the first year of marriage (them), the highs and lows of single life (me), teaching (us), and everything else that we could think off. In Melissa's words "The sign of true friendship is the ability to be apart for a long time and pick up right where you left off as if nothing has changed." I love these girls.

8. If you haven't had a chocolatine aux amandes, you have not lived. I couldn't prohibit myself from this one indulgence so a stop at my favourite cafe, Olive et Gourmando, was unavoidable. Buttery, flakey, crunchy goodness on the outside; warm, chocolate and nutty soft goodness on the inside.