Montreal Trip - Day 2 (14 July)

Kinh and I actually woke up early to go work out! Everyone else thought we were crazy. The weather was beautiful so we decided to rent bikes and explore the area. We walked down to Old Montreal or Vieux-Montréal from our hotel Four Points Sheraton on Rue Sherbrooke.

For lunch, we stopped at Café Republique on Rue Sainte-Catherine and Rue St Urbain on our way down to the Old Port in Old Montreal. We didn't leave the hotel until around 11am or so, so the cafe had stopped serving breakfast by the time we ordered. I ordered a Camembert cheese, grapes, and sliced apples sandwich with honey and a salad on the side. The sandwich was good but nothing to write home about.

We walked around Old Montreal a little bit and went to the bike rental shop, Ca Roule Montreal (or Montreal on Wheels), on Rue de la Commune E. They set us up with some sweet bikes and helmets and we were off to see Montreal. Well, actually we took the Parc Jean-Drapeau bike path around Notre-Dame Island and St-Helene Island. When we got back from the bike ride, we all had a need, yes need, for some ice cream. We asked the guy at the bike shop and he recommended that we go to the little gelato place a couple stores east on Rue de la Commune. He was so nice!! :)

Gelato, gelato, and more gelato!!

Dominque and Keiko both chose maple chunks...

while Erica tried this strange sounding flavor.

Kinh had litchi and...

I chose blueberry. Yummy!! It was so nice to cool down with some gelato after a hot bike ride.

We went to freshen up at the hotel and headed out for drinks and dinner. We made reservations at Globe, another place listed on Dominique's friend's list for 10:30 pm. Before that, we took a couple of cabs around the east side of town on St-Laurent and St-Denise. We started walking north on St-Denis when we happened to pass by this great fondue place called Fonduementale.

We shared The Normande cheese fondue which was served with croutons and apple slices and was flambéed with Calvados (apple brandy from the French region of Lower Normandy) at our table. All of their cheese fondues are made with the traditional recipe of emmenthal and gruyère, white wine, and garlic.

Then we were off to Globe for our dinner. To tell you the truth, I was full by the time I left Fonduementale and I wasn't really excited about the "ritzy" and "pricey" restaurant. The dishes were definitely on the expensive side with appetizers at around CAD$18. Yikes!! I ordered a peach champagne drink and the lobster ravioli appetizer. The place was really dark and I couldn't even see my food when it came out. The music was also very, very loud. I guess that's what you get when you go to the a restaurant/bar. The food was good but not that good. We also shared two dessert dishes... a blueberry cake with lemon sorbet and a brownie sundae. Again, both were delicious but I wouldn't know if I'd pay CAD$12 a dish the next time. The place is definitely about the atmosphere and being seen. We had a good time but all of us were about to fall asleep towards the end.