I arrived in Montreal on Wednesday (August 21) just before noon. I must first say up front I am very thankful especially to my brother Tony who made many great recommendations. He and his wife Ann visited this city a few years ago, and with the help of some of their friends, were guided to take in some of the best this incredible city has to offer. They then passed on their recommendations to me. Also, upon heading to Montreal, several of my own friends gave me a few more tips. Part of why I write so much detail about my travel experiences is to do what they did for me – pass on the best of my experiences so that others can have a leg up before they go; and that others who may not have the chance to go there right now can learn a little bit about these places vicariously and perhaps find a place to dream about going and strive to make it there one day if they are so inspired.
Montreal has long been a dream of mine; and the French-Canadian province of Quebec more generally. What finally brought me here was actually a work opportunity. As a member of the National Review Institute team, I have had the opportunity to take part in a few of the National Review cruise experiences. This year, the NR cruise departed from Montreal on Saturday, August 24. One of our port stops is also in Quebec City, another French-Canadian city I have wanted to go to as well. Given my work responsibilities, I looked at the calendar and decided I would arrive in Montreal two days ahead of when the “work” begins (with our pre-cruise reception on the Friday evening). So, I arrived here on Wednesday, August 21. I am also fortunate that the Orlando airport has so many direct flights to so many places, including Montreal. My flight on Air Canada departed Orlando at 8:40am and arrived in Montreal at 11:30am.
My first two days here, I was staying at a separate hotel from the one I would eventually move over to for the National Review pre-cruise activities on Friday; but this one I found on my own by searching online and booked via hotels.com. I arrived to the Hotel Le Dauphin Montreal Centre-Ville. You can read my full review on TripAdvisor here. The staff checked me upon my arrival right around noon, with my room ready. This place was very conveniently located.
I dropped my bags and walked about 10 minutes down Rue de Bleury which eventually turns into Rue Saint-Pierre. I arrived to Olive and Gourmando, a café-style restaurant that my brother recommended for either breakfast or lunch. The place was hopping at peak lunch hour on Wednesday, but I only waited 10 minutes or so for a seat. I had the “Mr. Miami” sandwich, with a side of potato salad, and some elixir green tea. All fresh and delicious. This is a very casual place and I was dressed quite casually as my next stop was a 10-minute walk from here, to Ca Roule Montreal (“Montreal on Wheels”) for a three-hour guided bike tour of the city.
The tour was also recommended by my brother and his wife. It was a quick check-in for that 2pm tour (which I booked a few days prior to arriving). There were 6 other people in my tour group: a young couple from New York City; a young man from Taiwan who has been traveling the world for 16 months and plans to do so for three more years; another young couple from France; and a middle-aged woman from Jamaica. Our tour guide was Michael, a middle-aged man who was born and raised in Montreal, a son of French and British descendants. He was able to speak to us in both English and French. And he thoroughly explained to us the history of the city of Montreal and the province of Quebec, as well as riding us through many diverse neighborhoods.
During the bike ride, one of our stops was to St. Viateur Cafe, a famous spot for bagels. They were warm and fresh and the most delicious bagels I ever tasted. While inside the place, you can also see how they make them.
8 million people live in the province of Quebec and about half of those, 4.2 million, live in Montreal. This is, of course, the French-speaking region of Canada, with French being the first language for most people here. If you’re not in an overly touristy area of Montreal, often you’ll simply hear locals talking in French, similar to how people in Miami tend to talk first in Spanish.
Montreal is on the St. Lawrence River, and that is near where we began our bike tour. Michael explained to us that the river goes further south of Montreal, but that you can’t really take any large boats that way because it becomes rapids. This is why the French founded the city here, it was the last place before those rough waters.
The French explorer Jacques Cartier discovered this area in 1535 and came upon the Iroquois people. But by the time that Samuel de Champlain came back here seventy years later, those Iroquois people and their settlements had disappeared. What’s here today and in the view of where we were along the St. Lawrence river is the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
This Canadian territory was ruled as a French colony until 1760, when it was surrendered to Great Britain after the Seven Years War (what we in the United States refer to as the French and Indian War). Remember, this is when the American colonies were also ruled by the British. Eighty percent of the buildings built since that time have been built by British influence. But, Michael explained to us that in recent decades, new and restored structures are built with French influence as a throwback to that time. “We miss France,” he said, is a common sentiment among the people of this region.
Well the French must miss the Quebec territory as well. Over the past ten years, more than one million people have emigrated from France to Montreal, with half of them moving to the “Plateau” area, which is not only higher ground in the middle of the city, but Michael told us that where the French immigrants have moved, the rents, bakeries, and restaurants have all gone up. During the course of my trip, I met quite a number of locals who moved here from France. One common theme: they like the people and the vibe here better than France.
During our bike ride I also learned that many parts of Montreal are also very bike-friendly. In some places, there are dedicated bike lanes. In other places, on many side streets, bikes move along with the flow of traffic, sometimes sharing the same lanes as cars. We biked as far as the base of Mount Royal, and we were encouraged to go there at some point during our visit to Montreal. There is a cross on the top of the mountain that is visible from below. Michael told us that the original cross that was put there in 1643 was done to give thanks to God for no floods that year. Old Montreal used to flood every year up to that point. And, after 1643, it flooded every year since. In 1880, they finally moved the downtown to where it is now, in higher ground. However, Old Montreal no longer floods (at least not regularly) since more modern technological achievements and preventative measures have been taken.
We also biked up to McGill University, which is the number one college in all of Canada. Michael told us that if McGill was in the United States it would be considered an Ivy League, mostly because of the networks that are developed by attending there. Several Canadian prime ministers, Nobel Prize winners, and star athletes have attended McGill. The school is named after James McGill from Glasgow. In the early 1800s he donated the land where the school was built. The next day, while I was walking by McGill, I would find recruiters from Harvard with Harvard University t-shirts on that said “America’s McGill.” I took a photo with one of them.
After our bike tour, we were provided with a voucher for a complimentary beer at a restaurant on the same street as the bike shop. However, the only beer offered was a Budweiser. I was so thirsty I drank it (after all, it’s as close to water as a beer gets). I then walked down St. Paul street and found an ice cream shop for a hand-dipped cone dipped in chocolate. The guy serving me asked what size cone I wanted: small or medium/large. I was about to answer “medium/large” but then he added, “or the waffle cone?” Without hesitation, like I was in some kind of trance, I just said, “waffle cone.” Then, a few minutes later he handed me this gigantic waffle cone dipped in chocolate. I was thinking: there’s no way I’m going to finish this. I didn’t even think I’d get to the cone. But then I devoured it.
I meandered through a few shops as I made my way down the street and walked about 20 minutes back to my hotel, where I showered and got ready for dinner with one of our NRI supporters from Houston who I have gotten to know well over the past year. I walked about 20 minutes to meet him at the Restaurant Da Emma, an Italian restaurant situated in the cellar/basement of a neat old building. And the walk (both ways) was much needed after the afternoon ice cream stop and the amazing lasagna I had at Da Emma.
The next morning, I awoke somewhat early and took in the complimentary breakfast at the Hotel Le Dauphin. Then I had an Uber pick me up and take me to St. Joseph’s Oratory. I had not even ever heard of this place, to my knowledge, before the day I arrived in Montreal. I had posted on Facebook that I was headed to Montreal for a few days and two friends, from separate parts of the United States (one in Houston, the other in Oregon) commented that I needed to visit the Oratory. Everyone talks about the Basilica of Notre Dame in Old Montreal, so I expected to hear more about that. But thanks to Heather Cole and Nick Prelosky this place suddenly was a “must see” on my itinerary.
I looked up and saw they had a few daily masses there, some in French and one in English, all in the crypt chapel below the main part of the Oratory. I arrived a few minutes past 9:00am and didn’t think I’d be there long enough for the 12:15 mass. By that time, I hoped to be having lunch somewhere. So, I opted for the 10:00am mass, which was in French.
As I started to walk around and discover this magnificent place, I couldn’t help but be amazed in every way. I stepped outside to the “front” part of the Oratory, which faces the opposite direction of the main part of the city. St. Joseph’s Oratory is not at the highest point of Mount Royal, but it is on a part of Mount Royal so it is situated in a place that overlooks many parts of Montreal. I asked a passerby, who looked like he just jogged up to the Oratory and had paused to take in the view, to take a photo of me in front of the Oratory. When he handed my iPhone back to me, I was stunned that I was able to not only get a photo with no one but me and the Oratory, but also that the sun behind it was just stunning with a special light. I had not yet known the specialness of this place, where nearly two million pilgrims come from around the world each year to visit.
This Oratory was founded in 1904 by a diminutive man, Brother Andre Bessette. Born in 1845, the 9th of 11 children, Andre Bessette was fatherless by the age of 10 and motherless by the age of 12. He worked his family’s farm and the rest of his life was marked by compassion.
I ended up spending four hours here. Once inside, I visited the main church, which is so grand. It had a lot of wall sculptures of the stations of the cross and there was some kind of little mass or service going on in a side part of it. I then perused some more of the Oratory and went down to the crypt chapel for the 10am mass. When that was completed, I went through the humongous votive chapel, devoted to St. Joseph. I stopped to light some candles and leave some special intentions. I visited the tomb of Brother Andre, as well as a small museum dedicated to him, where his heart is on display. I stopped at the café for some coffee and picked up a few items in the gift shop, returning to purchase a biography of Saint Brother Andre, the first saint from the Order of the Holy Cross to be canonized (in 2010) by the Catholic Church.
I then wandered outside and prayed the Stations of the Cross at each of the stops in their wonderful, lush gardens that had amazing larger-than-life statues depicting each of the 14 Stations that memorialize Christ’s Way of the Cross. They were so life-like.
After coming back through the main building of the Oratory one more time, I then went back out the other side and visited the small apartment and chapel, where Brother Andre spent so much time in prayer and devotion to his friend, St. Joseph. I learned that pilgrims had started coming here to visit Brother Andre long before these large structures were built. He had helped heal them of all sorts of afflictions, both physical and those of the soul. I have since finished that biography of Saint Brother Andre and have been truly moved by this man’s humility and devotion to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and how he has brought so many people to Christ through this devotion and example.
Given I started my day here at 9am, I thought my itinerary in Montreal would have had a few more check boxes next to it by the time I departed the Oratory at 1pm. But I needed this place. It provided a great time to reflect, to pray, and to grow deeper in my faith. It was like my own little half-day personal retreat. As Saint Brother Andre said of the place, “I have rarely come across anyone who has come to the Oratory and who has left without feeling better off, more comforted, or without having received some sort of favor.” He also said that “The door to heaven is the heart of Jesus. The key to this door is prayer and love.” I believe after my visit to the Oratory, I opened that door just a little bit more.
But now I was hungry… and so I called an Uber. My Uber driver from earlier in the day had recommended that I try a sandwich place called Schwartz’s Deli. Apparently, this is a really famous place because when I got there, at about 1:30pm… there were about 80 people lined up outside the door. No kidding.
I asked my Uber driver if he could recommend another place. While he was trying to think of one, I told him I don’t have have time to wait in this long line, but then asked him: how long do you think it would take to get through that line? He said no more than 30 minutes. I was surprised. If it was only 30 minutes, I would go ahead and wait. As it turned it out, it was just about 30 minutes and while I waited, I opened up my new book on Brother Andre and began reading it. It was a perfect way to transition from visiting the Oratory to eating lunch.
Once I got to the front door, they seated me (a party of one) at the counter, which was I think the best place to sit! I got to interact with the people next to me and also with the employees behind the counter. I had the smoked meat sandwich, with some amazing coleslaw. Oh man, this was one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. It had certainly lived up to (and surpassed) the hype and also was completely worth every minute of the wait. It was also served amazingly fast, which is probably why that long line goes fast. They get people in and out – just be sure if you visit, to bring cash! I had to use the ATM in the back to get cash to pay my bill.
After lunch, I went next door to a bakery and picked up some very amazing chocolate chip cookies (they had all kinds of cookies, freshly baked). They were amazing. From there, I walked up to the top of Mount Royal. It was probably a 30-40 minute walk from Schwartz’s Deli to the very top of Mount Royal. They have all sorts of steps that make the hike up the mountain very easy. Once up there, you have the most amazing view of Montreal. Breathtaking! This is a must do in Montreal. You just get to see every part of the city.
After this visit, I hiked back down to my hotel, freshened up, and then met up with two couples from Alaska who are part of our National Review cruise and who are supporters of National Review Institute. We had a great time at the Barroco restaurant in the Old City of Montreal (it’s on the opposite corner from Olive & Gourmando). I told them about my day and they ended up visiting Mount Royal and the St. Joseph’s Oratory the next day and reported back to me that they also found it incredibly moving.
After dinner, I walked down to the Basilica of Notre Dame to take in a light show at 8:00 PM. It was amazing. It only lasts about 30-40 minutes (and really the core of it is about 20 minutes) but it was very neat. All the little chapels on the side were lit up and you got to walk around and observe that. Then, you sat for the main 20-minute light show, and it was well done. However, it was more because of the beauty of the place and the light show that went along with it. It wasn’t really a religious experience. I thought to myself: there are probably more people here for this light show than for mass. Perhaps it’s a way for them to bring people into the church for a quiet experience (as opposed to the crowds that come in all day as tourists).
I walked around Montreal that evening, seeing some live music performers here and there. I thought I was going to just call it a night after the light show, as I had already had quite the day. But I kept walking around the city, even going a little past my hotel and saw some sights and sounds in one neighborhood, where there was an outdoor fashion show going on and a few hundred people watching. I found it a little bit weird. So, I moved on. I also saw an outdoor electronic music thing going on a few blocks from that, also with a few hundred people. It wasn’t really my thing.
By this time, I got in the mood for a cigar. And, I researched online and found there was one about a 7-minute drive from my hotel. So, I took an Uber to Stogies Cigar Lounge, where I was able to purchase a Cuban cigar. It was pretty quiet there that night, but a nice place to chill out and get in a nice smoke. I moved to a table outside, that overlooked the street below, where I could observe many college and young professional people going in and out of some bars and clubs on that street. There was also a giant mural on that street of Leonard Cohen. He was a famous Canadian singer, songwriter, and poet. Coincidentally enough, I had just heard an entire story about him on a Malcom Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History. He is the one who wrote the hit song, Hallelujah, which actually took years to become a well-known song (Malcolm Gladwell tells that story well on the podcast). Today, it is a classic. What a way to cap off my two full days in Montreal, smoking a cigar on a bustling Montreal street while taking in the view of one of Canada’s greatest artistic legends.
I spent the next day, Friday, back at work in Montreal. I moved over to our NR cruise hotel, Le Westin Montreal, and welcomed NR cruisers to our NRI reception with NRI fellow Andrew McCarthy. On Saturday morning, before we hopped on the NR cruise, I once again walked down to Olive and Gourmando, this time for breakfast. It was a beautiful 62 degrees out in August, as I sat next to an open window and enjoyed fresh fruit, granola, yogurt, and a croissant. I ended my time in Montreal at the same place where I started it. When I first came here, I was ready to discover it; but by the time I left it just three days later, I felt I had gotten a real feel for the essence of this very European-style city in North America. Montreal has been such a pleasant experience on every level.