July 20,2022

After a great sleep, we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast on the terrace of Maison Boulud – one of the hotel’s two restaurants. As we walked through the main restaurant out to the garden terrace we were greeted by the sight of seven Pekin ducks swimming in a small pond. Such a happy surprise!


Timmy enjoyed his omelet and some of my french toast…which was really yummy -especially the caramel butter…which I never knew existed, but now that I do…I’m forever ruined. The coffee was strong, free flowing and served by two delightful young men – Adil and Theo.

I cannot tell you how much we loved this setting
Rhubarb compote, maple syrup and caramel butter accompanied the french toast
That’s Theo

We really could have stayed on that terrace all day, but we were meeting our guide at 11:00 am. As we walked out of the hotel to wait for Rene’, I took Timmy’s photo … just then a young man walked by and said “Here, let me get you both in a picture“. He snapped one pic, handed me back my phone and walked away…we barely had a chance to yell thank you. Such a nice gesture and a happy precursor to a wonderful day.

My guy

Although this is our second visit to Montreal we decided to engage a guide to acquire a better sense of the city. So glad that we did. Rene’ is passionate about his city and generous with his knowledge. Here are some highlights of our day.


You may remember a pic from last night of the clocktower and ferris wheel all lit up. Here they are from a different vantage point across the river.

Here’s the Olympic stadium

According to Rene’ the top only opened once on the Olympic stadium. We spent some time on the grounds of Expo 67, visited various Olympic venues and the site of Formula One racing. All beautifully maintained and enjoyed by local folks. We saw many families kayaking, biking and swimming.


You know we love canals…so this stop was a must. There are extensive biking paths along the canal. I loved this adorable floating cafe.


We parked Timmy … first on a wall …then on a bench …and Rene’ and I walked up Mount Royal from the parking lot. A quick, but steep trek.
View from the top of Mount Royal.

Back in 2009, Timmy and I climbed Mount Royal…from the base in downtown to the top…it is approximately 2.5 miles and as I remember, took us almost an hour. The climb up was thronged with other intrepid walkers and the plaza at the top was super crowded. What a difference thirteen years and a pandemic makes. I couldn’t believe the lack of folks at the top.

Almost empty plaza at the top of the mountain.

Rene confirms that tourism is slowly coming back to Montreal. One new (to us) feature in the streets of Montreal are the ubiquitous orange cones. According to Rene’ there are two seasons in Montreal ”winter season and construction season”. By the end of the day -we came to believe him.
Two more pics: Metal sculptures bookending a building …please note the ”snooty” affectation on each …and also that each person is holding a dog. The man and woman are facing away from each other …but the pups are looking longingly towards each other.

If you look to the far end of the building you can just barely see the male statue with his dog.

Back at the hotel we headed up to the rooftop to scope out the pool and terrace. The lovely attendant, Sarah gave us a brief rundown, noting the pool hours of operation, location of saunas and steam rooms, and most importantly how to order food and beverages.

Such a great idea…indoor pool in winter …large sliders open to the terrace on a beautiful day like this

We are looking forward to enjoying this view over the next week. Thanks for following along, we are going to rest a bit before we head down to dinner.