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Old 12 Aug 18, 08:22 PM  
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EJSakaAnna
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Toddler Trials sponsored by Timmies - Canada 2018 Day 8 Road trip to Montreal. Parlez-vous Francais?

Toddler Trials sponsored by Timmies - Canada 2018
Day 8 Road trip to Montreal. Parlez-vous Francais?


I’m Emily, my husband is Gary and this was our first overseas holiday with our 17 month Libby. We visited family near Toronto and spent a few days in Montreal too.

We set off about 7.40, which was a bit later than I’d hoped but oh well.
It was a bit chilly this morning at 12 degrees.



Libby was not a fan of family car selfies!

We went to the local gas station to fill up and get a Timmies for breakfast. I had a french vanilla and chocolate muffin, obv. We hit traffic almost immediately. It was slow but not stop start like our traffic jams at home, so we kept moving and it wasn’t too frustrating.




We drove round Toronto and joined Highway 401, the Highway of Heroes. I was intrigued and googled this. Its named so because fallen Canadian soldiers are repatriated into Trenton Forces base then driven this road to the coroner in Toronto.

It was quite a dull drive . We drove through Durham County and saw signs for Darlington and Newcastle, then Northumberland County. My mum is from County Durham so this made me smile.




We stopped quickly at an Onroute service station at Port Hope. We only needed to use the bathroom/changing facilities though, I’d already pre-planned our main stop. A couple of bus loads of school trip kids arrived as we came out of the bathroom so we made a quick exit.

We were headed to Gananoque Inn and Spa for lunch.

Not quite the WDW arch


Gananoque is known as the gateway to 1000 Islands and is quite popular with tourists I think. It was still technically off season though so it wasn’t that busy.

We got a lovely table looking out to the water. I had fish and chips, Gary had the lobster roll. This was yummy but huge portions!



Libby was fussing and flinging stuff around while charming various groups of locals . I think her teeth were bothering her and she was tired too.

We stood out like sore thumbs as tourists, it was full of locals! Most people had fleeces and scarves on made it even more obvious, we were still in summer clothes and despite the chilly start we thought it had warmed up and were quite comfortable now .

We paid the bill, $58. We had a look outside but decided to just get back in the car and get going, to see if Libby would fall asleep.



We drove through the Main Street back to the highway. There were lots of quaint wee shops I would have loved to explore but Libby just wasn’t in the mood and we still had a while to go.

Libby was fussing quite badly so after 10 minutes or so back on the highway we pulled off again to give her some Nurofen . Conveniently, there was a Timmies drive through so we got ourselves some coffee and set off (again).

After a few minutes back on the highway the nurofen kicked in and she fell asleep, thank god .

Gary reckons this was the most boring drive ever, just miles and miles of straight highway.

We crossed into Quebec at 3.20 and everything went French! We liked that there was a minimum speed limit, we should have those here for Sunday drivers.

We hit traffic going into Montreal at 4pm. There was lots of roadworks too, the road was a bit manic!

Heading in to the city


We found our apartment easily enough but were confused about parking and the French signs. Our Air bnb hostess had given me some instructions but we still weren’t sure . We parked up to unload and I messaged her to confirm that where we had parked was ok. It wasn’t but luckily a space further up the street had become available and she said we could park there so we moved it along (literally 100m). Basically, ¾ of the street (or rue, since we’re in Montreal) was for permit holders only, then the other 1/4 was free for anyone.

In addition to the permit/non permit thing, each side of the street had a different day and time of the week when all cars had to be moved for garbage collection. So we parked up but realised we’d have to move the car the next day between 1.30-2.30. I only knew this because of my standard grade French, Gary thought I was wrong because it sounded to random but every street had a time slot! This sounds a pain but it was actually quite convenient for us anyway. Would be annoying if you lived there though I think!

Anyway, back to our Air bnb. It was on Rue Rivard.

Its just on the right in this photo




It was fab! Lovely and clean and the perfect space for the 3 of us. The owner had left us a travel cot, high chair and even some toys for Libby which was great. I was really glad we'd decided to go for it and booked . We've never stayed in an Air bnb before but would definitely recommend it.

We went a walk to get some dinner at Ma Poulle Mouillee. Ma Poulle Mouillee is often badged as having the best Portuguese chicken in Montreal and was on our must try list . We love a Nandos so thought we would like this.

We decided just to take away and walk back, it was only about 5 minutes away from the apartment and we wanted to chill out and be able to let Libby move around.

Now, I’m just putting it in here before we go any further. We were both absolutely amazed at how French Montreal is. We knew they spoke French and expected street signs etc to be French, but we thought they would also be in English and that everyone could speak English well too. We came across quite a few people who attempted English but it was very poor. This was my own naivety and it didn’t affect us in anyway, but we were amazed at how French the city is . It’s a beautiful place. It almost didn’t feel like you were in Canada, but not quite France. We loved it and the Frenchness didn’t bother us or anything, I just thought I’d point out how in awe we were!

Anyway, back to chicken! The guy who served me realised quickly I wasn’t a local (probably the confused look on my face) and switched to English thankfully. It was busy but we didn’t have to wait long. The pastries etc looked amazing too but I resisted and ordered us some chicken and poutine.



This lot cost $32.01.

It was soooo good . So much food though .

We popped in to a local supermarket for essentials and spent $50 on juice, crisps, beer etc, woops! We headed back to the apartment to eat.

Libby ate mostly chips but we put that down to her being a bit off today. Everything was soooo good. Yummy .

Libby went to bed no problem just before 8. The bedroom was in the middle of the apartment and it was so dark and cool which definitely helped! The bed was super comfy too.

Gary and I sat up with some drinks watching the teeny TV before bed, excited to explore this beautiful city over the next few days .

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Old 12 Aug 18, 09:13 PM  
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disney owl
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a long travel day
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Old 16 Aug 18, 02:43 PM  
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Oh the apartment is gorgeous, I love the blackboard wall in the kitchen and the little balcony!

That food looked delicious, and so reasonably priced too!
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Old 17 Aug 18, 07:11 PM  
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EJSakaAnna
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Originally Posted by disney owl View Post
a long travel day
Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop View Post
Oh the apartment is gorgeous, I love the blackboard wall in the kitchen and the little balcony!

That food looked delicious, and so reasonably priced too!
Thanks for commenting Nice to know someones reading! xx
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Old 24 Aug 18, 01:25 PM  
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Just caught up with your report! That Air bnb looks so lovely! And I LOVE Libby's expressive face - she makes some cracking expressions!
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Old 26 Aug 18, 09:46 AM  
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Long drive but lunch stopover looked nice and that’s a great apartment. Dinner looks yum and good work on the road signs, what a pain moving the car for the bin men though...
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Old 26 Aug 18, 01:15 PM  
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At last, I am caught up (been away )!

As you know I love Quebec! Compared to the rest of it, Montreal isn’t bad on the English! It is certainly a city that has grown on me on my 4 visits!

The moving cars for cleaning seems quite common! As you said, it must be a pain if you live there!
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Old 26 Aug 18, 08:07 PM  
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EJSakaAnna
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Originally Posted by DisneyDreamer81 View Post
Just caught up with your report! That Air bnb looks so lovely! And I LOVE Libby's expressive face - she makes some cracking expressions!
Thank you! She keeps us all amused haha.

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
Long drive but lunch stopover looked nice and that’s a great apartment. Dinner looks yum and good work on the road signs, what a pain moving the car for the bin men though...
I know, so weird! Thanks for reading .

Originally Posted by Melbatb View Post
At last, I am caught up (been away )!

As you know I love Quebec! Compared to the rest of it, Montreal isn’t bad on the English! It is certainly a city that has grown on me on my 4 visits!

The moving cars for cleaning seems quite common! As you said, it must be a pain if you live there!
Ahh really?! I'd love to explore the rest of Quebec, it's a gorgeous place. I'll practice my French more before we go next time x
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Old 30 Aug 18, 09:21 PM  
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What a gorgeous apartment that is! The journey sounded pretty boring for you but obviously worth it.

I’ve read that Montreal can be a bit, er, French - hard to believe in the middle of Canada isn’t it.

Libby looked so cosy in her seat with her blanket xx
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