Another beautiful blue sky sunny day around 10 degrees on Saturday. We believe it is warmer here than in Vancouver. Took a while to get mobile, but we did make it out of the hotel before 12 noon. We decide to walk to Atwater Market located 3.2 kms southwest of our location. Not many people walking on a Saturday early afternoon. Easy to find this popular market that has been highly recommended. Kinda like Granville Island market, but not as big and it is located entirely in the building here and on the ground floor. Heavy focus on meats and cheeses. Long and narrow space for the shops. Not as crowded either as our Granville Island Market.
Atwater Market
We located a boulangerie at the far end of the building for lunch. Premiere Moisson was very busy and you queue up of course for your selections. Again, no problem with english language. As you can see from our tray below; Cream of Mushroom soup (Soupe du Jour), Paté Campagne Poivre Noir (rustic pork paté with peppercorns), Salad of roasted beets/raspberry and hearts of palm. My sandwich was capicolla, tomatoes, cheese, cilantro, cucumbers on a chick pea bread. All of this only cost $16.63! Lots of food and all delicious. We comment that food seems to be less expensive here than in Vancouver. My bread tasted like Indian bread.
A shop with many different patés that are about 1/10th the price of Vancouver. So many shops with paté not only in the market, but many other places around Montréal. Lana says "pass the lipitor"!!!
Back outside for the long walk eastward to Old Montréal area. Probably about 3.2 kms, but lots of stops at shops that were interesting to Lana. Starbucks for a chai. Beautiful sunshine and a lack of wind made for perfect walking conditions. Eventually made it to Old Montréal and Lana's destination of the Canadian designer Denis Gagnon located on St. Paul Street West. Very unusual store from the point of view you enter at street level to a café and walk down the stairs to the basement and the small designer store. Lana comments afterwards that this isn't your normal shopping experience--the sales clerk was a young guy wearing a bustier and skirt. He was very friendly and told me he was 1/2 Armenian. Lana scored big here as she bought one top and a dress (both on sale!). Lana, ever on the lookout, sees a poster for a Scandinavian Spa at the shop and mentions we should check it out. The sales clerk then mentions that he has something for the spa and gives us two coupons for free access to the Spa. Definitely going to get there Sunday or Monday if Lana has her way.
Also, the sales clerk provided Lana three other clothing store recommendations that carried designer clothes she might be interested in and all located along St. Paul West. Reborn, Cahier d'Exercises and Ssense were the designer stores. I bring a newspaper and sudoku while waiting for Lana to browse and in some cases purchase. Lana found a chic white blouse at Reborn so even happier. :-)
Walking back, Lana notices this Montreal Metro station and comments that it is likely a duplicate of the Metropolitan Opera Station in Paris? Apparently a little known fact about Montréal is that there are many buildings/churches/landmarks that are replica's of famous buildings in France. I leave you to decide:
Paris Metro Station picture
Another interesting factoid--in the lobby area of our hotel, we found a picture and detail about John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'bed-in' of 1969 which they did while on their honeymoon in room 1742. Just down the hall from where we are staying. I thought they did it in Manhattan. Oh well, wrong again! I figure they might have a new bed in their now -- 44 years later......
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