The French side of Canada!

It's been a while since our last post. We almost went through travel withdrawal! June was a quiet month but thankfully July served us up a business trip to Montreal. Dave and I flew out early in the am on Thursday, July 23rd. His plan was to visit the Canada plant for Arneg which is a privately held refrigeration equipment company based out of Italy. We're touring their plant in September. Check back for our Italy recap then.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon with three other H-E-Bers in tow as well. Our hosts picked us up from the airport. We then made our way to an IGA grocery store. This particular store is the first of it's kind in North America as it had low and medium temperature refrigerated cases; refrigerated by carbon dioxide. Most cases are a refrigerant that cycles through the case.

Here's our group and host at the IGA.



After the IGA we then toured a Metro Plus store. It's a store with the newest edition of Arneg cases as the store has only been open for three months.

We stayed at the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure while in Montreal. After store tours we checked in and freshened up for our dinner that evening. We dined at Rosalie Restaurant. It's this hip; French cuisine restaurant with a DJ spinning eclectic club music and the waitresses serve clad in short; tight fashionable dresses.

Here's Thursday night's DJ and our waitress for the evening!



And NO! That is NOT Super Dave with his hand around the waist of our cute waitress; that's one of our hosts Ray Jean.

On Friday we toured the Arneg plant then had lunch. After lunch we dropped the remaining H-E-Bers off at the airport as they had evening flights back to San Antonio then Dave and I and our Arneg hosts walked that evening through Old Montreal and had dinner in the city.

Shots from around Old Montreal.

1.) Place Jacques-Cartier


2.) Plaque showing the 100 years of the Canadiens. There were numerous grassy anniversary plaques all lined up to include the Red Cross, the Montreal Symphony and the logo of Montreal.


3.) Dave and I in front of City Hall Place Vauquelin Fountain


4.) Facade of one of the many beautiful churches throughout Vieux Montreal


5.) Our last night dinner with our hosts in Old Montreal


On Saturday Dave and I went to Quebec. I had heard so much about the European charm of the city and have always wanted to go so I convinced Dave to spend the day there. However; the day before we checked with our concierge about taking a train. At midnight that day; the union workers went on strike so there was no train service whatsoever! We had a car and it turned out to be a 3-4 hour drive out. For some reason we thought it was just a few hours away but it turned out to be a longer day than expected. When we left Montreal it was fairly warm and you knew the sun was going to be shining all afternoon; it was just slightly overcast as we left. When we got to Quebec it was downright windy and cold! It was a welcome relief to the sweltering temps here in San Antonio but it was just a tad too cold. We walked through the city and had a lovely lunch at Restaurant le Cavour. We rode the funicular down to the lower half of the city and walked around and walked through the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity; the first Anglican Cathedral built outside of the British Isles.

Here are some shots of our afternoon in Quebec:

1.) Not sure of the name of the building but I liked the look of the flags blowing with the Maple Leaf atop. I call it; "This way to the Funiculaire!"


2.) Statue of Samuel de Champlain


3.) A Government building


4.) Colorful roof tops


5.) The Altar of Holy Trinity Cathedral


6.) Creative art/statue in the streets of Quebec


7.) Picture of a bride entering the church


8.) Artisan alley way


9.) Looking at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac


10.) Street performers; they were singing an old Édith Piaf song


11.) A bear skin hanging from a window in a store


12.) La Fresque des Québecois mural on the side of a building


13.) Notre-Dame des Victoires


14.) Period piece street entertainer


Here is a little vid of the street performing couple


After an afternoon of wind gusts and cooler than cool temps we finally made our way back to Montreal. That evening Dave and I went to the Casino de Montréal.

This is the front of the casino with the topiaries out front:



After a few hours of gambling we had dinner at the casino and learned that L’International des Feux Loto-Québec, also known as the Montreal Fireworks Festival was happening that evening! Our server told us where the best location to be in the casino was located and at 10:00pm we positioned ourselves on a balcony overlooking the horizon to view the fireworks show. Here are a few shots (poor) but you get the gist.





Home for August and our next big trip is in September to Italy. Thanks for following along with us! Pin It Now!