Montreal is, in essence, one of the closest large metropolitan areas to the Maritime Provinces... the travel time is an hour and a bit and flights are frequent. The city contrasts every day life at home in so many ways, be it language, culture, or simply access to such a wide variety of urban things to do.

Culture: Janie and I always love to visit churches and enjoy the setting, architecture and sense of community we find in each. Montreal has a wealth of these, and we enjoyed each we visited. It's a close second to heading for the graveyard to research a community. With Janie's background in French (and my rudimentary understanding) we navigate the language quite well. We also found that people we met were more than willing / capable to move from French to English when in conversation. Both languages were prolific.

Planning: This trip was totally pulled out of the spontaneous box!!! Yet, we had a pretty good idea of places we'd visit, as well as routes around the city prior to departure. We used expedia to iron out the initial travel/accomm, then used mass transit for everything in between. It was a decent time of year to visit, with lots of room in attractions and the absence of lines and summer heat.

What's it speakin' for? As for weather, it was pretty darn good considering we were nearing December in Quebec. The overnight flurries on Friday seemed to cast a fresh coat of paint for our morning trip to St Joseph's. It really never got too cold, and the Montreal area we stayed in downtown is so well laid out with underground access that one can choose whether they might want to get from point "A" to "B" indoors or outside.

Food: I think this could be referred to as the smoked meat trip! I love it and was craving a sandwich as I boarded the plane. It was also fun to sit with friends from home, sample the odd (and even) beer, and crash several of the local eateries.

Transportation: Porter was excellent, the 747 bus was a great deal, and the Metro couldn't have been easier. Porter looked after us and was on time. We got in and out from the airport economically and without wait. Montreal's subway is clean and well signed. I don't know what else to say other than "Voilà"!