Montreal: The best place I didn’t want to go

My friend Dawn Ford was watching a show called “Chuck’s Day Off” on the Cooking Channel a few months ago. It’s about a chef named Chuck Hughes who owns a restaurant that is only closed on Mondays. What does he do on his day off? He cooks!

He invites family and friends and people who help others like firefighters and such into his closed eatery and he whips them up something wonderful. It’s a cute show.

So Dawn says to her husband, Richard, “I’d like to go to that restaurant.”

“Where is it?” Richard asks. “Montreal,” Dawn says.

A few days later when Alan and I are out to dinner with Dawn and Richard, with whom we often vacation, Dawn poses the question. “Do you all want to go to Montreal?” I’m pretty quick with a response. “Lord, no! There are a million other places I’d like to go before I go to Montreal. I’ve never even considered going to Montreal.” And we pretty much drop the subject.

A few weeks later, our friend Jim Shelby dies rather suddenly. I’m sitting in the pew at his funeral at West Hill Baptist Church and I think to myself, “I want to do everything. Life is short. Life can end so unexpectedly. Anything anyone wants to do, I’m in.”

As I drive away from the church, I call Alan and then I call Dawn. “Let’s go to Montreal!” I say. Dawn doesn’t bat an eye. “I’ll start planning,” she says. (She’s our main trip planner.)

And that’s how we came to be in Montreal a few weeks ago.

Let me tell you, we made the most of it. We were there only three nights and during that time we ate numerous fabulous meals — the one at Chuck’s restaurant, Garde Manger, was the best — and we visited a fascinating history museum, took a boat ride, went to Mass in one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve ever seen, walked through a history fair, explored an underground shopping mall and laughed and laughed and laughed. I thought of Jim Shelby quite a bit on that trip. I think he would approve of our post-funeral activities.

Montreal is the second largest city in Canada (after Toronto) and the largest in the province of Quebec. It also is the second largest French speaking city (after Paris) in the world. We spent our entire trip in the downtown and Old Montreal neighborhoods. So there is plenty left to explore if we go back — and I’m not ruling that out!

We were joined on our trip by Stephanie Schell, Dawn’s sister from New Jersey. She was a great addition not only because of her fun-loving personality, but because she speaks some French, which none of the rest of us did. Thanks to Dawn, all of our major reservations were made before we left Knoxville, which saved us a ton of time “on the ground.”

This is our gang outside of Garde Manger, the restaurant that started all this. It’s located in Old Montreal on Rue St. Francois-Xavier. Note if you go: There is no sign outside so it’s easy to miss. The only signage is the street number: 408. Unfortunately, although it wasn’t Monday, it was Chuck’s day off! (Actually, we were told he was in Toronto.)

It’s not incredibly helpful, but there IS a sign inside the restaurant!

There is no menu at Garde Manger — and no website. All the offerings are written on a blackboard and recited by the servers. We had a wonderful server named Maude.

OK. Here’s a look at some of the unbelievably tasty dishes we had.

Dawn had the short ribs over gnocchi. She is very particular about gnocchi but gave these the stamp of approval. They didn’t photograph very well in the flash required by the dim light, though.

The streets of Old Montreal remind me of the French Quarter in New Orleans.

I have a thing about boat tours. I love to see cities — including Knoxville — from the water. It gives you a whole different perspective on the town and its history and development.

OK, we get the picture.

Dawn booked us into the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure, right in the heart of the business district. It proved to be a great choice. We recommend upgrading to the concierge level because, not only do you get access to a large breakfast buffet, but you get discounted drinks during happy hour and a large spread of complimentary appetizers.

Here is a tip I’ll share about the cab drivers in Montreal. They don’t like to use their air conditioning because it cuts down on their gas mileage. So, after being told on three occasions by cab drivers that their air conditioning was “broken,” we came up with a strategy. We would hail a cab, open the door, but before getting in, one of us would ask, “Is your air conditioning working?” Every cab driver’s answer? “Of course!” Only then would we pile in. Worked like a charm the rest of the trip!

Now, we will take you to the awesome little lunch spot where I had the best crepe I’ve ever had in my life!

Click here to go to its website. It’s in French, but you’ll love the cute little French tune playing in the background!

One of the days we were in Montreal happened to be a Sunday. And, believe it or not, Alan and I were up and dressed in time to walk to the 8 a.m. Mass at Notre-Dame Basilica. Although the Mass was entirely in French, if you are Catholic, as I am, you still know what is going on. And the setting was just stunning.

Another reservation we had long before leaving Knoxville was for dinner at L’Express, a French bistro with a big reputation. At least in the travel press. Unfortunately, our cab driver (one of those with a broken air conditioner) could not find it. Again, there was no sign.

Click here for the website of L’Express.

The museum we visited, Pointe-a-Calliere Museum of Archaeology and History, was fascinating because it is actually built to enclose an archeological dig. So you get a very real sense of what existed there before recent history.

We loved strolling through the history fair that we just happened upon one day.

I was struck by the number of interesting sculptures scattered around the city.

If Marche de LaVillette had the best crepe I’ve ever had, I’d have to say another lunch stop had the best French onion soup I’ve ever had! This little eatery in Old Montreal was called La Sauvagine.

I will warn you away from our only disappointing restaurant experience. We had relied on travel websites and books to reserve a table at Modavi. We mostly selected it because is was billed as a jazz wine bar, which sounded like fun. I have to agree with the nice couple we met at L’Express. It was just barely adequate.

But the Mediterranean salads were uninspired. And Dawn’s risotto with mushrooms was downright inedible. Risotto is supposed to be creamy and this was actually dry and hard.

Speaking of drinking, we had read in our guidebooks about the many rooftop bars in Montreal.

Here’s a random picture I took when we saw a wedding party on one of the streets of Old Montreal. It reminded me of the numerous wedding groups we see in downtown Knoxville these days, something we think is just great.

In short, we had a blast of a long weekend in Montreal and we can heartily recommend it. I’m grateful that in saying farewell to our friend Jim Shelby, we got the inspiration to live as much of life as we can. I’m going to keep saying yes to good ideas like this one!