Hints and Tips on moving to and life in Montréal
Posted in Attractions on Jul 27th, 2009
For many the idea that a countryside covered in snow for three months of the year can create great wine is totally impossible. Yet it’s true, Québec makes great wine!
The atmospheric conditions mean that different grape varieties have to be used to produce wine than would be employed in the major regions of France or [...]
Posted in Attractions on Jun 30th, 2009
The 30th Montréal International Festival of Jazz will open tonight with a free concert given by Stevie Wonder. There are rumours flying that there will be a tribute to the late Michael Jackson too.
Montréal’s internationally renowned Jazz Festival runs from today for 10 days and takes place at Place des Arts downtown. For more information [...]
Posted in Attractions on Jun 25th, 2009
A storm blew in today. Within minutes the warm sultry weather turned into pounding rain, hail and wind. Five minutes later the calm had returned.
That’s Montréal weather for you.
The government runs a good weather site at http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca. Forecasting in Canada is an art, The weather can be quite changable.
Here are some photographs of the storm:
Posted in Attractions on Jun 23rd, 2009
The 24th June is the National Day of Québec otherwise known as St Jean Baptiste. There is no particular reason for the choice of the day except that it was an important holiday for the first French immigrants.
There will be concerts and activities all over Québec on the 23rd and 24th to get together and [...]
Posted in Attractions on Apr 14th, 2009
The visit to a sugar shack (cabine a sucre) is an important part of the spring here in Quebec.
At this time of the year the temperature drops below freezing at night but goes well above zero during the day. This causes frozen water in Maple trees to melt and it is then collected.
The water is [...]
Posted in Attractions, News on Mar 22nd, 2009
The 185th annual St Patrick’s day parade was held in Montréal today. The pavements of Ste-Catherine street were lined with flag waving children and adults in green hats.
Today everyone was Irish!
The Parade started at noon at rue Du Fort and moved down Ste-Catherine until rue St-Urban by the Complexe Desjardins and took about three hours [...]
Posted in Attractions on Feb 23rd, 2009
The Museum of Canadian Civilization is Canada’s most visited museum. It’s located in Gatineau, Québec, just across the Ottawa river from Canada’s capital.
It’s worth visiting just for the building alone. Designed by Native-Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal it opened in 1989 to international acclaim.
The museum is split into several distinct areas:
Children’s museum is really a play [...]
Posted in Attractions on Feb 22nd, 2009
Canada’s houses of Parliament sit on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. They were completed early in the 20th century before being severely damaged by fire in 1916.
The parliament building is greatly inspired by those of the United Kingdom in London, UK, both in style and substance, whilst remaining distinctly Canadian.
It’s possible to tour the buildings. Free [...]
Posted in Attractions on Feb 21st, 2009
Ottawa, the capital of Canada is about 200km or 2 hours drive from Montréal, making it an excellent day trip destination.
Much smaller than Montréal, Ottawa has just over 1 million inhabitants. It’s in an officially bilingual area called the National Capital Region made up mostly of Ottawa itself and Gatineau just across the river in Québec.
Although officially bilingual, most people in Ottawa speak [...]
Posted in Attractions on Jan 13th, 2009
Montréal receives quite some snow in winter covering it with a blanket of white. On average about 10 to 15cm of snow will fall per week, usually over one day. Locals will talk about snow “storms”; but in reality it just amounts to a lot of snow falling in one day.
Snow falls can be very [...]