On the Road: Montreal 2025

Montreal is one of our favorite getaway spots.  We visited recently for a few days to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  It had been a couple years since our last trip and we stayed in a different part of town from our usual. Typically, we stay on the Plateau, a relatively residential area with ample dining and shopping opportunities.  This time, we stayed in Vieux-Montréal (Old Montreal) which, largely because of the Notre-Dame Basilica, is considerably more touristy.  Still lovely, of course.  Just a different vibe.

Our first full day was spa day, our morning spent at Scandinave, just down the street from our hotel (described in this post).  For me, few things in the world feel more self-indulgent than a long, hot bath.  It's wonderfully freeing to be in a place where your only purpose is to relax.  Electronics and even conversation are taboo.  While my wife went for a massage, I enjoyed three full hot/cold/relax cycles.  I wish we could afford to do it everyday.

We spent the second day at art museums, primarily the Musée de Beaux-Arts.  It was also my best day for photographs:

Paysage by Albert Gleizes

Le port (Marseilles) by Gleizes

Le port de Bordeaux by André Lhote

La Vierge attentive ou La Vierge à l'étoile by Louis Cattiaux

Forme dans l'espace by Alfréd Réth

Evening on the Terrace (Morocco) by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant

The Main Path at Giverny by Claude Monet

The Pitchpoling (D-27, 2X) by Frank Stella
Stella created a mixed media piece for each chapter of Moby-Dick.  "The Pitchpoling" is chapter 84.

"Tower of Songs", a street mural portrait of Montreal native Leonard Cohen by Gene Pendon and El Mac

As we were packing up our car to leave, our valet joked that we'd "had enough of Montreal."  Not true.  While I'm definitely not a city person at this stage of my life, I find Montreal to be as dynamic and accessible a city as any I've visited - and I've been to quite a few of the world's greats, even lived in a couple.  We'll definitely be back.