Two out of three of us were out of bed before 9am and with a little coaxing we were all to the Parma Cafe just after 10am. We caffeinated and had bagels and croissants to get us going and then set about choosing our first destination. As the week is waning and the day looked like good weather, we decided to make the trek out to the Olympic Park.
Happily, the Metro makes this an easy journey and we arrived to a long but swiftly moving line at the Biodome and were inside by noon (hint – you can buy your tickets online and skip the line!) The Biodome is a multi-biosphere complex which recreates a tropical rainforest, a Laurentian Maple forest, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and sub-polar regions of the Americas. The Biodome “aims to raise individual and collective awareness about the need to get involved in protecting our natural heritage.”
It is truly an impressive exhibit space, faithfully recreating spaces down to the lighting as they would be in nature. We walked first through the warm and very humid tropical rainforest and spotted a number of tree animals as well as large amphibians, and exotic birds. The experience was very much like the rainforest exhibit in the Science Academy in Golden Gate Park.
The Laurentian Maple forest was obviously much more familiar, but it was fun to see a number of animals we could name, including a pair of beavers actively maintaining a dam. The Gulf of St. Lawrence also housed a number of familiar sea creatures that we also see on the west coast, including various fish, sea birds, anemone, starfish and urchins. Probably everyone’s favourite part of the Biodome is the penguins, though, and we did spend quite awhile here watching these birds sleep or waddle along their ice shelves or swim throughout the circuit of this habitat.
We took our time and spent a couple of hours enjoying all of the displays and taking in the various flora and fauna – after 25 years this is still a very engaging and informative presentation on the diversity of world systems, their fragility and the need to protect and preserve them.
After a quick lunch in the SolResto restaurant we ventured back outside to find the Montréal Tower to get another areal view of the city. Apparently the Tower is the tallest inclined tower in the world, and steep at 45 degrees. And the views are again incredible, just as the Mount Royal park views were (in fact we took the reverse shot of the giant cross, just for fun). We were able to identify many of the places we’d been this week, as well as putting the river and other landmarks together in perspective. It was a fairly hazy day though, so we weren’t able to see distant features, such as the nearby mountain chains.
We spent the balance of the afternoon on a double quest to touch bases on a couple of Montreal icons – bagels and poutine. It hadn’t been that long since our lunch, however, so we set off first to find the original St. Viateur bagel shop. A subway ride and a bus trip later and we arrived at a small store with a large wood-fired oven at the back where the bagels were coming out on long wooden planks and being thrown into bins and then sorted and prepared for sale by staff. We bought enough to last us for breakfasts for the rest of our trip.
Next, we looked a little apprehensively at each other, made a pact, and took two more buses back to La Banquise where the highly recommended poutine dishes come in over 30 varieties. This restaurant is a very funky little establishment open 24 hours a day so you can always get your fix. Our apprehension – none of us really understood the fanatical appeal of poutine – were put to rest as we ordered a large classic plate to share. It was good – we put it away quickly and it would certainly hold us for several more hours. Sadly, it was not life changing or cause for a change in diet (probably a good thing) as it remains fries with cheese in gravy, and that just doesn’t rock the world for us. Still, a fun experience and we can say we had it in the heart of Montreal.
As afternoon started to fade into evening we were happy to be going back downtown as everyone was leaving. We were able to go from the Metro station near La Banquise (Mont Royal) to our neighbourhood with just one train and a short walk. Once back we quickly changed and grabbed some warmer clothes and returned to the foyer to hail a cab.
A quick ride later and we were at l’Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal, which is yet another really famous Catholic church in Montreal. This one is vast on a scale like none we’ve seen so far this week – it is the largest church building in Canada, and 27th in the world. The dome alone is the third largest in the world, after St. Peter’s in Rome, and another on the Ivory Coast. The architecture is much more modern than other churches we’ve seen this week, having been constructed in the first half of the 20th century, but still magnificent.
We’d come at this time of day because they’d advertised sunset concerts on their terrace and tonight was a jazz night. The show wasn’t very long and we only caught a bit of it, but it was fun to listen to the trio play while sun the set behind them over Montreal. We were seriously distracted, however, by wandering into the main sanctuary just as the Basilica’s organist was giving the impressive workout to the Grand Beckerath organ – ranked 10th most prestigious organ in the world. It was just riveting to listen to.
After the dual concerts concluded we toured the rest of the labyrinthine church and found the chapel at the back of the sanctuary, the votive chapel, the tomb of Brother André, the canes and crutches left by those healed by miracles of faith in St. Joseph, and the Crypt Church below the main sanctuary – which would have been a large church all by itself. I think I’ve never experienced incense so heavy, but the solemness and dedication of the people who were here on missions of faith was quite inspiring.
As we left we witnessed one more act of devotion – a man climbing the staircase on his knees, which is apparently a tradition here, and one Mimi participated in as part of a “fun” activity (it was pouring rain) at the beginning of her stay in Montréal last summer.
We took the bus back downtown again and stopped at Rue Sainte-Catherine to get some things from the nearby drugstore. We were briefly distracted by the Juliette et Chocolat store where we got a couple of milkshakes to take out. Then we were back in our room and relaxing with our books, wifi and pictures. Another full day with many great memories to take away.
