After a couple of weeks in Europe, it was a quick turn around at home before hoping on a plane to Montréal! Justine and I had planned a 2-week vacation (definitely needed) centered around the Canadian Grand Prix F1 race in Montreal. We wanted to do a little more than just the city, so we rented a car and headed out to explore the surrounding region as well.
Note: much like the previous post I’m trying to do this one as I go on the trip, putting in photos from my phone. I’ll update or do some other posts with pictures from my camera once we get home. This is a huge post, so be warned! 😜
Our flight left Vancouver on Friday morning early. The airport was fine, if a lot busier than expected. Eventually we were on the plan and off to Montreal. The flight was fine - a lot shorter than my flight the day before - and we were in Montreal in no time. The airport in Montreal was a disaster - it took almost 2 hours to get our bags. So long that I went and dealt with the rental car, came back and helped Justine with her bags. The Montreal part of the trip hadn’t started well.
That mess behind us, we grabbed the car (Dodge Charger - Justine was not too impressed 😂) and headed out. The first stop on our trip was just west of Montreal in a town called Hudson, and the Willow Inn.
When Justine was in middle school, she lived in this part of the country. This was the first time she had been back, so it was a little bit of a walk down memory lane. But that was for tomorrow. We arrived at the Inn around 7:30, and had a reservation in the restaurant for 8:00. So that didn't give us much time, just enough to unpack and have a quick look around the place.
We headed down for dinner in the restaurant, and while it was a very nice spot, the food certainly wasn’t up to expectations. First, it was very expensive and we expected more for the prices. Now the food itself tasted really good, but the presentation was… lacking. So overall not a great impression.
The Inn itself was nice - charming decor, the bed was comfy and it was fine for the first night. The next morning we were off and on the road fairly early, as we had a long day of exploring and heading up into the Laurentians. But first, we needed to explore Justine’s old stomping grounds. We did a little loop around the tow, with stops at her old school (bigger, with a new addition), the little ski resort she learned to ski at and her old house. It was fun to see it. After that we did a drive out to this Sugar Shck just outside of town that Justine remembers going to as a kid. Sucrerie de la Montagne. Sadly, it was the all wrong time of year for such a place, but we spent a little bit of time wandering around and having a look about. They have a bunch of we’ll preserved old buildings that are pretty cool.
I stole this one from their website - forgot to take pics of the cabins on my phone!
After than, we looped back towards Hudson to take the ferry to Oka and to continue our journey north. One very cool thing we noticed as we drive these back roads were all the commercial maple syrup harvesters. We first noticed all this blue tubing running through the forests, and eventually clued in to the fact of this is how you harvest sap at scale. It’s pretty amazing to see.
As I was saying, the next stop was to take the ferry across from Hudson to Oka. This shortened out trip a lot (saved us going around to the west a fair bit), and let’s face it, the little ferry is pretty fun. The ferry dock was basically right beside the Willow Inn.
Looking over to Oka from the ferry.
Map of the drive up to the Mount Tremblant area.
After taking the ferry over, we stopped in the little town of Oka right on the river and looked around. We went into the church, which was also serving as the tourist center to get some local maps to get a sense of what was around us. Oka is known for it’s cheese, and just a little ways outside of town is the original Abbey, and the much newer store for Oka Cheese. So we had our first stop planned.
That first stop was much closer than we expected - just a few minutes drive up the road. As we weren’t quite ready for lunch yet, we decided that we’d buy a few things - cheese, bread, meat - from the store, continue on our way and look for a good spot to stop and have a picnic.
For the drive north, we avoided the highways and took back roads as much as possible. It was a beautiful, relaxed drive. We did find a spot to stop and have some lunch (although it cost us $14 in day access fees) in a pretty local park near Mirabel. So that worked out well. We took an hour or so, relaxed and had a nice lunch. The place had some bird feeders set up and we saw rose breasted grosbeaks and gold finches. So that was fun too!
From the, it was a pleasant drive up to Suites-sur-lac on Lac Superior and our next stop, this time for a couple of nights.
The view from our room.
Our next two nights were spent at the very lovely Suites-sur-Lac, on the shores of Lac Superieur, about 15 km from the village at Mount Tremblant. It was late afternoon when we arrived, and as they sent us the room number and an access code via email, the process of “Checking in” was simple. They had upgraded our room, and we ended up with a full 2 bedroom, ground floor suite overlooking the lake. It was really nice. After checking the place out, we wandered around the property. It really has a lot going on - tennis and beach volleyball courts; horseshoe pit, a nice fire pit, small beach, docks for swimming off, a pool, and a water sports area with kayaks and paddle boards. If you were to spend a week here, it has all you need.
Sadly, we were a bit early in the season. The pool was still being filled, and the temperature really didn’t make it very encouraging to jump in the water.
We sat on the back deck and watched the F1 qualifying and enjoyed the late afternoon. The we headed down to the Bistro for dinner. It was busy, but they gave us a nice table on the side patio with a view of the lake. The food was surprisingly good with lots of choice. I had my first poutine of the trip, and it was delicious. They did something different with the gravy, infusing it with rosemary.
Dinner on the patio.
Sunset on our first night.
The next day, we decided to go for a hike. Sadly, the weather wasn’t the best, so we picked a hike that was of a decent length that went up to a waterfall. We figured there was no point in doing a hike that offered views, given the weather. We ended up at Mount Tremblant National Park, and a hike to the La Chute-aux-Rats waterfall in the Secteur de la Pimbina in the park. The hike was an easy one on a multipurpose trail. It was about 9.5 km round trip, through nice mature forest. There wasn’t a lot to see, but it was quiet and a pleasant hike. The bugs were bad however, so there was no stopping! About 3/4 of the way to the waterfall the rain started. It was heavy at times, but nothing unmanageable.
We explored the waterfall for a bit, before heading back. We both felt that this would be a better fall hike - it would be amazing in the full burst of fall colours. I imagine you would sacrifice volume on the waterfall, but it would be worth it!
The hike ended up taking about 3 hours in total, and we were pretty happy to get back to the car out of the rain and the bugs. It was a nice hike, and the waterfall was really nice. I wish I had better gear with me, and that the weather had behaved.
From there we made the drive back, stopping at the village in Mount Tremblant to check it out. The village was very quiet - surprisingly they don’t do any mountain biking in the summer. I find that very strange.the village feels very much like Whistler, which isn’t a surprise as I think the same company ran both resorts for a long time. The mountain was smaller than I was expecting, but I imagine they get lots of snow.
Hike to the La Chute-aux-Rats waterfall.
We drove back to the hotel and had a leisurely evening, as the weather hadn’t really improved. The next day we were travelling from the Laurentians (northwest) to the lovely town of Magog in the Eastern Townships (southeast). We were meeting Justine’s parents there for a couple of days before heading to Montreal for the race weekend!
The drive from Mount Tremblant to Magog.
The drive was nice (the pic above is not quite representative of what we did) and we stuck to the highway into Montreal, before veering off onto more rural roads, north of the highway for the remainder of the drive out to Magog. It was late afternoon when we got into Magog, as we had stopped in the charming town of Chambly for some lunch along the river, and a bit of a tour of the locks.
Looking into one of the locks.
Justine’s parents were already checked in when we arrived. So after we got settled, we joined them and headed out to explore. Maureen had lived in Magog for a couple of years (quite some time ago now) and so she was eager to see her old haunts, as well as to see what had changed over the years. I got the impression that while things had built up, much was the same (or similar enough). The lake, with it’s views down to some of the local ski hills south was beautiful.
Panoramic view of the lake in Magog.
After wandering for a bit we noticed that it was getting on in the evening and so we needed to find a spot for dinner. There was a local brewery pub that looked nice (and was about the only thing open), and were we able to grab a spot on the very nice patio and have a great dinner. Their beer was quite good as well.
The brewpub from dinner.
One of the odd things we discovered about Magog is that almost everything is closed on Monday and Tuesdays. I’m not sure if that’s a seasonal thing, or just the norm but it was quite frustrating. Tuesday we ended up picking quite a lot in. We started with a nice breakfast at the only place that was open, before heading to a local abbey. The Abbaye Saint-Benoît-du-Lac is a beautiful spot, with a great little store selling the products from the monks.
Abbaye Saint-Benoît-du-Lac
Interior view of the Abbey
I think this is the guest house.
After the Abbey, we drove back to town and parked the car at the hotel. From there, we walked a short distance to a small nature preserve and did the short walk across the boardwalk through the marsh and up into the forest. It wasn’t a long walk, but it was quite nice and we saw a few new bird species! We saw an Eastern Kingbird, Osprey, Swamp sparrow, Red eyed vireo and the best was a Chestnut sided warbler. It was a productive little walk.
Our short walk through the marshlands.
As we wrapped up our little walk, the rain came and chased us inside. That gave us some time to relax and had a FaceTime call with Mom and Dad. The rain passed by eventually, and we went out for dinner on this great patio on the Main Street. It was a fun evening.
Wednesday we were headed for Montreal! As with the trip over, we wanted to take more of the backroads rather than the highway. It looked like there were many cheese shops and breweries along the way, and we had noted that there were a few covered bridges between us and Montreal. So we plotted a route, planning to see a couple of covered bridges as our first stops.
Our frustration with ‘tourism’ in Quebec continued as all of the breweries we wanted to visit were either completely closed on Monday-Wednesday, or didn’t open until later in the day. So we didn’t end up stopping any other places and instead headed directly to Montreal. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel (a block from the old Montreal Forum) then returned the rental car to the airport. We took the bus/subway back to the hotel, got settled in and relaxed a bit before meeting Justine’s parents for dinner in old Montreal.
Dinner was lovely - Justine picked a cool restaurant right downtown that had a great atmosphere and very nice food. We had a long dinner, then wandered a bit through downtown. We stopped at a bar for a nightcap, and were entertained by a mob of people at the entrance to the hotel next door. One of the Red Bull drivers, Sergio Perez must have been staying there, as the crowd went a bit crazy chanting his name as he was dropped off. We didn’t see him directly, but they were making quite the fuss.
The next morning we had a leisurely start, not rushing but wanted to get out reasonably early. Thursday was the pit lane walk, and was open from 9-noon. We had done something similar in Abu Dhabi, but that experience was much different from this one! In Abu Dhabi, the pit lane walk was limited to people with tickets to the whole weekend, so it limited the crowds. Montreal takes a different approach and opens it to the public, no tickets needed. We were not aware of that going in, or we would have left a lot earlier…
The subway to the venue was pretty good, but when we arrived, we were unprepared for the crowds. Right out of the subway entrance, we were into a line of thousands of people, snaking around the grounds and eventually filtering though a security check point, then across a bridge to shuttle buses that drove you to the pit lane.
It took about an hour and a half to get to the pit lane. During that time we struck up a conversation with a local coupe that gave us lots of good insight. As we were going along the road up to where the shuttle pick up was, we saw a number of the F1 drivers come onto the site for their pit lane walks.
Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari, driving into the grounds.
Daniel Ricciardo (front seat) from McLaren.
Once we got to the pit lane, the mayhem continued. There were just too many people crammed into too small a space. As most people were trying to get a look into the three main teams pits - Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari - the crowds at the start of the pit lane were just bonkers. Once you pushed your way through that, it got a bit better and you could see some of the cars being put together. We did have Lando Norris, the McLaren driver walk right paths. The woman of the local couple jumped right in to get her picture taken with him. I feel for these drivers - the harassment is constant.
As you can probably see from some of the photos, the weather turned on us a bit as we were in the pit lane. It rained for a while - not too hard - but enough to need to cover up. The forecast was for it to get worse, so we wrapped up the pit lane walk, got back on a bus and headed back to the subway.
We got out at Peel Street, as they have closed off that section of downtown for race-related activities. The weather was better in this part of the city, so we took advantage of it. We stopped at a 3 Brassieurs pub for a beer and some lunch, then headed across the road to the Eaton Center and did a little bit of shopping. From there we decided to walk back to the hotel along St. Catherine street. There was a pop-up F1 store which we checked out, but overall we just wandered.
As we were walking home we decided to stop at a local supermarket, to grab some food to have dinner at the hotel. The skies were looking ominous, but I thought we had enough time for a quick stop. That proved to be a bad decision, as we were leaving the store the skies absolutely opened up. We made it one block (of the three we needed to cover to get back to the hotel) and had to shelter under the front of some random condo building, waiting for it to let up. It did, after 15 minutes or so, so we made the dash back to the hotel. We were absolutely soaked! That night we hung out in the hotel, had some dinner, played cards and watched the thunderstorms over Mont Royal. There was lots of the thunder and lightning, which made for a fun evening.
The storm was gathering over the mountain.
Friday was the first proper day of the race weekend - Practice Sessions! We didn’t feel the need to be there all day, as the F1 sessions were in the afternoon, and while the support races are OK, it’s not really our thing. The weather today was much better than the previous one, with sun and blue skies providing the backdrop for an excellent day.
We had a leisurely start to the morning, getting over to the track late morning. The support races were ongoing, and getting into the grounds was pretty easy - much less of a line up than the previous day! But the venue was busy - much more so than we had expected for practice. It was a long walk from the entrance to our seats on the pit line grandstand (about 2.5 km), but that gave us a chance to check out the park and all of the different Fan Zones they had set up for the weekend. It seemed pretty good.
Our grandstand - section 4.
A view down the pit lane from our grandstand.
Panoramic view of the pit lanes.
The hospitality paddocks above the garages were busy already!
We spent a while in our seats watching some of the support races, then we wandered around the grounds for a while, checking things out. We grabbed some lunch and headed back for the first F1 practice session. Our seats were interesting in that we had a great view into the pits, especially the Mercedes garage. Also Red Bull, the others not so much. But we could see them working on the cars, changing tires and all the activity going on. It was pretty cool.
One of the things we loved about Abu Dhabi, was that you could walk around the whole track, and see the cars from different vantage points. I got some great photos of the cars that way. We tried doing the same in Montreal, but the track is not really visible from many places. So it makes it less interesting to walk around.
And as we were on the pit straight, we got to watch the cars go by at speed!
Estiban Ocon’s Alpine flashing by.
After the first practice session, we headed back out to wander the grounds. We needed a bit of shade after sitting in the sun in the grandstand for hours. As it’s a long walk around the track and back to the entrance/exit, we decided to watch the second practice session from the hairpin, right alongside the track. We found a good spot and waited for it to begin.
From that view you get an even more impressive feel for the speed as the cars go flying in off a long straight into the hairpin and have to brake down to almost a stop. You can smell the brakes, and some of the cars are sparking from their undersides as they fly in at top speed.
It was a pretty cool place to watch from and good to get a different view. From there, we headed back to the subway and back to the hotel to change. We were meeting my friend Marc and his wife Maryam for dinner later that night - some locals to show us around!
We met them at the north end of the subway line, and they took us to this amazing Greek restaurant. It was in Laval, and clearly a favorite of locals. While we had a bit of a wait for our reservation time (we were surprisingly early!), it was so worth it. The food was amazing, the sangria delicious and it was good to get caught up with Marc and to meet Maryam. Dinner was fabulous.
Sadly weather was not. It had poured on his as we left the hotel to go to the subway, and it was still raining now. Marc had offered to do a bit of a driving tour to show us some spots around the city. As he had a convertible, that would have been great on a nicer day. Still, we saw some cool sights, including a drive up Mont Royal to a very busy look out spot over the city. It was very busy - so much so that we couldn’t find a parking spot - and we weren’t expecting that so late in the evening. The raccoons were getting lots of attention thought…
It was getting late, so Marc dropped us off at the hotel and we called it a night. It was a very fun one, and we appreciated the hospitality. Hopefully we can return it if they ever come out to Vancouver!
Rainy day of qualifying!
Saturday was qualifying day, but sadly the rain from the night before stuck around all day. We headed to the track a little bit later, but still it was generally not a nice day sitting in the rain. I had thought our bleachers were covered when I bought the seats, but clearly not. Throughout the weekend we had good neighbors - the two guys next to us (Kasey and Dawson) were also from Vancouver and were a lot of fun. We definitely owe them some beer…
The rain did make for interesting qualifying, with one of the big names (Perez) crashing, and Russell from Mercedes being brave and trying slick tires at the end of Q3 to try and steal pole. It didn’t work, but was a good try!
After qualifying we discovered the real issue with the track - getting out is even harder than getting in. We thought we had waited a while in the stands to let the crowds clear, but we did not wait long enough. The crowds getting out were crazy, and the path out bottlenecks in so many places that you end up at a stand still. It took us two and a half hours to get through the crowds, on the subway and back to our hotel.
At that point, we took a short break, then headed back out to enjoy the action in the city center. We tried a couple of places to have dinner, but not surprisingly everything was very full. We eventually ended up back at the restaurant that we went to with Justine’s parents a few days earlier. We got a seat at the bar and had another very nice meal.
We walked a lot of the way back to the hotel, checking out downtown. Eventually we made it back, very tired but having had a very good day.
Race Day!
Sunday was the big day! We slept in quite late after our late night, the night before, and so didn’t get out of the hotel until just after 10:00. Not surprisingly, it seemed everyone else was running late as well, and the crowds on the subway were massive.
The crowds in the subway were insane.
Our first attempt at getting into the grounds. Huge lines that were not moving.
After a very jammed subway ride to the track, the crowds to get in through security were massive. We were not sure we would make it thought before the race festivities. So we tried a different route, taking a bus over to the casino from the subway. That did the trick - the crowds at that entrance were almost non-existent. That was amazing, and we were through and to our seats in time to watch the Ferrari races!
My guy in the teal Ferrari up at the front! No idea who it is, I just like the look of that car.
The Ferrari race was very exciting, with lots of action, a few good overtakes and a couple of spectacular crashes! In one, the driver in 4th place tried to pass 3 cars but crashed into the first place car! That left the car I was rooting for in first place, and he ended up winning the race. That was a good start to our race day.
The grandstand was full - a sell out apparently.
Getting ready for the driver’s parade. Such cool old cars.
After the support races were done, it was time for the main event! The race festivities started with a drivers parade. All the drivers went around the truck, waiving to fans from the back of old cars. Most were beautiful Aston Martins of various vintages - all were amazing. From there, it was the national anthem and we were off racing!
The messy day yesterday for qualifying resulted a in a starting grid that was a bit different from the norm, with some of the mid-pack teams much further up. It led to some good action on the track. But at the end of the day, it was this year’s “normal” of Red Bull, Ferrari 1-2, but Hamilton had a good showing and landed a podium for Mercedes in third! So that was a good result.
After the race, we hung out in the stands for quite a while. We watched the podium celebration (I’ll get some better photos of that up in a separate post later). And all the craziness of the fans on the track celebrating after the race. It was pretty fun. We had planned to let the crowds go by waiting in our seats but it seemed like no one was wanting to leave and end the party. Eventually we went out, and were able to get into the track. We ended up walking almost half the race course, including the hairpin, before exiting a the track and heading back to the subway.
Our walk of the race track. We actually got on a bit earlier than this, but I forgot to start my watch!
It was a great day in the Sunshine in Montreal!
Eventually we made our way back to the subway. There was still a big crowd, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday. The trip home was pretty smooth as well, even if the trains were packed. The getting to/coming from the event venue is a mess - you’d figure after all this time they would have sorted out a better way.
We came back to the hotel and called Dad for Father’s Day and chatted for a while. Then we had a quick power nap before heading back out. We walked towards Crescent and Peel streets, where the post race parties were happening. We stopped at this little Lebanese restaurant for some dinner along the way. It was quite tasty.
A very col portrait of Leonard Cohen on one of the buildings on Crescent Street.
We spent a little bit of time on the party streets, but it wasn’t really that interesting. So we hopped back on the subway and headed over to old Montreal. We wandered the back streets through the old section. It’s very cool - lots of bars and restaurants, shops and art galleries. It was crazy busy with the end of the race weekend, and it was fun to absorb the atmosphere.
Looking up an Notre Dame.
Ferris wheel on the river in old Montreal.
One of the main streets in Old Montreal.
It was starting to get late and we were pretty tired. So we decided to come back on Monday and explore more. For now, it was time to call it a night.
We had a leisurely start to Monday - our day to do some touristy stuff around the city. We headed out in the morning to do the “hike” up Mont Royal to the view points above the city. There are all sorts of paths through the park, many of them with great staircases, others more natural paths through the woods. It was really beautiful in the woods - cool in the shade, and so many new birds! The highlight was definitely the indigo bunting, which we saw a few of! More pics once I get a chance to look at the photos off my good camera. But we had a great views of them, so I’m hopeful. We also saw (and heard) a piliated woodpecker, a number of red-eyed vireos, chipping sparrow, chestnut-sided warblers, chimney swifts, winter wren, Ovenbird, and an Eastern Wood-Pewee. That last one was also new and cool.
Starting the hike up to the top of the mountain.
Up at the top of the mountain there was a great lookout over the city, and a beautiful old stone building with a little cafe. It was a great spot for a short rest, and to look at the view!
The building at the top is amazing, both inside and out.
A detailed view of one of the doorways into the building.
The interior is just as nice (maybe nicer) than the exterior.
The view from the second viewpoint. You can see the Olympic Stadium in the distance.
After checking out the view we walked around to a second view point, the one Marc tried to show us the other night. It was still busy, but the view was worth it. We also walked over to the cross on the mountain, and had a look at that. Eventually we made outrage way back down the “Grand Staircase” and out of the park. It was time to find some lunch!
The map of our morning hike.
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel and got changed. We needed to head back to the mall to exchange some items that were not the right sizes. After taking care of that, we headed to a pub and had a drink or two, relaxing and enjoying the afternoon. Eventually we made our way back to the hotel. The passes we got for the subway were great value for the amount we used them.
After getting cleaned up and changed, it was back on the subway and back to old Montreal.
Some random building in Old Montreal. I just like the purple lights in the upper windows.
We did a short walk along the river, past the Ferris wheel and some of the more touristy sections they have set-up there. It was nice, and it was another perfect evening for our last night in Montreal.
We worked our way back and stopped at a brewery that we had found in the old town, and sat on the patio and had a drink. I had a flight of good beers, and we enjoyed the evening as the sun went down.
Ferris wheel along the river.
My flight of beers - they were delicious!
A view of the brewery and the street in Old Montréal.
After the beer, we worked our way back through the streets of old Montreal, looking for a place to have a late dinner. It had gotten dark, and we had noted a couple of interesting spots the last time we wandered about. Many were closed (it was Monday after all…) but we found a good Italian spot that had nice food and a good bottle of rose. It made for a fine evening,
After that, it was time to head back to the hotel. It was another late night, and a great way to wrap up the trip. Tuesday there isn’t much to report on. Our flight back was in the early evening, but we didn’t do much. Basically just got ourselves organized for the flight home. Then it was a matter of getting to the airport and the flight home.