Bienvenue à Montreal!

This city is beautiful. I've had a fascination with it since I was a little girl. Probably because it's as European as a city as I've ever been. Last weekends trip was a short getaway. My mom, a friend, and myself spent two nights (one full day, two half days) in the city and shopped, ate, did a bit of the touristy things, and searched every shop for the British candy we can never find in the states. But mostly, we just walked. A lot.

We went to Montreal's China Town and it was my first time there. LOVE! It was great. We found amazing Asian bakeries, gawked at the Hello Kitty things in the shop windows, bought dragon's beard candy from a cart on the street, and I tried my first real bubble tea.

 Dragon's beard candy. Almost like a peanut toffee rolled in this spun dough.

This store of junk and oddities completely stole my heart.

I was so inspired by the artwork. Both in the gallery windows, and on the street. I took quite a few photos to use as inspiration for when I got home.

The food. Oh, the food. We had amazing cheese platters, hot chocolate, crepes, poutine, pasta, croissants, cupcakes, and macaroons. It was magical.

 My very first macaroons!

 

 I bought cupcakes at two places. The third place that I wanted to try ended up being closed for Canadian Thanksgiving. We missed that holiday memo...whoops. It was called Cocoa Locale and is a one woman bakery that is supposedly fantastic. Next time.

Poutine! I searched high and low for poutine with vegetarian gravy and each place I got a lead on ended up either being incredibly difficult to find, or not actually having the vegetarian option they said they did. So, for the first time in years, I ate chicken gravy. Blech...it makes me ill to think about but it was delicious. I probably ate about a third of this before my brain got the best of me.

It sounds odd, but being in Montreal just made me want to go to Paris. I don't know what it is lately, but I feel like I just need to be there!