Ten Year Anniversary Trip: We Want More Montreal and Date Night in Toronto

Montreal feels like a blend of modern edge with classic form and buildings. The great use of historic buildings is what left an imprint on us after this very quick, less than 24 hour trip. This post box. This post boxed nailed it. Modern vibe next to old school stone wall. Nicely done Montreal.

Friends suggested we hit Tommy Cafe for coffee. Our internet friends weren't wrong. We just missed the actual breakfast and could only get pastries and coffee. C'est domage? Non, c'est parfait. 

We strolled around looking for a bigger breakfast option to load up before our second Canadian road trip day.

We stumbled upon Crew Collective...and what a find it was.

We ordered a light lunch and decided to enjoy it in the gorgeous old bank that has been converted to meeting rooms and collective work spaces. Eric had the most wonderful house cured salmon and I had the avocado BLT with pickled celery ribbons. The coffee shop was behind what would have been the bank teller area. Again, a gorgeous use of space. We were there on a Thursday. There were tour groups, business people, people working on laptops, and deals happening behind glassed walls. Even with the hustled of people coming in and out the area was very quiet. Library quiet, actually. Looking up you could see the coiffured ceiling which has that calming effect on sounds and space. Think of Union Station's ceiling in DC. Same design concept to keep the noise to a minimum.

The space, energy and details were just beautiful.

We did not tickle the Botero pinky toe on our walk, but love that passersby continue to do so even with words of warning. Do not touch. Maybe it should say, Do Not Tickle.

Daily Chandelier in another bank building. Modern vibe smack dab next to art deco design next door.

We called for the bikes, our car and got ourselves together to head out.

We asked the front desk manager to take our anniversary photo and he literally bent down on one knee to take it, making us crack up. Montreal, you are one lovely city. Merci!

It was a perfectly cloudy day driving to Toronto. It was a pretty dull ride other than passing by the Thousand Islands. Check out that link. We must find a way to go up there Charlie! There were so many cool homes in the middle of the lake. Boat houses are just the coolest. We found Baby Nephew III a birthday moose and a few Canadian candies while up north too eh.

The traffic in Toronto was gruesome. It took us an hour to get 20 miles. But once we finally found the hotel all our driving cares melted away. Thompson Toronto was the truth.

The suite had a perfect little TV area to stretch out. There was champagne chilled and ready for us. We popped that bottle so fast. Mary's whipped cream and strawberries were the perfect pairing with champers.

The champagne was just what we needed after the 7 hour drive, that should have been 5.5 hours. Summer. I forget that summer tacked on hours.

I had visited Toronto once before for a conference. We did an event at Sotto Sotto and I remember it as being one of the best Italian meals I'd ever experienced. Do click this website link too. Toronto's web developers are on top of it. I do love the large scale videos and music on this site.

Horrible photo. Great table and date. There was a curtain behind Eric that closed as we were finishing our third course. The private group was so private that the body guard jumped when I came back from the powder room to get to my chair. I have no idea who was there but it was fun being there with a body guard two tables down from us. When you walk up the stairs there is a wall of fame with tons of celebrity photos lining the walk.

We had beef carpaccio to start, mushroom papardelle, bronzino, tiramisu and a gorgeous bottle of Chianti for our Anniversary Meal, but on the 6th of July. I got lemoncello and E finished with an espresso.

Horrible photo. Beautiful bronzino in a salt crust. 

E's ring reminds us both to Be Present. We had such a nice date and reminisced on the last twelve years together. I wish I wrote down what we said. I tried to keep a journal, but hope this little Blog will remind us how nice of a night it truly was. The restaurant is so dark and romantic. It's a small little place and different from the location from years ago. They had a fire. It was fun bringing E back to this place I remembered so fondly.

As we waited for our Uber we couldn't resist this Somerville selfie!

Ten Year Anniversary Trip: Tandem Coffee Roasters to Montreal, Canada

We rolled into Portland the morning of the 5th of July to calm ourselves with coffee and the best pastries this side of the Mississippi as we waited for our passports to arrive. Tandem Coffee has been our go to hot spot while visiting Ms. Moran. The weather was pure bliss. No humidity. You can see the bike rack circle over E's left shoulder in this picture. Scroll through the photos here of the cafe.

I had the blueberry scone and granola yogurt to fuel up for our long drive to Montreal. Mary and E had egg sandwiches on biscuits. The enameled trays with navy banding, the Carrara marble counter tops, the light fixtures, the coffee, oh the coffee, the picnic tables outside. The tandem bike, bike rack with their adorable logo. All of it makes Tandem one of our top 5 favorite coffee shops in our Coffee Pilgrimage adventures. 

Mary was our Maid of Honor in our wedding 10 years ago. She wanted to give us an anniversary present from LLBean so we swung by Freeport on the way back to Bath. While at the coffee shop we got the notice that our passports were at Mary's at 10 AM, NOT 7PM which was the original stress. We high tailed it to Bean to grab a bag.

Mary is a great model. Embroidery is free and we begged them to let us jump the line so we could be "on time" to get our adventure on the road post haste. This cooler bag was clutch for our driving adventures. Thanks so much Mare!!!

We got back to Mary's, and as we packed up the car, our dear vegetarian friend made us chicken sandwiches to go, put a box of strawberry shortcake together, and a whole can of whipped cream for our hotel room. It was so sweet. We also had TWO salted chocolate chip cookies from Tandem for the road. We were set. We hugged Mary, thanked her for the hospitality, and then "get-on-downed-the-road" to Canada!

stock photo from the internet

The drive through Maine was beautiful two lane highway, up steep grades. We got stuck behind a logging truck which slowed us down. I drove this leg and kept my distance.

stock photo from the internet

Maybe it was the coffee talking, but all I could think of was that one bad turn and our little trip would look like this? I'm not sure where my brain goes so negative so fast, but there it is. So I kept my distance behind the logging truck. Way behind, while E napped.

We didn't get squished by a logging truck, Praise God, and we did arrive in Montreal before the sunset. Our room was fantastic and we stayed at the Hotel Le Saint Sulpice. Eric upgraded us to a suite and it felt so spacious. There was a large room where we could throw open the windows, relax on the sofa and listen to the bustle of the quiet street below us. It felt so European. Susan and Lucy left the day before we got there. I begged people to speak French with me and once we crossed the border earlier in the day we switched the radio to French only speaking radio to get us prepped. 

We freshened up and headed out immediately to find cocktails and dinner. The flower boxes were gorgeous all over Montreal.

The streets were narrow, some cobble with stoned. St. Paul Street was paved in stone in 1672. 300 years before I was born.

We landed on a spot for dinner called L'Original which was charmingly Canadian without being cheesy. Moose carvings and a huge canoe decked out the bar.

We were pretty wrecked from the trek but happy to land at the bar for a nice meal. The guy next to us was eating Poutine, so the smells of Canada greeted us almost immediately upon entering the country.

Gin, Prosecco and Lime Juice.

E. had the halibut special with tomatoes and basil pesto and I had the trout with mussels. The steel head trout was pink like salmon and served with a lentil cream sauce. It was a gorgeous meal.

The hotel was right next door to the Notre-Dame Basilica. Walking back from dinner, the entire path was lit up with the cite memoire. We lucked out and sat in the plaza watching people look up. It felt very safe, clean and the weather was great. No humidity. Looking back we desperately wanted more time in Montreal. 

Cité Mémoire - English version from Montréal en Histoires on Vimeo.