Out and about...

Yesterday, we finally had a chance to go explore a bit of Montreal. Other than the obvious frustrations of traveling in a group of 60 people (of teachers, no less...good Lord!!!), it was a nice afternoon once we got underway. Our first order of business was a stroll through the Vieux-Montréal neighborhood...which means the old part of Montreal. Ironically, even though this was one of the oldest parts of the city, we initially saw some pretty cool contemporary architecture.

As we walked around, we also started to see some older buildings that looked like they had been around for awhile. Due to fire, which I think struck most major cities way back when, a lot of Montreal has been built and rebuilt. In fact a huge part of Vieux-Montréal is a giant archeological site. The city planners just kept tearing down buildings and adding new structures on top of the old foundations. Or, like in this picture, they just added to structures that were already there. How many previous structures can you see here?

We also visited the Musée d'archéologie et d'histoire de Montréal, which I'll leave you to translate :) It was fascinating! We had a really good guide who took us down into an archeological excavation they've turned into a museum. She told us about the First Nations (Native Americans in "Canadian") presence here at the time the French and British colonizers arrived, showed us the remains of the first European cemetary in Quebec, and the site of the first city market. And all of this was UNDERGROUND. How cool is that?!?

Here's a picture of us in the first city sewers (ewww....but not smelly)...

And here's what was above us at the street level...c'est pas beautiful ça? Progress is pretty amazing.

Especially in North America where we seem to have this urge to completely reinvent ourselves every so often. While it's great to appreciate and conserve history, it's also something else to keep trying to top yourselves. Comments welcome :)

 I discovered something else amazing today too. Maple Syrup Gelato...holy smokes. Good stuff. Good thing I ordered a mini cone, which was indeed the smallest cone I've ever had. However, with the sweetness and the richness of the maple flavor, it was just right...