Just over a week ago Devin arrived home from work with a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous grin. "I might be done work early next week....want to take a long weekend trip?" Is the Pope Catholic? Heck yes I want to take a trip!
And so we poured over our options: visit friends in DC, hop a plane somewhere warm, road-trip-it to see family, find a nice hotel in the White Mountains or visit a B&B in Montreal. Since neither of us had spent any amount of time in Montreal, we decided that would be our destination of choice. With a little luck we found this adorable B&B that miraculously had availability for the weekend. Putting our trust in the online reviews, we booked a room, brushed up on our "Bonjours!" and "Mercis!" and packed our bags!
The
Victorian Heritage Bed & Breakfast could not have been nicer. A historical home that has been beautifully restored to it's late 1800 beauty. After arriving on Friday midday and having lunch we decided to read and relax in our adorable room.
THIS is where I spent the majority of the weekend up to my neck in bubbles and warm water. Life is so much better with a bathtub.
The house has images of the former Monk Family that inhabited the house in the 1800's. The beautiful woman in the painting at the bottom of the stairs was Rosalie-Caroline Monk, the mother.
The parlor room was particularly lovely with the antique chairs and settee. Beautiful!
Oh, yes....and there was a secret door to the next part of the house.
We are now trying to figure out how we can incorporate this into our future home :)
From the other side of the secret door it was an
armoire. Devin is showing you how to activate the door :)
Our first dinner in Montreal was at a lovely little French bistro:
Restaurant L'Express. The pickles and mustard they served with the meal were
sooo delicious!
After dinner a little
chocolate never hurts.. :)
Saturday dawned beautiful and COLD. We ventured out to
Mont Royal Parc with the idea that we would go sledding or ice skating. Our American blood is much too thin for 11 degrees. We opted to take
quick a stroll and retreat back to our car. The sledding tracks were really cool though :)
View on Montreal from Mont Royal.
Devin and I both have a love for architecture and history, so many of our trips include visits to old churches. At the suggestion of another guest, we visited
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal. And it was beautiful.
This tower holds the bell "Jean Baptiste" that weighs 11 tons. When it rings it shakes the whole building. For the preservation of the structure they only ring it at Christmas and Easter as well as for very important persons....like the Pope. (*Side Note* This is where Celine Dion was married in 1994. They
did not ring the 11 ton bell for her wedding. :) )
The colors and light and design inside were simply breath taking.
7,000 pipe organ.
The church was built in Gothic Revival style.
The pews had carvings at the end of saints with the Virgin Mary on the front pew.
The stained glass windows around the church tell the history of Montreal.
Most wedding ceremonies take place in the smaller chapel behind the main chapel. The main chapel seats 3200 and the smaller chapel
apx 350. It is just as beautiful and yet more intimate for a wedding that is not the size of Celine Dion's. The relief behind the altar was really beautiful, depicting the stages of life and gates towards Heaven.
Had it not been so cold we might have considered a carriage tour of Montreal :)
A lot of the buildings have murals painted on them, which I thought was really neat.
Not a mural, but still a cool piece of history... :)
I have never seen this before, but we saw it several times around the city here: a building under construction has a scrim over it with an image of the building it will soon be. Very cool!
Nearly at our freezing point and well beyond being cold, we happened by this cupcake shop. Bliss!
All in all it was a fabulous weekend: Our B&B was perfect and we had a great time visiting with the other guests over a delicious breakfast of breads, cheeses, and fruits, the city was full of fantastic restaurants and places to visit, and best of all I had my favorite travel partner to spend some quality time with :) I highly recommend Montreal.
xo Kaht
