Thursday 19 February 2009

La Belle Ville, partie deux

Breakfast On Sunday morning, we woke up a lot earlier than I wanted to. Our friend Nick came to pick us up, and the entire gang went out for breakfast in Laval. I'd say Ell and I look remarkably good, considering the previous nights' activities! Nick is hiding behind me, and continuously hid from my camera throughout the day.
During breakfast, we formulated our plan for the rest of the day, trying to fit in as many things that we wanted to do as we could.


After breakfast, we all headed out to Old Montreal, for a little bit of European charm. Ell and I very much enjoyed a fantastic, high-end book store called Librissime. It was absolutely beautiful. (Totally made me think of my friend Rae, I think he'd really like it).  It was full of first editions, limited editions, and several other books in the $50,000 range.  Absolutely lovely.
Miss-Chievous Post

Flags Lomo boats
Of comparable beauty was the Papeterie Casse-Noisette. No doubt, even in another language, leave it to me to find a paper store. I ended up buying an agenda, with a faux leather cover in robin's egg blue. It's all in French, and it's a July - August, so it's already half over... but it was $5, and so pretty, I couldn't resist. I also bought a little notebook made by the company "Claire Fontaine" ... Hawksley Workman lovers will know exactly why I bought that book! (Amy, Danielle - I'm looking at you, kids!)





Afterwards, we parted ways. Nick dropped Ell and I off on Ste-Catherine Street, for a shopping adventure. Oddly enough, it was pretty much all the same shops that we have in Toronto, especially on Yonge St.. I was hoping for some local stores, but nope. I ended up buying a jacket, bra and book about Cinderella at Urban Outfitters. Go figure. We met up with Alex, at the Centre Eaton (The Toronto similarities are killing me!)... dropped off our bags at the hotel, and went out again.

The best Poutine ever. We went to the Cafe Republique for coffee (and discovered that Celine Dion was in town that night... I guess we looked like we were on our way to the concert) ... and then we went to La Belle Province, so that I could indulge in some poutine (I was very upset about having to eat by myself, so Ell shared with me). I ordered all in French (or at least I tried!), and the guy told me that "c'est fait avec amour!" (he made it for me with love) ... very sweet. It was definitely the best poutine I've ever had. Quebecers definitely do it right (let's hope so, since they invented it...). We then got Alex something to eat at one of her favourite places.

After we were all nourished, we made our way over to St-Laurent, to a very cool place called the GoGo Lounge.  It was this super cool mod club - a throwback to the late 1960s, and we actually got to sit in hands!  (see the pictures, it'll make sense).  The drink menu was presented to us on a record - there were at least 25 or so delicious sounding martini's.  I settled on a Mr. Freeze (which perfectly matched my sweater).  Alex had an Orange Crush, which also matched her top.  Very amusing.  The music in there was an awesome retro mix that I constantly felt like singing along with.



Mr. Freeze Cheers!

Closer Gorgeous Girl with Martini



Okay, that's it for now... More pics at my flickr... and the last of the updates hopefully to follow tomorrow.

I am very behind in my blog reading, and I promise to get to all of your blogs from the last week and a half by the end of this weekend :) Love you guys!
Pin It

7 comments:

stelladaniella said...

I totally fawned over Claire Fontaine notebooks and almost bought one the last time I was in Montreal ... all while quietly singing the Hawksley song to myself!

Katie said...

LOL, I was totally singing the song to myself too.
I ended up buying just a little pocket-sized green notebook. With GRAPH paper inside. It's adorable :)

Anonymous said...

amazing pics and story!

sorry about the toronto references, i should have mentioned st denis... thats a great street for local stuff, with an amazingly cute little tea shop with handpainted tea cups and saucers, pots etc.

i love hearing about people's experiences in montreal, and i even learn a few things :) i definately am gonna make an effort to get to the GoGo Lounge!

Unknown said...

LOL, no worries Dee... I wanted to see what all the hype was about, re: Ste-Catherine. And we ended up going shopping on St Laurent the next day (to be blogged about!) so we definitely got some local flavour in.

And YES! Check out GoGo Lounge for sure! It was super cool. I wish we had a place like that here. (Be forewarned though, drinks were a little pricey, and they make you check your coat)... but it's definitely got a wicked vibe.

Sarah said...

ste. catherine is so overrated...not only is it all mainstream toronto shops, but it's the same six repeated every two blocks. the only saving grace is maison simon (did you go? i haven't been shopping on ste. catherine in a long time, so i don't know if it's even still there.)!

oddly, i've never had poutine from la belle province. every time we go, i end up deciding that the line is too long and going back to the hotel (there is a dep across the street, so we just buy stuff there before we go out). i hear it is incredible.

i think you were asking me which clubs we went to last time i was in montreal. i finally remembered the name of the one--med. well, i think that's what it was called. it seems to be ringing bells.

Anonymous said...

dammit, would you stop posting pics of poutine?! I REALLY WANT SOME!

Nancy said...

Sounds like an awesome trip!! I haven't been to MTL in so long!

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

Share this