Montreal

Two days later, my family and I reached Montreal located at 47°14N and 84°39W. I thought Halifax had a huge population and population density compared to St. Catharines, but Montreal makes St.Catharines look like a very small village! Montreal is the second largest city in Canada, with a population of 3,365,571 and a population density of 854/km².  Only Toronto has a greater population and population density.Unlike  Halifax, we decided to take a tour by ourselves instead of with a tour company.Montreal is a bilingual city,  but we decided to take a tour of mainly french areas, so most of the landmarks and key industries were in french. Luckily for my family, my dad is fluent in french, so he was like our tour guide while we embarked through Montreal. We began by seeing Musee de Beaux-Arts, which my dad translated to be the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum is one of Canada's most famous museums, and it has wide collection of old and new international and Canadian exhibits. There is also another part of the building across the street that people can reach from the underground gallery that connects the two sites. Next, we went to Oratoire Saint-Joseph, which in english means St. Joseph's Oratory. St.Joseph's Oratory, is a  basilica built in honor of St. Joseph, Canada's patron saint. This experience was breathtaking for my whole family, even though we are not very religious people. After a quick snack of croissants, we decided to climb up the 764 ft mountain of Mont Royal. Climbing up the mountain was hard work, but it was totally worth it for the view. From the top, I had a great view of Montreal and at the top there was a recreational centre where I played soccer with a few locals from Montreal. Afterwards, my family and I had walked down the mountain andwe headed over to Lemeac Cafe Bistrot. The food and service were excellent at Lemeac Cafe Bistrot. I would highly recommend eating there if you were looking for a place to eat in Montreal.

When we had arrived at our hotel, which was just north of Montreal, I noticed that the landscape and climate were both VERY different than Halifax . Our hotel was a small eccentric log cabin style hotel, located in an area with a high density of deciduous and coniferous trees .When I looked out of the window in my bedroom, I saw endless amounts of trees. In the forest, I saw a couple of moose, a few beavers, foxes and I thought I saw a black bear.Montreal is located in the Mixedwood Plains ecozone, so the climate near Montreal, summers are mild and relatively long with 20ºC as the average and the winters are very short with an average of -7ºC. The average annual precipitation ranges from 100 to 400 mm per year, which is less than Halifax. Also, the soil is very good for farming in Montreal. The Mixedwood Plains ecozone is one of the only spots in Canada, where the soil is good enough to farm. Although, little vegetation is near Montreal, since the land is already developed with buildings.

 

View of Montreal from Mont Royal at Night

Today was our last day in le ville de Montréal, so we decided to visit  mom's friend Anna from university, who lives in an apartment in an area called Westmount. We arrived at Anna's apartment, and my mom and Anna  talked for hours about how their lives had changed since they last saw each other at university, while my dad and I watched TV. While I was watching, I was eavsesdropping on their conversation. I learned alot about what people do for a living in Montreal. The three largest industries in Montreal are business services, manufacturing and retail. Nearly half of the citzens living in Montreal are in the business services and sales. For Anna, she was personally in the aerospace industry for Bombardier Aerospace. Montreal is one of the largest aerospace centres in North America. Also, I learned  what Anna enjoys so much about Montreal. She loves the atmosphere, the cold winters festivals, camping in  of La Mauricie National Park of Canada, which is 200km away from Montreal, and she loves going to the Bell Centre to watch the Montreal Canadians play. After my mom had said good-bye to Anna, we left Montreal. I wanted to stay and climb up Mont Royal again, but I couldn't. I left wondering what I will  do when we reach our next destination of Sudbury.