We are in the Holiday Inn Express near Old Town. We drove up from Middlebury yesterday with DS#2 who we picked up from his summer job. Tomorrow we drive back to DC. Crossing the border yesterday took forever (about an hour). Yesterday we went to Stash, a very pretty polish restaurant in Old Montreal. We looked at boats and watched fire-eaters and listened to many people speaking french. My understanding is that these people can speak english but would rather not, just like people in france. Today we'll see Notre Dame and pray for health and happiness, particularly for DS#2 who went out drinking last night with a friend and returned home a little wobbly. We also want to go to the art museum and remember to feed the parking meter. Do you have any suggestions for us?

We're going to the 11 o'clock mass which features a choir. There's also an anime conference at the congress whatever so there are many young people walking around town in strange costumes. More than usual.

My only suggestion is to have a wonderful time and share the adventure!

"My understanding is that these people can speak english but would rather not, just like people in france."

That's not really true. Some Quebec francophones and European francophones speak English flawlessly, some just fine, others so-so, some only the barest rudiments. A considerable number of Quebec and European francophones of varying linguistic ability actually like to speak English and seek out opportunities to do so, others only speak English when the situation requires it, only a certain fraction can't or won't speak English.

BTW I'm glad it seems like you're having fun.

Thanks! Already we're having fun, although the car was towed to make room for gay pride parade, but to just around the corner. We went to mass, watched a singer from England (mike passenger) sing in a park, now we're going to eat in Chinatown, then go to art museum. Is this the best trip report ever, or what?

Good of you to share the excitement. Parking in Montreal is crazy even without a parade--be glad you only got towed to around the corner.

Have you thought about the Biodome? It's my favourite place in Montreal.

Thanks Eliz. There's much we didn't get to, including the museum of fine arts and the bio-dome. I went downstairs to watch the gay pride parade which was pretty cool, lots of feather boas, marching drum corps, balloons, and cowboys with red shirts and white hats dancing what looked like the Texas two step for the entire parade route. Then we walked along St Catherine street to Bistro T, a nice restaurant run by the people who run Toque which is supposed to be really super dooper. That's about all we did.. Today we drove home to DC. We were abducted by alien space creatures but managed to escape. Now we're home again.

Actually people were nice about speaking English and we weren't really abducted by alien space creatures. That was an embellishment.

Sounds like you really know how to make the most of your travels, and had a terrific time as a result, notwithstanding a towed car and an interlude with the space aliens. If you plan on doing anymore cross border or international travel, look into getting the GOES/Nexus pass which will make customs and immigration faster and easier both coming and going.

Hope to make it to D.C someday, and will count on this forum to help with our planning.

Happy travels!

I'll look into GOES/nexus pass, and be glad to share favorites in DC. Thanks again.