Seeing Is Believing

It has been a couple of weeks since I visited Montreal. I went back to Ottawa two Fridays ago but not before I stopped off at Joe La Croute for some baguette ($2.70) and croissant ($2.10). I was intrigued to see an old couple stepping inside this small bakery next to the Jean Talon market on Thursday. I found out that they opened at 6 in the morning and so early Friday, I walked over at 7 to get some fresh baked goods and finished packing. Finally, some excellent treats at a great price.

Since that trip, I thought about my first impression of Montreal. This will be mostly a list complaints. But I want to be clear that the city was wonderful. Even though I was in mid-town, no doubt far from the charm of Vieux Montreal, Le Plateau, and more central neighbourhoods, Little Italy and the adjacent quarters was great. Everything was walkable amid old buildings, vibrant shops, and busy pedestrians.

But the residential housing was uninteresting and mostly ugly. The well-known Montreal plexes with their spiraling outdoor stairs solve a problem that I've been thinking about for Toronto: how to have more living units but not concentrated in huge condos. But their sameness and ubiquity on every street made for a boring streetscape compared to the variety of houses in the Big Smoke. Speaking of ugly, all those highways and interchanges really chopped up the city, even if not directly in the downtown core.

I was surprised by the food costs, higher than Toronto despite cheaper rent, and mildly disappointed by the quality and portion size given these prices. When you are in a new place, you obviously don't know the good spots. But it would be expensive to find them by trial and error (Google and other review websites don't really help). I'm also curious if Montreal has the variety that Toronto has from its influx of immigrants.

Finally, I thought transit would be good here. The subways were fine but didn't operate as late as Toronto. The carriages were smaller: Scarborough-RT-size on the Saint-Michel line and Ottawa-LRT-size on the busier Cote-Vertu line. My main beef was that the buses only run every 20-30 minutes, except between noon and 7 pm, even on major routes like Saint Laurent and Jarry. In addition, transfers were only 1-way for a single trip and not a timed duration good for all travel like Ottawa and Toronto. Maybe Montreal neighbourhoods were busy and walkable because nobody wants to go to another part of the city?

In any case, it was a nice and interesting city. I'm looking for a sublet to give me a chance to experience more of Montreal.