Mont Royale

Last night I was having trouble getting to sleep, not because I had coffee late in the day, I think it was because of the weekly family zoom call. It’s at 10 PM my time which means we don’t get done till 11 and I think I was just too wired from chatting with my mom and sisters so it took me forever to get to sleep. I tried reading, listening to an audiobook, drinking water, going to the bathroom, listening to the Noisli app and nothing was working. Finally just before 1 o’clock I got up to look out the window and see if anything was going on in the street below. There was the occasional car and a few young people walking in groups. I am very close to McGill University, so there are lots of students living nearby. In fact across the alleyway I look into the apartments of several students. I have seen boys playing video games, a cat lounging at the window, people working on laptops. Anyway, I was looking at towards the street when I saw a flash of light. At first I was thinking that maybe one of the street lights burnt out in a final blaze of glory. Then, across the way in the sky, I saw other flashes and realized it was lightning. This, of course is very exciting for me since we don’t get lightning very much at home, I think I posted about this when I was in Wyoming. Anyway, I pulled up a chair and enjoyed a fantastic light show! Brilliant flashes and forks of lightning over and over and over again, it almost looked like a scene from a war movie. I couldn’t hear any thunder, but the wind had definitely picked up. When I checked my weather app, it said that there was rain coming in 30 minutes. So I watched the lightning for a while, then got into bed with the window open ready to enjoy the rain. I must’ve fallen asleep within a couple of minutes because the next thing I knew there was bright sunshine and it was almost 8 o’clock in the morning!

I decided instead of buying coffee and cream and making it myself every morning. I would try out a different café, since the cost would end up being about the same. Today’s café was the Café Heron Blanc, the white heron café. It was a very minimalistic coffee shop with the best latte I’ve had so far, strong and a little sweet. There was quiet, soothing music playing, only two long tables, and a window-seat. The neighborhood where I am staying has all these beautiful houses and sweet little cafés and restaurants. It is a great spot. 

Since I spent yesterday in the touristy busy areas of Montreal, I decided today I would spend exploring, Mont Royale, hopefully away from the crowds. It was a beautiful hike up to the various summits, though there definitely were quite a few tourists at any place with a view.

I stopped at the cross, which I have not seen lit up at night, yet, that will be on my list of things to do before I leave.

After that, I went to the Chalet du Mont Royale, then Lac Aux Castors, where the trees were gorgeously decked out in fall colors.

Finally I went to Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal, Canada’s largest church. It has a beautiful basilica and a smaller crypt chapel, as well as a shrine to St Joseph where you can light a votive candle for someone. There are also hundreds of canes and crutches in the shrine hall as a symbol of the people who have been healed by their prayers to Saint Joseph. 

I was starving by the time I finished looking around the oratory. I resigned myself to crappy cafeteria food, especially once I saw the little Café with only a handful of items, mainly egg salad sandwiches, for sale. I got a ham sandwich on olive bread with tomatoes and lettuce for $7.75, about $6 US so I was not holding out much hope that it would be any good. I was surprised at how heavy the sandwich was. When I sat down and took a bite I was rewarded with an absolutely delicious sandwich that filled my stomach. You just never know.

With a full tummy, I made my way to visit a friend of my moms who lives in the same neighborhood as the oratory. Anna and my mom were nurses together in San Francisco 60 years ago, and when my mom found out I was going to be in Montreal, she asked me to visit Anna. We had a lovely couple of hours together with me filling her in on the family and learning a little bit about her life. She is 95 years old and lives on her own, and she was so much fun to talk to. I’m really glad I took the time to go and see her and to get some pictures for my mom.

On the walk back to my place, I passed the fine arts museum, which had some cool sculptures outside, as well as a few more murals on walls.