Montreal, Quebec

Our Map of Montreal

We entered Quebec and all the traffic signs immediately went to French. We were nervous from other peoples’ stories about Montreal and Quebec, but experienced just the opposite. For example, when we stopped for our campsite, the attendant switched from French to English and without prompting said he would draw us a map of how to get around in Montreal. We told him of some of the key sites we wanted to see, he suggested we save the old city for last – because Quebec City’s was so much better. We visited the huge Oratorio of St. Joseph – a huge church that dominates the horizon. From there, we went to Mount Royale for a beautiful view of the city below. Then off to the botanical gardens – one could fit Denver’s botanical gardens into a corner of these. We only saw about ¼ of the layout. Most spectacular were the orchid collection, the Chinese garden, which reminded us of ones we saw in Bejing; and the insectorium, which had a vast collection of insects from around the world. This was much more than a butterfly pavilion – it really taught us about all sort of beetles, butterflies, and assorted insects.