honeymoon - day 9

Today was our last full day of honeymoon-tastic Canadian adventure and, by and large, it was a day of wrapping up some loose ends. We started out with a decent room service breakfast then headed across the street to check out the interior of the Cathédrale-Marie-du-Monde. Just like its exterior, the interior was beautiful.



After the cathedral, we met up with the only person I know in Canada, Canadian composer, arranger, instrumentalist, and all-around nice guy Guillaume Jodoin. Guillaume and I went to grad school together at USC and it was really good to see him after five years.



Guillaume and his girlfriend Marie-Pierre showed us around their apartment and then took us out into Montréal to see some of the non-touristy sites. Guillaume and Marie-Pierre showed us some of the more up-scale neighborhoods including the bizarre enclave of Westmont where a vast majority of the city's rich, English-speaking residents live in a constant state of French-denial. Their architecture is very elegant English manor-inspired. Their street are named - not only in English - but named after things that scream "United Kingdom!" There was Trafalfar Avenue, Belvedere Circle, Park Hill, etc. For a city were every other street is named some variation of either Rue de Sainte-Catherine or Boulevarde de Maisonneuve, Park Hill sticks out like a picture of fish and chips stitched to the front of the French flag.

After seeing some fo the sites, Guillaume and Marie-Pierre took us to a great little Jewish deli called Schwartz's that should be in every Montréal guide book. Get the «viende fumée» sandwich and a dill pickle. Just trust me; it's delicious.



Once we finished at Schwartz's, we headed to HMV, bought some French/French-Canadian pop music and then bid "adieu" to our tour guides. Manda and I returned on foot to our hotel and settled in to planning for our travel tomorrow morning. We headed down to the hotel's Business Center, jumped online for a bit, and then set off to buy souvenirs for our coworkers from within Montréal's Underground City, a massive underground mall that they built to allow shoppers to contribute to capitalism while shielding them from the cold.

Our honeymoon has been magical or, as the Québecois say "Our honeymoon has been magical" - 'cause ... you know ... they all speak English. I've loved Québec and loved spending such a fun-filled and action-packed vacation with my wonderful wife.



It's been a great start to our marriage and the first of many new adventures to come.