When we woke up, it was still snowing in Montreal. It had snowed all night, and there were several inches of snow on the ground outside. Even though took a few hours to nag Davia enough to write her blog post for yesterday, by the time we made it outside it was still snowing and quite cold at 18° F. Walking outdoors for any great distance did not seem like a good idea.
We decided to head for the “Underground City.” It stretches underneath much of Montreal. It’s basically several small suburban malls linked together through underground tunnels. Underneath each office building there is a main concourse with some more upscale stores and a food court. Connecting these small underground malls are tunnels that typically had lower-end shops such as souvenir shops.
We decided our destination would les Enfants Terribles, a restaurant located at the top of Place Ville Marie, the highest point in the city of Montreal, that our concierge told us about. If you knew exactly how to go, the walk wouldn’t have taken longer than 10-12 minutes.
You’ll see a lot of restaurant stalls like this in the Underground City.
Being unfamiliar with the way the mall areas are connected and not at all in a rush, it take us almost an hour to complete the journey. Finding the one tunnel that leads from one mall area to another was trickier than you’d think, and since it’s underground you don’t get great cell phone service or GPS signal.
We followed the signs as best we could and asked for help from a guide that was stationed near one of the exits. We popped up to the surface inside a large office building to check the GPS on our phones and see how far away we were from our destination. To our surprise, it turned out that we were at 1 Place Ville Marie, where there is a special elevator bank to take you up to les Engants Terribles.
We headed up to the 40th floor with one set of elevators and then up to the 44th floor where the restaurant was located.
The view was as nice as the concierge told us it would be. There is also an observation deck at the top of the building, but there’s an entry fee. If you go to the restaurant then all you have to pay for is good food! Most of the seats we saw should expect to have a good view of the city.
The clientele consisted mostly of upscale patrons… I was the only guy in our section without a blazer or collared shirt. Sorry Mom, I let you down! We were treated very well though, and the food was great.
You can see Davia standing up, regretting the theft of those last few fries from my plate.
We made our way back through the tunnels and past some really nice shops and some equally old and shabby-looking shops. We passed by a popcorn stand with an excellent saleswoman who, against all odds, persuaded us to buy some popcorn. She was so excited to sell some popcorn, you would have thought we were doing her a huge favor. The popcorn was okay, but nothing worth writing a blog about.
We also bought some post cards and stamps. Apparently, mailing a postcard to the US costs 2.65 Canadian Dollars, so if you get one in the mail I hope you appreciate it.
When we surfaced on the city streets a few blocks from our hotel, the streets and sidewalks were in much better condition. Interestingly, they used these smaller snowplows to clear the sidewalks and bike lanes. I had a difficult time imagining that working in Manhattan, but it seemed to work pretty well for Montreal.
Sounds like you had a great day!
Enjoy!