some things you don't forget

Hoooooo boy. 


It's been a looooong time since I last updated and that's always how it seems to go! But sometimes I feel that they more busy you are with life, the less time you have for blogging, and that can be a good thing as well, no? Most of the free time in Montreal was spent exploring and taking tons of photographs with the notion that I would get to editing them eventually when I got back to Singapore. Why waste precious time in Montreal editing there? Well, now I'm back. :(( MAJOR SIGH. But that's life. I just got back 2 days ago and after an awesome night celebrating my grandparents' 65th anniversary, I'm more or less settled down and ready to start diving into stuff again. 


The next few posts (and I think it's going to be quite a lot!) are going to be all Montreal related. :D I've got a gazillion photos of wonderful places that I visited in Montreal and will be coming up with a list of MUST-DOs/MUST-SEEs. It's such an amazing place and I really want to go back there again hopefully soon! But this time, I'll do my research well and go during the right months. March and April were really meh months in terms of the weird fluctuating weather. The next time it'll be July during the JAZZ FESTIVAL. :D Excited already. 


But back to the topic at hand.

 

I'm so happy just reminiscing about moments spent in Montreal. This was the first tea I had over there. And by "tea", I really just mean any meal after lunch and before dinner but it doesn't have to involve the drinking of tea per se. We were waiting to meet up with my housemate for the first time and since we didn't have enough time to find a proper restaurant, we merely walked around the apartment building where she stayed and went into the first legit looking cafe on the main street, St Catherine. My mum ordered a Croque Monsieur (and I finally figured out what that was!) while I had a shepherd's pie. For those of you who don't know, Croque Monsieur is basically just a Ham & Cheese croissant but sometimes a baguette is used instead. :D I'd always heard about it/seen it in books but never really knew what it was. And I liked it soooo much more than my shepherd's pie that was a little on the burnt side. The Croque Monsieur had a really crispy, buttery, flaky croissant that went so well with the saltiness of the pieces of ham. After that, I was pretty much hooked. That was the first of a GAZILLION teas to come. 


I wouldn't say that it was the best cafe I've been into because most of the dishes (hot chocolate/shepherd's pie/latte etc)(except for that awesome Croque Monsieur) were pretty average. But I'll remember it because it was the very first cafe we ducked into, completely by chance, and it was small, dimly lit, cosy, and provided warmth from the immensely cold weather outside. 

La Croissanterie 

 1909 rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, 

Montreal, Quebec H3H 1M3, Canada  

If you're used to tropical heat, early March is NOT a good time to visit Montreal. The temperature hovers around -5 to 0 degrees Celsius. And apparently it was the warmest winter they've had this year. Don't say I didn't warn you. ;)