Rees' in Montreal

For summer vacation this year we decided to stay in Canada (basically due to the horrible us exchange rate) and choose Montreal as our destination. 

We have never been to Montreal for more than a stop over so everything was new to us. Instead of staying in a hotel we used Airbnb and found a great condo in old Montreal. It had a little kitchen, washer and dryer and made life a little easier. 

Everything in Montreal is accessible. We walked to the shops and restaurants or took one of the city bikes ( $5 for 24 hours). 

Everyone spoke English and were very friendly  (for the most part anyway). The food portions were huge. We learned that we could share lunch and for supper we ordered an entree and appetizer to share ( not to be cheap , just because it was way too much to eat and most was thrown out). 

We enjoyed Schwartz's smoked meat sandwiches ( we could have shared on it was massive). Their poutine was ok. Be prepared for a long lineup to dine inside. We waited over an hour.

Terrasses Bonsecour was recommended by my Chanel SA. Great place to dine. Food was ok and so was the service.  We ate at La Pizzaiolle twice. Their four cheese pizza is delicious!! Cafe chat l'heureux is a great little place to enjoy the company of friendly cats and a latte. Restaurant da Emma was our fine dining choice. Make sure you make a reservation. 

Shopping. Everything was on sale. That's not always good because everything was sold out that I was looking for, crazy line ups and crappy service. Not all stores were like that. We had great service at club Monaco, holt renfrew and la Madison Ogilvy. Louis Vuitton was sold out of the things we were looking for. We went on Thursday July 2 and ordered some things in from the Toronto store to try on but it didn't arrive before we left to go home (so no Vuitton this time). I was lucky at Chanel though. The SA told us that the GST was discontinued and they had two left in the store. I got one of my very own :) 

Overall we walked a lot, ate a lot and had lots of fun. If we had rented a car we would have done some hiking outside the city. I would have done that in the spring or fall. It was way too hot for hiking. Any questions leave them below :)