In June I spent three weeks living in Montréal, Québec, in the Plâteau apartment of my good friend Charles (where I stayed the last time I visited the city, actually).
While I can’t honestly say that it’s my favourite Canadian city (I love the hustle of Toronto too much, sue me), there really is no place quite like Montréal. Caught between Francophone Québecois culture and the predominantly Anglophone culture of the rest of Canada, the city has developed a very singular identity, and it has a lot to say for itself, which it does through a huge arts and culture scene. I’m glad to have spent a month essentially just living there, really getting to know the city properly, pretending to be a local.
The worst: I definitely could have done without the deadly heatwave that occurred at the end of my trip, given that A) I am weak, and B) air conditioning is oddly sparse in MTL, but I do truly believe that it made me a stronger person, lol.
The best: Making new Montréal friends, spending time with old Vancouver friends who happened to be in the city, and spending probably a billion years at the MASSIVE Musée des beaux-arts.