Vieux Montreal and Hotel Le Saint Sulpice

I had been to Montreal once before in 2007 for the Canadian Grand Prix (separate post here), and one of  favorite things to do during my earlier visit is to walk around Old Montreal exploring all the little shops, cafes,galleries and trying out great dinners at the fabulous restaurants there.  As the name would suggest, this portion of the city is very old. One-lane cobblestone streets criss-cross between classic landmarks like the Place D'Armes and the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal, there are street performers, horse and carriage rides.. Like stepping into a time machine, a trip to Vieux Montreal allows you a glimpse at an older world.  It is only a small section of Montreal but it has that Old Paris/Amsterdam feel to it.

This time I was really looking forward to staying at the Hotel Le Saint Sulpice and surely my wife and I weren't disappointed. Surprisingly located in the same block as the  Notre-Dame cathedral in old Montreal, couldn't be in a better location to explore this beautiful city

Warm, cozy and inviting are the words that come to mind when I entered the hotel. The lobby was grand and had a European charm to it and our room was a three room suite (BR, LR/Kitchenette and Bath) that was like having our own apartment. It was spacious and well-appointed. The furnishings and style were very modern, yet very cozy at the same time.This boutique hotel is located in Rue St.Sulpice in the most historic spot of Old Montreal just steps away from the famed Basilica de Notre Dame and is an ideal spot for sight-seeing, shopping and strolling along the cobble stone streets exploring all the shops and sights.

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Formula1: Canadian GP @ Montreal

Was in Montreal last month to watch the Canadian GP and Wow - Grand Prix weekend in Montreal is a blast! It's certainly not a weekend for the faint-of-heart. This is the weekend when the F1 and its entourage come to Montreal for the Grand Prix du Canada. This entourage consists (allegedly) of hundreds of thousand of F1 crew and tourists along for the party. Many of these tourists are from Europe, where most of the F1 supporters are and they flooded Crescent Street bars .The main party area is the above mentioned Crescent (and Bishop) street. Every single bar or restaurant was packed, the street was closed and there was live music going on. Looked like most of the fun started at late afternoon as the race fans arrive back in town at the end of the day on Fri-Sat-Sun. I walked around downtown and old town in the evenings, there were lot of F1 festivities all over.



Coming back to race itself, the GP takes place at Circuit-Gilles Villeneuve. This circuit is at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Notre-Dame island right across downtown Montreal. The island is connected by a metro line and I ended up taking it on both Sat & Sun. It was abit overwhelming when I got off the train seeing crowd of 100,000 people in a single metro station. But taking the metro is defenitely the way to go. I had a general admission ticket, so wandered around the entire park to find various viewing spots. There were tons of F1 stores and kiosks all over the park which was fun to look at inbetween the events. Took a quick walk inside the Honda World, which was just okay. The park is very nice with lots of food, heaps of people walking around and the qualifying/race itself was fun.

If you have never been to an F1 race and always wanted to go to one, then Montreal is probably the easiest and most convenient.

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