Montreal

Montréal was founded in 1642 by European settlers from the Loire Valley of France. 

Montréal is the most populated city in Quebec and the second most in Canada. Originally called “Ville-Marie” or the City of Mary. The City is centered on the Island of Montreal. 

We docked Thistle for almost a month at the Montreal Yacht Club, located right in the Historic District of Old Port Montreal. We were able to walk or ride bikes everywhere!

The Historic District of Montreal has beautiful 17th Century architecture, and cobblestone streets that have been maintained or restored. (Believe me ....The streets are more than a bit bummmmmmmpy and challenging to navigate by bike.) This area is frequented by horse drawn carriages and many tourists. While exploring Old Town, we had the feeling that we were visiting a European City profuse with French 🇫🇷flair 👨‍🎨!

Montréal truly has the “Jolie de Vivre” found in the Worlds 🌎best cities🥰.

Merci Montreal ... A la prochaine (Until next time)♥️.

We arrived at the Montreal Yacht Club on August 20th ...

Looper Tip: Mid August was already considered Fall in Montreal and docking fees 💰drop by a substantial amount.

We had a view of the GIANT Ferris Wheel 🎡from Thistle !

 Also a view of the famous Montréal Clock Tower and the Jacques Cartier Bridge.

We were docked by the ⚓️anchor...close to everything Montréal has to offer.

Montréal is full of churches. They are found on every lane, corner and direction, they don’t get missed thanks to their beauty and unique individual WOW 💒 factors. 

Upon visiting Montréal Mark Twain said, “This is the first time I was in a city where you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window.” 

All of these churches are breathtaking beautiful on both the interior and exterior.

There are about 650 churches in Montreal (About 200 of them are Catholic).

Montréal is definitely a FOODIE destination!

😋

Poutine

Smoked Meat

Pate 

Baguette 

French Onion Soup

Mussels 

Yummy.....FAVORITES! 

Enjoying lunch at one of Montréal’s outdoor cafes.

😍

💜❤️🧡💛💚💙Colorful Saint Catherine’s Street.

Old Town Montréal with its cobblestone streets, horse drawn 🐎carriages and tourists.

🌷🌹💐🌸🥀🌼🌻🌹Flower barge.

Marche Atwater.

The Market is located along the Lachine Canal...

it offers the best of everything your culinary mind can imagine!

Simply the BEST!

Fingerling Radishes 🇫🇷(very 🧈French).

“Au Revoir” ❌⭕️⚜️

***** NEWS FLASH *****

Special Edition: April 28, 2020🌸

Like almost everyone else in the world we are on a “Stay-at-Home’ order!
(Please don't feel sorry for us, we are very fortunate and realize many are suffering.)

Daily, we read (habits are difficult to change) the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association (AGLCA) information email message. It appears that many Loopers currently have an abundance of extra free time, to complete some of those boat projects on your ✅check list. Feeling a little left out, because unfortunately our boat is 4,817 miles away in winter storage. We needed to get creative on a meaningful remote boat project.

Well, due to some technical issues last summer (crashed iPad), ordering a new iPad, iPad setup and some procrastination (actually to be honest, lots of procrastination) we never finished our Summer 2019 Loop Life Blog......That’s when we recently had an 😇“aha moment”! Let’s finish our Blog during this “Stay-at-Home” order.

It’s actually been a fun project, looking through all of last summers pictures, log notes and retracing our journey, at home with our navigation apps! So many wonderful memories♥️!

By writing our Blog over the last few weeks we also came to the realization of how much Looping has unexpectedly helped to prepare us mentally, emotionally and physically while facing the current situation we are all experiencing.

While Looping (we finished the Great Loop in 2018 and the Triangle/Mini Loop in 2019) we always had a plan, but not a schedule. Examples of how we think our past Loop experiences are currently helping us cope with “Stay-at-Home”:

• We waited and waited for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Mexico...would it be days, weeks, a month or more, but we waited patiently to have a safe passage.  (How long will we be waiting patiently for a safe window with “Stay-at-Home” ?)
• In various locations, we couldn’t always find the groceries on our list or even a grocery store that was open, but we learned to improvise.  (Doesn't that sounds familiar now?)
• On the Loop we learned to live together (almost always happily) in close quarters, that experience was personally a godsend for us living together the last few weeks! (How much longer can we take “Stay-at-Home”❓ FYI: We were slow Loopers, taking our time over 5 years.)

We have recently experienced Looper Social Distancing Docktails🍹, by enjoying a Zoom 💤Happy Hour with boating buddies in Gananoque 🇨🇦from our home in Honolulu🌈!

The original purpose of this Special Edition NEWS FLASH was to let our Blog followers know that the Summer 2019 Blog is finished! (We will upload the individual posts over the next week.)

PLEASE BEWARE ...in the next few days you are going to receive a plethora of  looplifewithgregandreenie.blogspot.com    😱updates!

While reading our Blog we hope to put a smile 🤗on your face and (just maybe) you can enjoy some imaginary travel with us while the “Stay-at-Home” order is in-place ... if not, just delete the Blog email (we understand and won’t even know)!

Thank you again for following us, we don’t know what the future will bring?
You will be the first to know ❌⭕️

Looper Tip: Our recommendation is that all Loopers keep a Blog ... invaluable to print, read and reminisce!

🌺Aloha🌴

Please take time to enjoy the sunset,

where ever you are in the world.

💕Stay Safe, Healthy & Happy!