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cattitude to come to Montreal with me. The previous times, either he'd been unable to get away, money had been too tight, or it had been too cold outside. This time, everything came together, and we had a few friendly familial days with papersky, rysmiel, and zorinth, and a chance to show Cattitude a few of the high points of Montreal, notably those that are prepared to supply us with food and books.
We got there Friday afternoon, in the pouring rain (this is becoming a theme of my visits); Papersky met us at Lionel Groulx metro, and we repaired to Quoi N'oeuf for lunch, because Papersky and I like it--I'm fond of their pain doré--and Rysmiel, who was working Friday, doesn't, so it made sense to go when it was just us. Thence home, where we arrived slightly before Zorinth. Cattitude and I gave him a birthday card with an excellent picture of a frog, we drank tea, and then headed out to the Plateau for a French dinner at a place on the Plateau called Petit Resto. The onion soup was excellent, and I was glad to tell the proprietor so. I liked my duck confit and mango main course, and was pleased and impressed by Papersky's steak in bleu cheese sauce. Rysmiel ordered cheval tartare, which none of us had ever had, and which I wound up eating probably between a quarter and a third of; Papersky said that it tasted more like beef tartare than horse steak does like beefsteak, and maybe I'll pursue that on a future visit to Quebec. (Cattitude's bison with blueberry sauce was disappointing, the sauce needed something sharper to go with the meat.)
Saturday Rysmiel and I hung around the house much of the day, while Papersky and Zorinth showed Cattitude the Biosphere. A good time was had by all, and we rendezvous'd at Cha Noir, where much tea was drunk and nice chocolates eaten. We didn't coordinate our timing as well as we'd thought, in part because of different interpretations of the term "four-ish", but it worked out in the end. On the way there, thinking we were late, Rysmiel and I dashed across a Metro platform at Lionel Groulx and onto what turned out to be the wrong train. I enjoyed the dashing, the sort of thing that works when there's only one train using each line and thus no crowds of waiting passengers to dodge, enough that I didn't mind the mistake, especially as we'd allowed more time than we needed. Dinner at Villa Wellington, whose fried trout (trucha frita, I don't recall the French of that) was tasty, and ought to be fairly easy to cook at home. Saturday was supposed to be my usual taking it easy day, but dashing across Metro platforms, however fun, isn't really part of that.
Sunday we had dim sum with two of Rysmiel's colleagues, then the five of us went on to Maple Delight, where I got silly and had three flavors of ice cream in shades of orange: canteloupe, orange, and peach. I'd almost switched the peach for raspberry at the last minute, but Papersky pointed out that Rysmiel was getting raspberry and chocolate. (I resisted the blueberry because I'd had lots of really good blueberry ice cream withadrian_turtle and callunav at Tosci's two weeks ago.) The plan from there had been to go to the Biodome, the one Montreal attraction I'd promised Cattitude, but the queue was on out of sight, and seemed too much to deal with. It was chilly and damp out by then, so we went home, I had tea, and we attempted to fix a computer monitor that had been flickering badly. That went badly, in ways partly technical and partly emotional: I wasn't the only one tired by then. But even that was a familial sort of disagreement, and we eventually admitted that it wasn't working. We went out again, with a plan to go to a computer shop and, if it was closed, say "oh well" and go on to a Japanese restaurant that Rysmiel's Uncle Jim had found. We did indeed say "ah well" but took a side trip to another used book store. The sushi was excellent, albeit a bit of a splurge, and Zorinth, who doesn't eat raw fish (or raw meat--I was going to say "or raw anything" but I've seen him eat fresh fruit and am not sure of his position on salads), liked his chicken teriyaki; the starters included a really excellent squid dish and a fine and unusual cold cooked eel and cucumber roll. I found Cattitude's birthday present at a shop in the Old Port; not a surprise, something I know he'll like, but it's neatly gift wrapped and will be presented at the end of the month.
Monday morning, Rysmiel, who needed it, slept in while the rest of us went to the Biodome. We got there early, and there was no line at all. Also no sign of the golden lion tamarins, and the otters and beavers were asleep, but the lynx was active, the diving ducks and the fish were a lot of fun, and we saw some fine new black monkeys. We also picked up a sheet of animal refrigerator magnets in the gift shop, partly as a gift forjulian_tiger and partly because we need to replace the magnets he's knocked out of sight in playing with them.
Then lunch (more nice duck), back to Papersky's to pack, have a last cup of tea, and a few minutes together, then a cab to the airport. The trip home was slightly delayed by weather, but I did get home the day I was supposed to, unlike last time.
We missed Julian, and my own bed has an undeniable appeal--especially since I'd been sleeping on Papersky's spare bed and Cattitude on a sort of pad on the floor--but I would have liked to stay longer.
cattitude to come to Montreal with me. The previous times, either he'd been unable to get away, money had been too tight, or it had been too cold outside. This time, everything came together, and we had a few friendly familial days with papersky, rysmiel, and zorinth, and a chance to show Cattitude a few of the high points of Montreal, notably those that are prepared to supply us with food and books.We got there Friday afternoon, in the pouring rain (this is becoming a theme of my visits); Papersky met us at Lionel Groulx metro, and we repaired to Quoi N'oeuf for lunch, because Papersky and I like it--I'm fond of their pain doré--and Rysmiel, who was working Friday, doesn't, so it made sense to go when it was just us. Thence home, where we arrived slightly before Zorinth. Cattitude and I gave him a birthday card with an excellent picture of a frog, we drank tea, and then headed out to the Plateau for a French dinner at a place on the Plateau called Petit Resto. The onion soup was excellent, and I was glad to tell the proprietor so. I liked my duck confit and mango main course, and was pleased and impressed by Papersky's steak in bleu cheese sauce. Rysmiel ordered cheval tartare, which none of us had ever had, and which I wound up eating probably between a quarter and a third of; Papersky said that it tasted more like beef tartare than horse steak does like beefsteak, and maybe I'll pursue that on a future visit to Quebec. (Cattitude's bison with blueberry sauce was disappointing, the sauce needed something sharper to go with the meat.)
Saturday Rysmiel and I hung around the house much of the day, while Papersky and Zorinth showed Cattitude the Biosphere. A good time was had by all, and we rendezvous'd at Cha Noir, where much tea was drunk and nice chocolates eaten. We didn't coordinate our timing as well as we'd thought, in part because of different interpretations of the term "four-ish", but it worked out in the end. On the way there, thinking we were late, Rysmiel and I dashed across a Metro platform at Lionel Groulx and onto what turned out to be the wrong train. I enjoyed the dashing, the sort of thing that works when there's only one train using each line and thus no crowds of waiting passengers to dodge, enough that I didn't mind the mistake, especially as we'd allowed more time than we needed. Dinner at Villa Wellington, whose fried trout (trucha frita, I don't recall the French of that) was tasty, and ought to be fairly easy to cook at home. Saturday was supposed to be my usual taking it easy day, but dashing across Metro platforms, however fun, isn't really part of that.
Sunday we had dim sum with two of Rysmiel's colleagues, then the five of us went on to Maple Delight, where I got silly and had three flavors of ice cream in shades of orange: canteloupe, orange, and peach. I'd almost switched the peach for raspberry at the last minute, but Papersky pointed out that Rysmiel was getting raspberry and chocolate. (I resisted the blueberry because I'd had lots of really good blueberry ice cream with
adrian_turtle and callunav at Tosci's two weeks ago.) The plan from there had been to go to the Biodome, the one Montreal attraction I'd promised Cattitude, but the queue was on out of sight, and seemed too much to deal with. It was chilly and damp out by then, so we went home, I had tea, and we attempted to fix a computer monitor that had been flickering badly. That went badly, in ways partly technical and partly emotional: I wasn't the only one tired by then. But even that was a familial sort of disagreement, and we eventually admitted that it wasn't working. We went out again, with a plan to go to a computer shop and, if it was closed, say "oh well" and go on to a Japanese restaurant that Rysmiel's Uncle Jim had found. We did indeed say "ah well" but took a side trip to another used book store. The sushi was excellent, albeit a bit of a splurge, and Zorinth, who doesn't eat raw fish (or raw meat--I was going to say "or raw anything" but I've seen him eat fresh fruit and am not sure of his position on salads), liked his chicken teriyaki; the starters included a really excellent squid dish and a fine and unusual cold cooked eel and cucumber roll. I found Cattitude's birthday present at a shop in the Old Port; not a surprise, something I know he'll like, but it's neatly gift wrapped and will be presented at the end of the month.Monday morning, Rysmiel, who needed it, slept in while the rest of us went to the Biodome. We got there early, and there was no line at all. Also no sign of the golden lion tamarins, and the otters and beavers were asleep, but the lynx was active, the diving ducks and the fish were a lot of fun, and we saw some fine new black monkeys. We also picked up a sheet of animal refrigerator magnets in the gift shop, partly as a gift for
julian_tiger and partly because we need to replace the magnets he's knocked out of sight in playing with them.Then lunch (more nice duck), back to Papersky's to pack, have a last cup of tea, and a few minutes together, then a cab to the airport. The trip home was slightly delayed by weather, but I did get home the day I was supposed to, unlike last time.
We missed Julian, and my own bed has an undeniable appeal--especially since I'd been sleeping on Papersky's spare bed and Cattitude on a sort of pad on the floor--but I would have liked to stay longer.
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