Oh Montréal!

I just returned from a long weekend in Montreal (hence my blogiverse silence) with my family.  Suitably full of poutine and beer, I am ready to edit the heck (otherwise known as repetitive words and beginning conjunctions) out of Sophie.

Traffic around Montreal was unspeakably bad, which I guess is what happens when the summer, and therefore the construction season, is so short.  In the past, we have stayed in downtown and walked everywhere.  But this time we stayed out near the airport and had to drive in and out and around.  Oy vey, never again.

Despite that petty annoyance, we had a great time.  The boys can’t wait to go back and they tried some new and interesting foods.  A-Read tried toasted mealworms at the Biodome (actually both kids did) but then didn’t want to try poutine.  RocketMan said, “You’ll eat a worm, but you won’t eat a French fry?”  The little one discovered blueberry ice cream.  Oh, and I had something called a macaron givré, which is an ice cream sandwich made with macarons (the French macaroon, like a meringe cookie).  They had several flavor combinations but I had the pistachio ice cream in a purple macaron – very pretty (and yummy)!

The Biodome held both kids’ interest for 2 hours.  The Jean Talon market initially caused complaints, until they got to eat chocolatines (what the French call pain au chocolat and I guess we would call a chocolate croissant), cocoa-covered almonds, kadaifi, and garlic-stuffed olives.  Not together, of course!  RocketMan and I went back to one of our favorite shops there and had the merguez sandwich with olives and harissa.

We also got lost in a labyrinth for an hour on the Quai de l’Horloge, at Montreal’s Old Port, watched street performers juggle axes and fire on Place de Jacques Cartier, wandered around Beaver Lake and the Chalet on Mont-Royal, and tried the Montreal version of bagels which has as long a history as the New York version.  Those are the highlights.

So, now, like I said above, I’m ready to get cracking on what I hope will be the last stage of the Sophie revision.  I told a beta reader I’d send it to her by Sunday, so I have a deadline, and I don’t like to renege.

What’s been going on while I was gone?  Any deadlines you wish to share?