Montreal, Day 4 - Chateau Ramezay

For our last day, we made our way back to the historic district.  Our first stop was Chateau Ramezay.  The building was built in 1705 as the Governor's Mansion; today it is a museum of Montreal history.  It covers a wide variety of topics including the First Nations people, the early French settlement life, Montreal's role in world history, and the French/English influences on Montreal history and modern culture.

Rudy had just finished his Native American unit at school, where they learned about longhouses.  We thought he'd like the museum diorama:

Old school lacrosse sticks:

Bunk beds:

See that wheel contraption in the top right corner of the picture?  That might be my single favorite thing about all of Montreal.  Can you guess what it is?

It's a rotisserie.  A dog-powered rotisserie.  The chef would place a pup inside the wheel.  The dog would run and the intricate systems of levers and pulleys would rotate whatever was on the spit in the fire.  Genius.  If they'd only had infomercials in the 1700s, that inventor would be rich!

After the museum, we decided to scout out lunch.  I'd spent three full days in a French city without a single crepe, so it was time to remedy that problem!  We found Creperie Chez Suzette and claimed a table on the porch.  The pedestrian street was bustling, so we enjoyed some people watching with our crepes.  The crepes were phenomenal.  Both were served with a side of Canadian maple syrup; my crepe had apples, brie, and maple syrup and James's had brie, ham, and caramelized onions.  Makes my mouth water!

We had just a bit of time before we had to make our way back to the airport.  We decided on a leisurely stroll along the waterfront.  In the few blocks between the creperie and the harbor, we passed a building with a sign for Pointe-a-Calliere, the museum that we'd tried to visit two days ago.  Um, what?  We went in and, sure enough, the museum was wide open.  Apparently, the building that we tried to visit (also with a sign for Pointe-a-Callliere) is just an auxiliary building temporarily closed for repairs.  We debated taking a quick tour through the museum, but knew we wouldn't get much out of it.  It was a little disappointing, but we just rationalized that it gives us something to do when we come back some day!

We continued on with our waterfront walk plan before heading out to the airport for late-day flight home.