While traveling around Portland, Oregon and the beautiful northwest, I figured it might be a good time to do a recap of my recent trip to Montreal and the Canadian F1 Grand Prix (GP) before I forget it all. Getting from Austin to Montreal proved to be quite a challenge and it went something like this: Austin to Memphis, Memphis to Detroit, and finally Detroit to Ottawa via plane. This was then followed by a 200km drive from Ottawa to Montreal, all in the course of a single day. After all the flying, the drive was oddly enjoyable and relaxing and felt a little like driving through the great Midwest plains except for the scenery being significantly greener. Finding my hotel, Le 1 René-Lévesque, in Montreal was also not a problem at all, and given the rather affordable room rate for an F1 weekend the hotel proved to be quite a nice surprise. To be frank the hotel was nothing fancy or luxurious, but it was clean, very modern, had friendly staff, and it had an excellent location right between Montreal’s China Town, the entertainment district, the university and the historic district. One final note on the hotel, since it is located in close proximity to all these things, the traffic outside can get a bit crazy especially on weekend nights, so either opt for a room up high or bring some noise cancelling earphones with you – you have been warned.
Getting from the Hotel to the F1 GP at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was also a breeze using the Metro and only took about 20 minutes or so. You can purchase a 3 day pass for just a few bucks and then ride around all you want. Even though the Metro does get quite crowded especially on race day, the crowd was always moving and the wait was never very long. I spent most of the days at the F1 track which is located on the Île Notre-Dame, an island right across from Montreal’s historic district in the Saint Lawrence River. This island was also the location for the 1967 World Expo and several very cool structures still remain as part of the park and are definitely a sight to be seen.
The race weekend at the track was packed with many events in addition to the regular F1 practice, qualifying and race schedule. Additional events included: a Ferrari Cup race, a classic race featuring F1 machinery from long bygone days, as well as a couple other racing series. The Ferrari Cup was definitely a nice treat, particularly since one could visit the Teams’ trailers and see them work on the cars, as well as chat with the drivers and mechanics. For the whole weekend I had fantastic seats at the Epingle hairpin on Tribune 24. Here the cars slowed down just enough for me to take some great pictures which I will post shortly – I‘m still sorting through them since I took almost 300 of them at the track alone. Other than the race result, way to go McLaren, the best thing about the event was that the organizers were totally laid back and even allowed one to bring a cooler with food and any tasty beverages that one might have desired – why can’t all events be like this? Overall, I had an awesome experience at the Canadian F1 GP and would definitely go again, so if you are contemplating checking it out you I would urge you to do so.
But wait, there’s more. So far I’ve only talked about things centered on racing, but Montreal has a lot more to offer than that. First, there is the historic district, which feels very European with cobble stone streets, plenty of exquisite restaurants, pubs, and historic buildings to admire. It is also next to the port and has a very long and enjoyable boardwalk. One pub that I found particularly enjoyable was the 3 Brewers Pub, which although a chain, had a great ambience, delicious pints, and something that tasted like a pizza but supposedly was not. There are several locations in Montreal, and while I only checked out the ones in the historic and entertainment districts, I surmise that the others are enjoyable as well. Speaking of the entertainment district, it is absolutely humongous. If you are familiar with 6th street in Austin, you might think that to be already too much with countless bars lining the street and hundreds of people out at night. Granted that Montreal is a much larger city than Austin, but even so Rue Sainte-Catherine put 6th st street to absolute shame. The bars and restaurant go on for miles, to the point that I turned around because I had to consider that at some point in the night I would have to make it back to my Hotel after all. The sheer amount of people out was also amazing. Maybe it was due to the GP, or maybe some other event that I was not aware off, but regardless, people were out en masse and everyone was having a great time, be it in one of the countless clubs and pubs, or the huge concert stages that were set up for bands to perform every few blocks. The China Town is rather puny for a city this size, but it nevertheless was convenient to have, especially when I got hungry and needed something of substance, other that all the crepes I consumed why bumming around town. Due to all the time I spent at the track I did not really have much time to check out any of the museums or historic buildings and churches, since they all had rather short hours of admission. This however, leaves plenty to be visited next time around, and given the cool vibe of the city, I’ll definitely be back one of these days.
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