Last August 2010, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Canada once again.  That time, however, I visited Canada's French speaking regions, namely Montreal and Quebec.  I swear, I thought I was in the south of France during that visit.  Here's a view of Montreal's old town.  Doesn't it look very European to you?  French was spoken everywhere.  Canadians who knew English and could speak it spoke with such a strong French accent.  As many American teenagers would say, "It was a trip!"

I couldn't believe it took me 15 long years to return to the USA's neighbor to the north.  The first time I went to Canada, my classmate (from elementary to college and who is also a Filipino transplant living in San Francisco) and I  crossed the border from Washington State onto British Columbia and drove a rented car from Seattle.  We took  day long trips to Vancouver and Victoria.  Then in 1995, while Marc had to work on business in Toronto, I tagged along and toured the city by myself for a whole week on foot and by subway.

If I were to choose another country to live in besides my now adoptive hometown of San Francisco, I would choose to live in Canada without any second thoughts.  It is a beautiful country.  It looks very peaceful.  It is rich with a sound economy.  It is very open to immigrants and it looks and feels very much like the United States.

Shortly after our arrival in Montreal, my partner, Marc, and I, started to walk around the city to view its sights.  This building was the first thing to catch my eye.  This imposing building turned out to be the venue for broadway like plays in Montreal.  It is so, so different from the facades of theaters on Broadway in New York.  Actually, if you look closely at the top of the building, there is a sign that says MONTREAL STOCK EXCHANGE.  Sure enough, I later found out that this building indeed used to be the site of Montreal's Stock Exchange but has since become the venue of extravagant shows by best stage and screen actors as well as world-class directors.

On our first summer night in Montreal, we decided we just had to have the famous POUTINE dish the City of Montreal is famous for.  Hence, where did we go?  To a restaurant called the Montreal Poutine. The dish was quite pricey but very delicious.  It was actually made up of french fries topped with melted cheese.  I ordered one that had bacon mixed with the fries.  It was decadent!

After dinner in Montreal Poutine, we had some delicious gelato at the Les Delices del'Erable Boutique Gourmet and Bistro

Right in the basement of this restaurant was a mini museum about maple syrup.  Though small in size, the exhibits were interesting enough we browsed around for a good half hour to 45 minutes.

It was getting late by the time we had our dessert.  We decided to return to our hotel by way of Chinatown.  I got some more food to munch on in the hotel room.  Luckily for me, the bakeries and pastry shops were selling their delicious breads and sweet stuff at a discount since they were about to close for the night.  I got some butter and coco bread.