We arrived in Montreal on a gray day and about 78 degrees and it stayed that way. We stayed at this Camping Alouette, while highly rated as a 10/10/10 by Good Sam, was barely a 5 for us ... muddy narrow awkward site, power failure, slow management.

Montreal however is wonderfully French and the street scenes reflect it.



We took a bus tour of the city and went by the area that once was Expo 67 a World Fair Site from 1967. These apartments were radical at the time and composed of apartment blocks stacked one upon another ... similar to the method for the Placido del Rio in San Antonio. Jo-Anne attended the Fair here with her parents during that summer of 1967.

We then went over to the site of the Olympics of 1976. Here is the flame for those Olympics and it is lit once during the summer Olympics every four years ... yes it was burning but just not visible with the crappy background.

The funny shaped tower above is amazing as one of the tallest towers in the world and has a funicular car that runs up its back as well as cables that hold up a canvas roof below. The slits in the top of the tower are the observation level that we went up to.

Below is a picture of the city in the goo with the soccer field in the foreground from 541 feet above.

Another shot from the observation deck.

And the former Olympic pool with some water polo trainees.

Then we went to the Insectarium on the grounds ... and yep here's a display case with about 200 beetles glowing brightly.

And over to the Chinese Garden for a neat shot, still hampered by the weather.

And a class in painting by a master ...

And the St Joseph cathedral that tops Mont Real above the city is really similar to Montmartre or Sacre Coure in Paris ... just not painted white. Quite spectacular and massive. Our guide said that 10,000 folks could stand inside the cathedral for a special event.

And to the Japanese Garden where there are artifacts made entirely of paper including this wedding dress.

And a banzai tree that is only slightly older than my father ... 100 years on the tag in front of it.

This was quite a day and I've only hit some of the most memorable ... but there is still more to Montreal that I have to show you in the next post.