Posting slideshows in this post because I made a ton of sketches, took way too many photos, and I don’t have the energy to pick the best images. I will say, with all love to the Montrealers out there, that I didn’t like the city as much as I thought I would. You know, there’s this thing that happens when you’re in a city, and you can tell within the first couple of hours if it resonates with you. It didn’t happen in Montreal. We just didn’t click. C’est la vie.

The food was amazing, and the used bookstores were outtasite. Tons of comics, although I HATE the format of most French language comics — those awful semi-A4-size hardcover thin albums. Ugh, they’re so tacky. But I did do some good shopping and got some great loot.

Highlights:

• The Drawn & Quarterly bookstore. What a fantastic place. Original Chris Ware (“Big Tex“, appropriately) and Frank King “Gasoline Alley” artwork on the wall. Tom Gauld t-shirts, but none in my size, dammit! I could’ve spent the whole week in there.
• Meeting super-nice photographer Kate Hutchinson at her show, Why Am I Marrying Him?
• Dinner at Au Pied de Cochon (Unbelievably good meal!)
• Walking around Mile End, Chinatown, Old Montreal, the Little Italy Market, and the shops on St. Denis
• The street graffiti
• Beers at Dieu du Ciel. Chill place.
• Brunch at Reservoir…they had a fantastic orange/grapefruit juice and a delicious omelets
• All-you-can-eat mussels at Bieres et Compagnie.
• Watching American television in French, inlcuding the baseball playoffs. King of the Hill (which, off topic, I took as satire when I live in Ohio, but now realize is just strict realism) in French is just wrong — it becomes more intellectual and existential or something. I also discovered Pimp My Ride (Pimp Mon Char).
• Hanging out in the Grande Bibliothèque, discovering the sketchbooks of Joann Sfar (I have to get ahold of all of these and master French!)
• Sketching an Otto Dix painting in the Fine Arts museum

(The slideshows, btw, were created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Thanks to Mike Rohde for the heads up on this cool tool.)

If, for some reason, the slideshows don’t work, here are links to the Flickr sets:

• Montreal Sketchbook
• Montreal photos

Meg and I are getting ready for a week-long trip to Montreal. In the past, when we prepared to travel to a new city, I would photocopy maps out of a travel guide and paste them into a Moleskine to make little customized itineraries:

Now Moleskine has their own line of reasonably-priced Moleskine City Notebooks that include nice color maps and transparent overlays that make things even easier:

Here are things we’re hoping to hit (thanks to the great cartoonist and Montrealite Matt Forsythe for some of the recs!):

• a hike up the mountain (in the middle of town) for a great view of the city
• visit to the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore (211 Bernard West)
• Art museums: Art Contemporain and Beaux Arts
• Dinner at Au Pied de Cochon
• Dinner at L’Express (a bistro) on St-Denis street
• coffee on St-Denis
• a stroll through Old Montreal
• Bagels from Saint-Viateur
• breakfast/brunch in Mile End neighbourhood
• a smoked meat sandwich from Schwartz‘s

It’s been a long time since we’ve been out of Austin, let alone Texas, and this is my first visit to Canada, so we’re really excited and dusting off our French skills.

If anybody has any recommendations for things to see / do / eat while we’re there, please leave them in the comments!