Next stop was the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Musee des Beaux-Arts) which is huge - spread over 4 buildings. We decided to go to this museum because they had an excellent exhibit on Pompeii which made a nice connection for the girls with our trip last summer. It was completely lost on Natalie (again) but the other 2 enjoyed going through the Kid's Gallery Guide and were humbled and awed once again to see the plaster casts of the bodies they excavated. They seemed more concerned about the dog than the people but it was a dramatic and impactful end to the exhibit. After a quick picnic, we headed back inside to see the Louluse-Lautrec exhibit and to walk through the more kid friendly section in the basement. When we went to France in 2000 (pre-kids, sigh) we bought a set of Toulouse-Lautrec prints and they hung for years, first in Chicago and then on Shady Lane. All of them were exhibited here and the kids enjoyed earning loonies when they spotted a print they recognized!
Next stop was the Parc on Mont Royal where we grabbed row boats and paddled around Beaver Lake ('lake' is stretching it a little - it was more of a puddle, really). After but a few minutes, the thrill of paddling waned and we decided it would be fun to just try and splash each other with our oars. Team Charlotte & Mommy won that skirmish, hands down! Next stop was the Salamander Playground also on Mont Royal - this elaborate play centre is inspired by the blue-spotted salamander, which visitors often spot in the park. Alas, we did not see one. If you look down from a bird’s-eye view of the playground, it’s the shape of a slithering salamander—so cool! We didn’t leave ourselves long to play but in that short time, Jacqui made a friend. She didn’t speak much English but that didn’t stop the them from playing together! Our Uber driver was kind enough to take a detour to the top of Mont Royal so we could get a snap of the view. It was not the side with the city view but we did get to see a family of raccoons foraging for dinner in the garbage can!
By the time we got home, the girls were beyond ready for dinner so Courtney cooked up a quick but highly favored meal - fettuccini and steak! Blessed silence as our pack of wolves devoured their meals. Travel like this without a kitchen to prepare food that my children recognize and are willing to consume would be torture. I know I'm missing a golden opportunity to teach them all sorts of things but, sigh, it's just too miserable for all of us! Their future spouses can figure out how to deal with their pickiness - I'm just going to cater to it.
After they ate, we kidnapped Charlotte and brought her with us on date night. Of the 3 girls, she’s the one who’s not done exploring by the time it’s sitter time. Her baked level is always zero so we took pity on her and brought her with us tonight. We headed back to Hoogan et Beaufort for dinner and then to Jazzfest to check out the free, open-air shows. She was thrilled to be out with us and tried everything at dinner - radish salad (‘not my favorite’), chicken liver mousse (‘meh'), steak tartare ('not bad’), grilled octopus (‘yummy’), deconstructed german chocolate cake ('fantastic!’). This was some weird food and she tried every dish!
This being the second to last night of the festival, things were really rolling by the time we showed up after dinner. We started with a great blues singer and guitarist who’s only back-up was a tuba player and a drummer. It was moody and authentic and really enjoyable! Once Charlotte was ready to move on we stopped and watched a dance troupe and then sat and watched the first few songs of a more cabaret-style jazz singer who was also great. It was getting late and the music was too loud for Charlotte so we moved along, putting a bow on another great day.
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