After seeing some very impressive old buildings from above on our hike at the Mount Royal park we were eager to venture into the McGill university campus and the nearby area to see the buildings up close..

We also walked up to where Montreal Neurological Institute and Royal Victoria Hospital are to see more buildings with beautiful architecture.

Royal Victoria Hospital seen from the Mount Royal Park

From there we made our way to the Museum of Fine Arts on Sherbrooke Street. There was “From Africa to the Americas Face-to-Face Picasso” exhibit but sadly we were very pressed for time and only checked the museum’s permanent collection.

The Museum has contemporary paintings as well as paintings by Canadian painters with a more traditional style

I am planning to devote a separate blog post to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and it’s collection.

For lunch we headed to Japanese restaurant Kazu.

Curry ramen and Salmon Chirashi sushi were quite tasty.

After lunch we took metro to Le Plateau Mont-Royal district. It was relentlessly hot and after walking for the third day in a row in such oppressive heat we didn’t have much energy left for the area. Architecturally it didn’t impress us but we liked it’s seemingly endless supply of cute and trendy looking little shops, coffee houses, bars and restaurants. Brian had an ice-cream break at Kem Coba.

For dinner we went to Les Deux Gamins

I enjoyed the duck confit.

Les Deux Gamins restaurant is located on pedestrian-only Prince Arthur street.

In the evening we went back to the festival to enjoy our last night in Montreal listening to great music.

Overall we had a good time on our trip. We walked a lot every day ( on average 13 miles per day) in extreme heat and humidity. It was impossible not to be affected by the heat. If we were sometimes not so amazed by some things I think it was due to the fact that it was 95-97 F/35-36 C every day.

The biggest surprise of the trip was the Jazz Festival and how much we loved it. We didn’t expect such a variety of music. We hoped to see only blues musicians but we discovered different types of music and had great fun. We would definitely return to Montreal and the Jazz Festival!

We’ll also miss the Montreal bakeries with amazing selection of breads. I really wish we had something like that where we live!

It’s because of delicious baguettes in Montreal that we chose to have our breakfasts in our hotel room. We greatly enjoy the simple pleasure of eating the baguette with butter and ham accompanied by coffee and tea.

Our trip to Montreal, specifically the Botanical Garden and the Jazz festival inspired me to paint these paintings:

Bromeliad Garden and July Garden, acrylic on canvas

I also painted a series of multi panel abstract paintings inspired by the Montreal Jazz Festival:

Abstract Multi Panel Painting 180714, oil on wood cradled panels.

Abstract Multi Panel Painting 180728, oil on cradled panels.

Please check out my paintings on my website. Thank you!