I thought I should prepare, just in case you did, eventually.

Where would I take you if you did show up at my door, one of these days? Because, let’s face it, Montréal is a large city, filled with little treasures, and offering activities all year long to entertain locals and visitors… Wether you prefer art, history, architecture, good food or a mix of it all, Québec’s largest city is sure to fulfill your need for fun!

I won’t pretend that this series of posts can compare to real travel-bloggers’, but it will show you Montréal from a Montréaler’s point of view, taking her phone out from time to time as she is attending her usual and less usual favorite Montréal activities.

I know we would enjoy ourselves just sitting in a café, and catching up on every and anything, but it wouldn’t hurt to discover the city at the same time, wouldn’t you agree?

So for this first walk around with Cyranny, I tried to take you with me to three festivals the same night! Yeah, that’s right! Not one, not two…. Three festivals!

Le Festival Juste Pour Rire (Just for Laughs Festival – and there is an English side to the festival) is the world’s largest comedy festival. It mainly takes place on Ste-Catherine street, which is closed to traffic most of summer season. 2016’s edition goes from July 16th to July 30th, and welcomes comedians from around the world, performing indoors aswell as outside along St-Catherine street and at “Place des Festivals”.  Street performers of all sorts also offer short free shows here and there.

Free, that is always nice to hear, and you hear it a lot when it comes to Montréal festivities.

One of the main things you must be aware of when you think about Juste Pour Rire, is its mascot; Victor. The green monster can be seen EVERYWHERE during the festival, and is the logo for JPR.

On week end days, especially if the weather is as nice as we had the chance to have it yesterday, there are a LOT of people downtown to enjoy their evening. Here are a few pics of the crowd on Ste-Catherine st.

 

But we weren’t going downtown for Juste Pour Rire, we were mainly going to Bouffons MTL (Let’s Eat MTL). The foodtruck and streetfood festival takes place from July 16th to 30th, just like JPR. A large variety of foods and drinks are offered, and a nice square is set to welcome the foodies. Wether you prefer to share a picnic table, on the wood-covered terrace-like part, or chill in the sandy beach style with laid back armchairs… Everybody can enjoy his lunch and/or drink pleasantly!

 

I had (well, tried to eat) a pulled pork poutine. Poutine is the most typical meal if you want to try something you won’t see anywhere else. French fries, cheese curd and brown gravy. You HAVE to try it once, when you come. You’ll either love it or hate it, but you can’t leave without having a taste of it. My brother had something a little more unusual. A pile of cheese, bacon, ham and baked apples between 2 waffles.

 

We had about an hour and a half to spend before our scheduled comedy show, so the guys decided they wanted to try a bubble tea. See, Montréal’s Chinatown is just around the corner, so we walked to the Asian part of town. I couldn’t help taking pictures of the store’s window display. The contrast between the horrible fake platings and how clean and yum yum the stuff offered inside is just amazing!

 

Back to Ste-Catherine st, I had to be a bratt too, and whine to have some cotton candy. Note the wide variety of flavors… I chose mint!

 

We were then off to the main event of the evening, an indoors comedy show featuring a new comedian, Franky Laff. Just aside JPR Festival, there is another comedy festival going on… Zoofest gives a chance to all the new comedians starting up, or the more underground show to get exposure. From July 7th to July 30th, you get to have a good laugh for less $$ and discover new talents aswell!

Here is a blurry shot of Montréal by night, after the show… A nice evening, and just the first of a bunch, if walking the city’s streets with me pleases you 🙂

 

 

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Also available;

Montréal, part 2:  https://cyranny.wordpress.com/2016/07/20/if-you-came-to-montreal-2/