September 21st: A Little Art, A Little (or LOT of) Poutine

The next morning was kind of rainy, so we had a lazy breakfast in the apartment. (And since we had bought about half the pastry display at Olive & Gourmando the day before, it was definitely tasty!). Since it was supposed to be rainy for most of the day, we figured it would be a good day to check out the Musee des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts).

It was about a fifteen minute walk from the apartment; it started raining again before we got there.

The museum had all sorts of cool stuff! My favorite section in art museums is almost always the modern section.

I forgot to write down the artist of this piece, but it was a painting - not a photograph! When you got up close you could see the texture; it was really cool.

This was another favorite - Toll, by Victor Vasarely. This painting actually proved to be the key I needed to find another picture I'd been looking for for years: Planetary Folklore. I remember painting a mural of it in art club in high school, and I always loved the colors and thought it would make a cool quilt because I'm apparently a glutton for punishment. I've already started plotting out the color patterns so I can try to find the fabric I need.   :)

There was a great room that had all sorts of furniture, too - lamps, chairs, benches. You can see a Chihuly chandelier hanging in the background. One of the couches was shaped like a giant bird nest; I would have loved to climb in it!

They also have a Chihuly Sun sculpture outside; they're trying to raise money to buy it so they can keep it there. It's pretty cool to see Chihuly work in other places after getting to see the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle last year. We spent a couple hours wandering through the museum, then started making our way toward our next stop,

I forget what park this was, but as we were walking along there were hundreds of people protesting in the street! I think it was about environmental issues, because I saw a headline later that day about how there were protests in numerous cities. There were a ton of people walking and carrying signs, but they were all behaving and the police were escorting them as they walked along.

A few minutes later we got to our next stop: La Banquise. It's known as the best place in Montreal for poutine, and even though it was mid afternoon the line was still out the door. We wound up waiting about 45 minutes or so, but eventually got a table inside.

Oh my goodness, that was TOTALLY worth the wait. I got La Taquise, which was regular poutine (fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy) covered with sour cream, tomatoes, and guacamole. I ate almost the entire thing. It was amazing. Mark picked one that had pulled bbq pork and coleslaw, which also looked amazing.

We eventually finished stuffing our faces, waddled to a nearby grocery store to pick up a few things, then took the Metro back to the apartment and spent the rest of the rainy afternoon hanging out, listening to music, reading, playing cards, and watching French Canadian reality shows. The next day would be our last full day in Montreal...our trip was almost over!