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3 DAYS IN MONTREAL | TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER

Montreal = surprising! I went into a 3 day trip (well 4 if you count the evening we got there!) to Montreal without ANY knowledge about it. Some trips I do more research on what to do, what to see… but honestly, I’ve been moving 100 mph for the last month from my sister’s bachelorette in Miami to shooting weddings to planning so many other things for the rest of the year… opened up google to “what to see in Montreal”… literally in the airport. HA! However, what you get when you travel with another photographer friend is help with finding cool places to go! Kir had saved a bunch of bookmarks on cute coffee shops and cafes to check out and when we compared lists, we had an epic trip! Enjoy this blog post about where we ate, drank, and explored!

Day 1: Well, I guess I should say evening 1! We took a bus from Burlington to Montreal and didn’t get into Montreal until the evening time. We ended up checking into our airbnb on Rue Sainte Catherine then walked a few blocks away to Cafe Parvis where with both got incredible pizzas!

Day 2: We started our date at this super cute coffee shop called Cafe Origine. The barista was super sweet and made a new matcha for Kir when he realized we were taking photos… he wanted the latte art to be prettier! haha! Next we walked around Mile End – exploring more cute stores and popping into other cafes like Pastel Rita (that Kir was OBSESSED WITH)… keep scrolling to find out why..

montreal quebec canada

montreal quebec canada Like I said, we walked through Mile End – through streets of “neighboorhood” vibes then streets full of cute shops and cafes. The next stop was a coffeeshop called Pastel Rita. Kir was obsessed with it because obviously it’s pink. I LIKE pink but Kir is OBSESSED with pink… so of course we took headshots… but we had to wait like an hour because there were some other bloggers hogging the booth… we literally got coffee and hung out for about 30 min… and the bloggers still weren’t done taking photos… so we left and came back 30 min later… and they were STILL there. So we kindly asked if we could take some photos… and they left. haha!

Let’s eat! We were S O thirsty because… we forgot to bring water and so hungry. We stopped at La Petite Adresse and it was delicious! I got the Ultimate Grilled Cheese with apples and caramelized onions and Kir got an omelette… which looked a lot different than omlettes we make normally! OMG so good. On our next stop of cute interiors… I give you the Espace Nomad spa. It was incredibly cute inside, was cooled with a/c which felt good because we had been walking around all morning and really hot… haaha so we had to cool down for a sec and take cute headshots… obviously. We didn’t actually do anything at the spa but use them for this cute wall. Did some more wandering… Around every corner… another vespa. Silver, blue, yellow, red, light blue, black… take your pix … hehehe. How totally adorbs is THIS cafe/coffeeshop called Tommy?! I’m in love with all the plants in all of these cafes. Plus the old architecture inside this old British Empire Building!! LOL at Kir’s face when we realized we couldn’t really get a good angle for a headshot in here… These buildings remind me of some buildings in New York City! I have an almost identical photo from NYC! How insane is this ceiling at the Crew Collective cafe? Yes, I said… c a f e! They don’t make cafes like this in Virginia! haha! We kept wandering… because why not squeeze 10 miles of wandering into one day?! After Mile End and seeing some cute cafes downtown, we walked into Old town Montreal to find a place for dinner! We ended up eating dinner at Jardin Nelson – we both LOVED our dinners. Maybe because it was hungry… but probably because it was actually delicious. Kir got a poke bowl and I got a delicious pesto pasta!! To top off night 2, we went to Perché for a drink and nighttime views! So peaceful and beautiful looking at the city lights! We split the white peach sangria! DAY 3: Old Town Montreal! We woke up… late-ish because we both got to bed late… after watching episodes of Orange is the New Black…

I spotted this cool restaurant as we were walking through old town and we asked the waitress if we could stop inside for some pictures! How chic is Boca Chica? We stopped into Mandy’s for lunch – create your own salads! YES PLEASE! It was so refreshing to eat a big salad after eating lots of different things all trip… Also before we went inside I saw Melora Hardin (The Office, The Hot Chick, 17 Again, The Bold Type) walk by… which made Kir FREAKOUT. But don’t worry… we ran into her AGAIN the next day and Kir got a photo with her! I was a ninny. Isn’t this place TOTES CUTE? Another cafe, another headshot session…

Shoutout to all the cafes that have our money because we couldn’t say no to coffee and snacks. After our lunch and coffee… we walked back to the apartment for a nap because… nappppp.

Headed back out for dinner and ate at this rooftop placed called 3 Brewers.

After dinner we walked the streets through Gay Village with their colorful street decorations! We found a crepe restaurant and split a delicious strawberry Nutella crepe then ended the night watching fireworks, part of a festival of fireworks where different countries battle for the best firework show… okay YES! We caught the night where Italy was “performing.”

Day 4: Another half day in Montreal to top off our trip! We wandered to a cute… can you guess it? cafe called Cafe Sainte Henri. What I loved about the area was the common area in the alley. I loved seeing all kinds of places for people to hangout around the city. They definitely have some great landscape architects creating community spaces!We had a few hours to explore before heading back to checkout of our airbnb. We grabbed lunch at this place called Darling… which I loved the colors of! How COOL are the giant letters on the ceiling!?!? While I searched for the best coffee in Montreal, Kir was trying to find the best chai tea – amazing how different they were at each place she tried!