What's up guys? Welcome back to Vagabrothers
Right now we're about to kick off our week long
adventure through Quebec,
and we're starting in Montreal.
So before we get into the action, we're going to get
orientated into the culture
of French North America.
So we're going to meet up with
Martin who is a local tour guide here,
and he's going to show us around
the historic old quarter of Montreal.
But first, coffee.
This is the first
15 minutes in the city,
and I'm already falling in love
with Montreal.
It is so chill; super European vibe;
cool architecture. Like it.
I think I'm going to love this city.
Bonjour.
First stop of the day.
We're at Le Cartet
It's a cute cafe here.
We're going to have a petit dejeuner.
Scrabbled eggs with goat cheese
and a cafe. How about you, Bro?
Que-ce que vous avez? [What are you having?]
Je vais prende le brunch des cantons [I'll have the Township Brunch]
Oui
It looks like
I ordered the right thing for breakfast.
I'm diving into Quebec culture with a
meal designed to fortify me
against the cold winters here.
It's got ham, bacon, sausage,
beans cooked in maple syrup,
some potatoes, eggs. I'm ready to do this.
Ready to explore.
What is the plan?
The plan is to venture through these narrow streets
of old Montreal.
Allons-y
All right, guys.
A little bit of backround on Montreal.
It's an island on the Saint Lawrence River.
It was originally inhabited by Iroquois
and it gets its name from Jacques Cartier,
a French explorer who came through here
in the mid 1500s searching for a
westward passage to Asia.
He claimed all of Canada for France,
and named this place Mount Royal
after the mountain in the center of the island.
Over the next few centuries
the Saint Lawrence River
became a massive artery
in this huge trading network that stretched
all the way to the Great Lakes
based on fur trading with the local tribes.
French merchants were selling beaver pellets back in
Europe for fortunes, and
cities like Montreal and Quebec were inhabited
by these fur trappers or "coureur de bois"
that were basically like Leo from the Reverand.
A long story short
France and the U.K were battling for
power all around the world.
That culminated in the Seven Years War.
France lost and with that lost all
of their possessions in Canada.
Quebec became part of the United Kingdom.
Today Montreal is the biggest city in Quebec.
It's the second biggest French speaking city in
all the world. It's bilingual; It's multicultural.
So before we dive into all those different aspects
of Quebecois culture, Martin is going to show us
some of the oldest parts of the city.
This looks like a pretty old building.
Where are we standing?
We are in the former walled city
in what we call today Old Montreal.
Montreal was walled for about 100 years
through out the 17th century.
What was it like back in the early days?
Only 10,000 people crossed the ocean
during the French regime.
And we are all descendants
of only 10,000 people
that crossed between the early days
and 1763, the beginning of the
English regime.
So I'm 11 generations, for example.
Interesting thing right here.
The flag of Montreal actually has four symbols on it.
You've got the Fleur de Lis for the French
You've got the thistle for the Scots; the shamrock for the Irish
and the rose for the English.
What's the motto for the city?
"Concordia Salus" It's Latin
"Living together in harmony." That's what it means.
How many different nationalities live in Montreal?
It's super diverse, right? Between 80 and 90.
Very diverse.
All right, Bro. Thoughts so far
on Montreal? I've wanted to go to Quebec
for so long, and
I've never been. So to be
in a French speaking part of North America
is very cool. It definitely feels
European, much more so than any
other city I've been to in North America.
It's gorgeous. Love the architecture.
Looking forward to what else Montreal has in store
for us. And the rest of Quebec.
It's only day one! Yes
So we're going to make our way over toward Chez Jerry
which is a restaurant by Jerome Ferrer
who is a renowned chef
and it's like his canteen where he does
a modern interpretation of traditional Quebecois food
Let's hit it!
Kind of a cool, quirky little detail
that you might not catch unless
you're looking for it.
We're right here in one of the main squares of Montreal
and on one side of the street, you have Queen Victoria,
the British influence,
and on the other behind me,
you have a Parisian metro stop.
Super cool
and a very visual representation of
the dual heritage of French Canada and
of Montreal.
I hope you're ready for a treat.
We've just got to
Chez Jerry
and we've ordered a couple little plates.
We're having the "poutine", which is the classic
Quebecois dish, and then we're going to be
having a lobster roll and a foot-long hot dog
because that's a thing. That's a thing,
and we're going to do it. Oh my goodness
This is long, but it's girthy
Vagabrothers' sexual innuendos aside,
the meal looks spectacular.
That is a damn big hot dog!
So for the uninitiated, poutine
is Canada's signature comfort food:
French fries with this beautiful sauce,
curds, and this just looks delicious.
Wow
Oh my god.
Well that was good.
Poutine at lunch is like Christmas in July.
Onwards. We're going to go do a craft beer pub crawl
through the Latin Quarter
because that's the thing. Yeah!
And we love craft beer.
All right guys. So now we're in the Latin Quarter, and
we're exploring another one of Montreal's traditions
which is beer making.
Montreal is actually home to the oldest brewery
in North America,
which is Molson founded in 1786
here in Montreal. Interesting.
But today we're going to be exploring Montreal's craft
brew scene. So we're meeting up with Jerome
He's going to take us on a craft brew tour,
and we're starting here at Le Saint Bock.
Ready to brew?
I'm always ready. Let's do it.
We're not going to have any Budweiser today
or Molson or any of that.
You can forget it. We're going to go inside
the world of craft beer.
So this brewery
actually has more than 850
beers available
for purchase, and
the most expensive one is
3000 dollars.
OK. Well first brewery down.
How did you like that?
I'm feeling jolly. It's cold weather
with beer and poutine, It's a great combination.
It just started snowing, which is nice.
The Latin Quarter is called this because
it's where all the students and universities are.
They're 35,000 students here,
which means this intersection here
is where the most beer is served in Quebec.
My name is Jeremy, and today we're going to do a
brew pub tour. How come the beers
started to be quite very popular in
Montreal is because it
was far from France. You didn't have access
to wine. So it's one of the reasons
why they are starting to brew beer,
to at least have a type of alcohol.
Our first beer in Quebec was
a pine beer. We like to
try lot of different funky stuff,
like bacon jalepeño beer, for example
or a lot of fruit beers, as well.
Well guys. Day has turned into night.
It's a beautiful evening here in Montreal, and
we're going to do something a little out of the ordinary.
We're going to try to do something really Canadian.
We're going to learn how to play ice hockey.
I'm just joking. But we are going to try
to ice skate. That's the first step,
and that should be interesting because I haven't
done it since the Mighty Ducks movie came
out back in the day. We do live in California in the desert,
so it's not our most natural environment,
but we're going to see what happens.
Hopefully, we don't break anything.
Knock on wood.
Let's go.
My god. This is so gnarly.
Definitely don't feel I should be vlogging this.
I'm going to fall on my ass.
What just happened?
I was trying to dance to this music.
It's like a disco on the ice, and I just went
right past Alex, slipped and fell.
This is so dangerous, but it's so fun.
Addicting. I can't stop.
The DJ " sur la glace" the DJ on the ice was amazing.
You also broke your butt, man. You ate it hard!
Not that hard. Only once.
And I realize the key is turning your falls into
new dance moves.
We're going to go get some dinner at
a nice little restaurant called Mimi La Nuit.
Super fun. it's right here in the Old Quarter. Let's go!
Ladies and Gentlemen
to bed!
Pretty much,. Today has been so awesome
Wow. First day in Montreal.
Really, really dig the vibe in this city
Today we did the historical and traditional.
Tomorrow we are doing the hip and the trendy
Hipster stuff.
We're going to the Mile End
so tune in for that. If you guys like the video,
give it a thumbs-up, share it with your travel buddies,
of course, and subscribe
to Vagabrothers for videos from all around the world
every week. That button is right down there.
In the meantime, remember to stay curious,
keep exploring, and we will see you guys on the road.
Peace.
How do you say this in French?
à la prochaine! Qui.