rev:text
| - Vieux Montreal was the last place on our list of things to see this past weekend, mainly cause I had a feeling it would be a super touristy, pseudo-historical area... and I was pretty much spot-on with my apprehensions. At first glance, the cobble-stoned streets and old architecture may delight you and give you the impression of visiting a historically accurate site, but upon closer inspection, you realize that this part of town has been overrun by tourist traps, gaudy souvenir shops, corny horse-drawn carriages (again, tourist trap), and strange people in medieval costumes. Everything is over-priced. There are no family-owned boutiques or hole-in-the-wall restaurants to sample authentic, local Montreal cuisine, like I'd hoped there'd be. It's just one big money-making farce of a historical site. There are museums nearby, sure, but why look at history behind glass display cases when history should be all around you in food and merchandise and music. Instead, all you see are chain stores like Dairy Queens and McDonald's and Ben and Jerry's. Even the maple syrup shop was a tourist-trapping, money-sucking horror. I wanted the charm of a true historical city, with local cuisine, family-owned shops, etc. What I got was Times Square wrapped in a nice cobble-stoned, medievel-esque giftbox.
If you want real history, check out Montreal's best family-owned restaurants, local cuisine chefs, etc. Vieux Montreal is not worth more than a 30 min walkthrough unless you want to waste more time wandering around an inane tourist bubble.
|