When your 36th birthday falls the day before a total solar eclipse you’ve (according to Josh) got to make the most of it. For my birthday, Josh booked multiple trips in cities falling in the path of the eclipse all over the US and Canada.
At the last minute the French-Canadian city of Montreal won and we headed north for a long weekend of (rare and child-free) relaxation and solar gazing. M has been rightly ill at us for leaving her behind despite the fun weekend she had with Grandma and Pa. Her discontent has us reconsidering our 10 year anniversary trip plan for later in the year.
But those were problems for another day! The first thing we did in Montreal was revert back to our wanna-be punk-rocker teenage selves with a Bowling for Soup concert. This witty, self-depreciating band has been a low key favorite of ours forever. They haven’t played in Canada in nearly 20 years so it was a real treat to see them have fun on stage at a sold-out show. The audience was full of elder millennials like us and, though the opening acts (two Canadian punk bands geared more towards screamo type punk) were a bit too much for us, we all seemed to enjoy the Bowling for Soup hits from our teen years. It was nice end to being 35.
The next day - my birthday - I had us up early and venturing out into the old town area of Montreal. Montreal is the 10th biggest city in North America and it was founded by the French in 1642. There is a strong pre-colonization history of First Nations people here dating back more than 4000 years.
The cultural center of Canada, Montreal strongly embraces its French roots. This influence can be seen through the language (French is spoken predominantly though most citizens are bilingual) and the history.
A stroll around the historic district imbued us with a sense of awe at the beautiful churches around town. The nickname of “the city of steeples” is well-earned! After spending the morning cafe hopping and sampling desserts in search of birthday macaroons (a French tradition Josh and I learned many years ago on a birthday spent in Paris), we were hardly ready for the culinary event called “Sugar Shack” that Josh planned for dinner.
A “Cabanes à Sucre” or Sugar Shack in English is a small cabin in the woods of rural Québec where maple trees are tapped for sap that will be made into maple syrup. For a few weeks in late winter/early spring, these Sugar Shacks open to the public for traditional dinners and a party of sorts celebrating the maple harvest.
A 45-minute drive outside the city took us to a small parking lot where an elderly man dressed in flannel picked us up on a tractor-pulled wagon. After a bumpy ride down a dirt road we were greeted in French by a small staff working the Sugar Shack. Inside the cabin we were treated to a communal table setting with bench seating and red-checkered table cloths.
The menu was served family-style in cast iron dishes , all you can eat style. Though the portions were so big, we didn’t finish anything. The meal consisted of delicious pickles, pickled beats, creton (like a pork pâté), pea soup, thick-cut ham, pork rinds, boiled potatoes, egg omelette, baked beans and pork sausage. Dessert was three courses of maple bread pudding, maple tart and buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup. A bottle of fresh-made maple syrup was stationed on the table right next to the salt and pepper.
The atmosphere was lively and jovial. This was due, in part, to the excellent accordion player who was an absolute delight! He danced around the whole cabin taking requests from traditional French songs to Disney tunes, to the Beetles to jazz! He even sang me a bluegrass version of Happy Birthday after learning we were from the American South.
After dinner we sat by the fire onsite. When it felt like we could finally eat again, we were treated to maple taffy. We had enjoyed this snowy treat on our previous visit to Carnivale in 2020. Basically, syrup is poured on a tray of snow or crushed ice and you use a stick to roll the frozen syrup into a lollipop of taffy. It’s sticky and sweet and a real treat loved by all ages.
On Monday we once again drove outside the city, this time in search of the perfect eclipse viewing spot. Josh finally decided on the town of Sherbrooke. On the way there we had an interesting drive through rural farm country that was largely settled by New England area loyalists fleeing America after the revolutionary war.
We made a brief stop for cheese and cider which was made in-house by monks at the Saint-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey. The stop was made slightly less brief than intended when our self-guided tour landed us right in the middle of the monk’s morning Terce (a canonical hour feature the lyrical recitation of psalms). We felt obligated to stay in the chapel for the duration. To be fair, the acoustics were amazing.
After that, we made our way to the first of many well-researched eclipse viewing locations. Initially we decided to watch the eclipse on the bank of a snowy lake at a national park. However, Josh worried about the position of some trees and a few clouds on the horizon. After scoping a few more possible observation spots, he made the last-minute executive decision to drive us to Bishop’s University in Lennoxville.
The university was hosting an eclipse viewing on their campus with food trucks and brief speeches by professors about the history and science of this astronomical phenomenon. It was a good call to set up shop here. We got a great seat at the very top of the football stadium bleachers where we experienced 3 minutes and 27 seconds of totality. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about the eclipse as Josh prior to totality. But, I may just be an “eclipse chaser” now. Egypt 2027, anyone?
We won’t talk about the traffic on the way back to Montreal. But we ended the night was a soak in the rooftop heated pool where - completely unexpectedly - the Northern Lights made a brief and faint appearance. It was an incredible ending to a great trip and another trip around the sun for me.
Now, home to my baby!
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