Lovely Longueuil

Ian and I just got back from a long weekend in Montreal and we had a really nice time--the only bad thing about the whole weekend was that we were jinxed when it came to food.  Orders were wrong, food was cold, servers forgot us, etc.  Usually we have such good luck with eating out but Montreal was determined that we wouldn't overeat.

Besides that, we really liked Montreal.  On Friday, we went on a four-hour walking tour of the city and hiked to the top on Mont Royal for a spectacular view of the area, then on Saturday we went to see the Sporting KC soccer team play the Montreal Impact (tied 1-1) in heavy rain.  We also went over to the mainland (Montreal is on an island!  Who knew?) to visit Longueuil, Quebec which is the community where our Surprenant ancestors settled after they came over from France.  To be honest, I was expecting the worst and figured it would be an ugly little industrial town sitting in the shadow of Montreal but in fact, it is a very charming, very old little village.  We walked around a little bit but the historical society building was closed and the church was hosting a wedding so we were not able to look for Surprenant's.

The large cathedral was built in the 1800s and sits on the site of the previous church and supposedly there is a museum and crypt-like cemetery but it is by appointment only and I didn't think to plan ahead and make an appointment.  Next time.

I highly encourage any to go visit the North American ancestral village--you won't be disappointed.  It has a bit of the feel of Stillwater since the old village center is now almost exclusively restaurants and gift shops but there are plenty of really old buildings and history still there.

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures but here are a couple that I found online, plus there is a web site for the Longueuil Historical Society. http://www.societedhistoirelongueuil.qc.ca/index.htm