gody & marino

gody and marino came down to montreal for the said to be the most beautiful season of the year: autumn. so we took them to a weekend of real quebec nature experience in a village named saint-alexis-des-monts. it seemed the 'été des indiens' chose exactly that weekend to show up: the weather was really warm and we ate outside, in front of our chalet. we filled our days with fishing (caught and ate 4 trouts!), horseshoe pitching, walks in the woods, and of course some guitar playing and singing. (quicktime 6.5 mb)

cirque du soleil

you have probably all heard of the 'cirque du soleil'. but some of you probably didn't know they were from... montreal! we had the chance to visit their impressive headquarters a couple of weeks ago. it turned out the cirque is a huge, extremely well-organized business, with 12 shows playing all over the world all year round. at the montreal headquarters, all outfits are designed and produced from scratch, new artists are recruited and trained (often former professional athletes) and new shows are created. (quicktime 7.3 mb).

broken social scene

probably not many readers of this blog know the canadian rock band broken social scene. fellow fans of this 11-piece band can check out this video for their song "major label debut" and remember why we love them so much.

gaspésie/europe

september was a special month for both of us. pieter went on tour in europe with his band, playing gigs in barcelona, london and the isle of wight. i did the "tour de la gaspésie" with my parents who were visiting. gaspésie is a peninsula at the far eastern end of the province of québec. we drove 2500 kilometers in 9 days! but it was well worth it: nature is incredibly beautiful over there.

our trip led us through métis-sur-mer, its gardens, and an unforgettable "auberge" packed with books everywhere; then to percé, the île de bonaventure and its very loud "fous de bassan" (birds); and a last stop in la malbaie where pieter joined us for a couple of days. so that's that then, i've seen the most beautiful region of québec...

whale watching with griet & tingel

griet and pieter (aka tingel) decided to visit the two very best places in north america this summer: boston and montreal. we, on the montreal side, decided to take them north east along the st lawrence river to spend a weekend in a 'chalet' in a village named saint siméon. after some wake-up sunbathing in front of the sea-like river, the four of us went on a zodiac whale watching tour. the zodiac ride in itself was impressive to say the least - griet was seen floating in the air when the boat was flying over the waves. and yes, we did see some whales (quicktime 1,7 mb)! and some beautiful white belugas!

on the way back, after griet and tingel's traditional 'jumping picture', we stopped in québec city where we visited the province's parliament and met starsky and hutch whose car had just broken down.

virginie & nyc

virginie, a friend of marie's (picture featured in the 'botanical garden' post) flew across the atlantic to visit montréal and surroundings and give herself a well deserved break. while she was there, she also wanted to visit new york city; so we decided to make it a "girls only" weekend in the city of cities, including a visit to the beautiful museum of modern art. pieter was not unhappy to stay at home for an intense 48-hour musical experience.