Trembling Mounts and Early Morning Escapes

I'll say one thing for Monsieur E and that is that life is never dull when he is around.

Yesterday morning, we rose early (to avoid his 'interesting' flatmate) and drove out to the Mont Tremblant National Park, two hours north of Montreal. We had ordered a subcompact rental car but, as usual, they were out of reasonable-sized cars so we ended up with a mammoth SUV. Monsieur E was very proud of this and called about five of his friends to 'complain' (i.e. brag about the size of the car).

Mont Tremblant was incredibly beautiful. It was, supposedly, the best weekend to see the fall foliage and indeed, it felt as though we had tumbled inside a paintbox and we kept seeing ever more vivid reds, oranges and yellows. The park is centred around Mont Tremblant and consists of a large forest with about 400 lakes so we drove around, sitting on what were effectively private beaches. The plan had been to read by the lake and go swimming or kayaking but it was really cold, despite being very sunny so we just dipped our toes in the water and took lots of photos.

The SUV obviously went to Monsieur E's head as on the way back he had some serious road rage, which was only calmed by the Music from The O.C. playlist to which we were listening. We stopped at Mont Royal on the way back (Montreal and Mont Royal both actually meaning 'royal mountain') and stood at the belvedere looking down over the city, which definitely looks better by moonlight. The full moon was also glowing a yellow-orange, which gave the skyline a surreal feel.

We ate dinner at a Thai place on St Laurent, which is, apparently, the latest trendy place to go out, and then picked up some of Monsieur E's LLM friends and headed off to a party. I had a fun night, but despite Monsieur E's promises to be home by midnight, it was well after two by the time we got home.

In the morning, we went out for pancakes and coffee at a café near Monsieur E's flat and later this afternoon, I have his rugby match/BBQ and then I have just two more days in Montreal before catching the scenic train through New York State and into NYC. I'll be spending the last night of my trip at the Hudson so I only have two more nights of hostelling to endure. Life could definitely be worse.