Day 4 July 10, 2009

PGC Tour 2009
Day 4 July 10, 2009
Okay, okay we’re late for this one. Well, the girls went to their host families last evening and we diligent chaperones came back to the hotel to have an early night and catch up on our sleep. Right?
Scratch that, we came back and changed our clothes and went back to Montreal which is 40 minutes away by taxi and metro for a lovely dinner out. Which meant we returned home late and did not have the energy to put words to paper. But we had a very nice time together sharing a wonderful dinner.

Now on to our day yesterday with the girls.
We picked them up at 0800 from the community center and met with a number of the host families to hear how their past evenings were. They all had great stories to tell. One chorister said her host family father was very funny and he said the only rule in the house was that you cannot be shy! Well, I think a number of the girls may have been a little shy but it is a good experience for them to get a little out of their comfort zone and experience this sort of hospitality. The families are so excited to have the girls with them and a number told me that their girls were quite engaging, tres (that means very in French) polite and well mannered, and mature young ladies. Now if that does not sound like your child, you must give her more credit! After chatting with the host families, we all boarded our second home (le autobus) for Montreal.
We toured Montreal by bus in the morning learning much more about the multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual city. 180 different languages are spoken here. We drove through the city and saw Magill University, and statues like the illuminated crowd (see photos), Montreal’s “Wall Street”, Jacques Cartier's Crooked Bridge, Six Flags Roller Coasters, the largest cemetary in Canada, the Olympic tower (built 8 years AFTER the Olypmics - government at its best) and many more interesting sites before we climbed the local mountain, Mont Royal which is a grand 700 feet tall. Walking to the summit of Mont Royal (500 feet through a wooded path) we had a glorious view of the city and beyond where we had photo ops and a good leg stretch. Back on bus we drove to St. Helene’s which is an island where we took more photos of old Montreal city (Molson Building in foreground for the beer drinkers). St Helene’s hosted Expo 1967 which was like a world fair and the US provided a geodesic dome called the biosphere. Did you know that Montreal sits on an island as well? And the name came from Mont Royal= Montreal.
Back to the heart of the city, we stopped at the train station again for lunch and went one floor below yesterday where we had another great choice of food to sustain us! The girls had packed lunches from their host families so many chose to eat their lunches and a few bought Chinese or salads or sandwiches. After fueling up we were off to Basilique Notre Dame de Montreal to sing their first concert of the day dressed in their black dresses. They sang beautifully and looked even better. This elaborate church is called a basilica because it has been given its Basilican status because it is an important church in the city. (We had to ask Fred ,Jan’s husband what a Basilica is). Also within the Basilica was the Chapelle Norte Dame du Sacre Coeur which has an amazing bronze sculpture depicting the story of Easter holy week. It is in the photos, gang. This chapel burned down and was rebuilt in the 1970’s which is when the sculpture was added. After their concert we lucked out to hear an organ concert from the 7000 pipe organ.
Back up Mont Royal to St Joseph’s Oratory Crypt (shabbier than its big brother upstairs but more welcoming) for another beautiful concert just before mass. The most devout Catholics climb the 99 steps on their knees; we did not do that! The domed green roof is the Oratory. Of course with our 45 minutes to wander, 5 were spent wandering the grounds and climbing some steps, the rest were in the gift shop!! Back on the bus we drove through rush hour again back to Laval where we released our ladies to their families for the evening. Hopefully they were less shy last night and we will hear stories of their adventures this morning.
Your bloggers are signing off, need to move on to pick up the girls!

Here's yesterday's photo link
http://picasaweb.google.com/PGCTour2009/Day4July102009#