The weather was much nicer on our second day in Montréal, and Jazz Fest was on, so after breakfast and some tree trimming, we headed in to the city.
After breakfast on Don’s back deck, Karen and Don (OK, really, Jen) decided that the lilac tree in the back yard was in desperate need to trimming. Karen is an expert lilac-trimmer so she jumped right on that, over Don’s mild protest but with his willing assistance.
We caught the metro downtown early in the afternoon, after failing to do any research whatever about the Jazz Fest schedule. Once we arrived on site, we realized there was one performance mid-afternoon, but nothing really starting until 5 pm. Weirdly, the place was a little empty. I guess everyone else did their research.
With some time to kill, we headed into Old Montréal and wandered the streets, soaking in the ambience. Eventually we made it out to the Vieux Port and took a stroll along the waterfront.
Heading back into the city we encountered a random crew of “highland soldiers”. We have no idea who they were or why they were there, but they made for a nice photo. Or at least, that seemed to be the consensus of the crowd.
At Don’s suggestion, we headed to the Jardin Nelson for an early dinner. There was a twenty minute wait to get in but it was worth every minute.
The Jardin is a beautiful large courtyard space on several levels. The menu is extensive but Don recommended the crepes, which were excellent.
During our dinner, the house band performed a range of soft jazz and pop numbers.
After dinner we headed back to the main Jazz Fest site to catch some of the outdoor concerts. When we arrived Le Tonique Big Band was playing to a packed crowd. There was no good seating (or standing) available, so we ended up off to the side where we could hear but not see.
When Le Tonique finished we headed over to catch The Altons, a four-piece latin soul rock group out of Los Angeles on their first Canadian tour. This time we got good standing spots fairly close to the stage — there was at least 300 m of crowd stretched out behind us.
