Oh Canada: This is brunch but not as we know it

April 04, 2016


I took my first trip to Canada this past weekend. The land of maple syrup and poutine, it now also boasts a feature I'm pretty excited about... my little brother!

Not so little anymore, my bro is living and working in the very French city of Montreal. Now, even though it took us about six and a half hours to drive up from Providence (blame the thousand wee stops we needed to make for me and my onboard crew), the idea of my brother being 'up the road' from us is exceptionally exciting. No matter how lucky we are with opportunities to travel home and have family visit us, it makes such a difference knowing you've got family on the same continent, who are a road trip and a nearly-lost-it-the-day-before-we-left-but-that's-another-story* passport away.


With us driving up and thus needing a free, guaranteed parking spot, along with my need to snack pretty much constantly, we thought an AirBnB would be the perfect option for us as we could look for somewhere with a parking spot and a kitchen. 



Whilst we decided on it for convenience and cost effectiveness primarily, we were bowled over by how beautiful our little Mile End/Plauteau bolt hole was. With a generously sized and well equipped kitchen and dining space, should my snacking needs have been a bit more full blown I could have whipped up anything these babes desired!




We were also kept company by two new feline friends! Having lost our beloved Abraham Lincoln to a freak accident late last year, it was an added little bonus to make two new furry friends. 

Now to the food! Montreal has a reputation as being a trendy city, full of cool stuff to do, and delicious things to eat. I can safely say we were not disappointed!

Motivated in part by the two small people in my tummy that demand feeding in vast quantities now my appetite has returned, but also because when brunch is an option.... well, then brunch is the only option; we brunched and we brunched hard.


I think, over our four mornings in the city, we got a pretty decent cross section of the brunch options available to us. 

Our first stop was to a local and, as we were to find out, very French speaking cafe called La Petite Marche. After limping through our welcome with our polite but likely pretty crap attempt at the French language, we ordered coffees (latte is the same in French and English, score), we did not quite appreciate that a large coffee really did mean large. Like, quite literally in bowl, an actual bowl with no handle. This probably should have tipped us off to the quantities we could expect on the food front...

Not wanting to do my usual trick of over ordering, I plumped for crepes filled with goat cheese, figs and nuts (crêpes au fromage de chèvre, figues et noix... yeah, I can French) and Charlie for a Benedict. I wavered before finally deciding as there was another dish on the menu that came with a selection of fruit which I quite fancied, but deciding I could always add on fruit later should I still be hungry, I tempered my order and was quite please with my restraint.

Until the food arrived.


As Charlie amply illustrates, complete with his oh-my-god-what-did-we-order smile, our breakfasts were not small. 

On my plate were my delicious crepes (they are getting made again really soon, look out for the recipe!) sautéed mushrooms and Canadian bacon, crispy strips of American bacon, two sausages, two eggs, a piece of toasted baguette and a fruit plate to rival Carmen Miranda's headgear. 

I'm proud to say that I made a valiant effort, leaving only a few morsels for Mr Manners, assuming this would keep me going for the rest of our day of exploring. If the babies hadn't had other ideas I'm sure it would have kept me going until the following Tuesday, but the French pastries of Montreal called a few hours later and it was definitely the responsible pregnant thing to do to ensure I was giving the babies the nutrients they clearly desired... definitely the babies that need the croissant. Definitely.

Check back for more on our Montreal trip including being a brunch #fangirl at L'Avenue and what snowboarding looks like when you five months pregnant.


This post is not sponsored, it's just my opinions and experiences of some great places!

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2 comments

  1. Maybe I'll try this exquisitely French place when I go to Montreal.

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    Replies
    1. It really was a completely wonderful trip B.B. I highly recommend Montreal!

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