Canada: Montreal, Quebec - September 2009

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text:

For once, I'm not in Asia. And I'm not blowing bubbles underwater. No, I crossed the Atlantic for a one week getaway in Montreal...

And for once, someone was waiting for me at the airport. My colleague from Quebec Marie-Julie Gagnon picked me up as I stepped off the plane on Sunday evening and took me straight to eat a poutine.

A poutine in La Banquise

Poutine? Great gastronomy... 😆

French fries and cheese puffs, drizzled with brown sauce. We needed something special to celebrate our meeting...

We were so happy to finally see each other, "in real life", after our long virtual exchanges, through blogs, tweets and emails! Despite the tiredness of the trip and the time difference, I let myself be "kidnapped" with immense happiness, for this first Quebec evening.

Moreover, as Marie-Julie doesn't do things by halves, I had the opportunity to be introduced to this supreme culinary refinement in a Montreal institution, famous for its poutine: The ice. The establishment is so famous, that even on a Sunday night, people line up for their portion of spongy fries.

I admit: more than the content of my plate, I enjoyed the place, the moment, the atmosphere. And I love this feeling of total disorientation when you just got off the plane... Besides, I was hungry.

In the warm hubbub of conversations, all vibrating cheerfully with a Quebec accent, I gobbled up my poutine with a good heart.

We hurry in La Banquise (Montreal) to get a poutine.

But never, in undertaking this trip across the Atlantic, would I have imagined finish on YouTube to taste this delicacy live. Thank you Marie-Julie!!!!

😀