Parc Jean-Drapeau was largely built and hosted the 1967 World Expo and actually consists of two islands on the St. Lawerence River - île Sainte-Hélène and île Notre-Dame. It’s named after an ex-mayor of Montréal, Jean Drapeau, who was the main initiator of the Expo 67 exposition themed “Man and his World”.
Upon leaving the Jean-Drapeau metro station deposited me on île Sainte-Hélène and I was greeted with the sight of bright blue skies and a lovely water fountain. By following the ‘crowd’ (the five people in front of me) I ended up heading out towards the Biosphère which is located in the geodesic dome that was originally built for Expo 67 as the US pavilion. The Biosphère is now an environmental museum. It cost about $12 (I think) for entry and had an interactive section all about water, another are about the water ecosystems of the Great Lakes-Saint Lawerance River regions, a section about Richard Buckminster Fuller and a fully solar powered house. The solar powered house was kinda cool – it use glass panels for walls, had underfloor heating and also had plants on the outside which were apparently good for air quality and insulation!!
The Biosphère and Me working the water pumps
After the Biosphère I decided to head to île Notre Dame and the Casino de Montréal for lunch. I had actually had to catch a bus to get there as it was too far to walk – and totally made a fool of myself by asking the bus driver for a ticket!! Apparently your meant to use your metro ticket/transfer slip – how was I meant to know?? However the bus driver let me on for free so it worked out in the end. When I got to the casion I could not believe just how many poker machines there were! There were hundreds!! No Thousands!! I had a few spare coins in my pockets so I decided I try to see if I could find a lil slot machine action. I cashed about $5 into 25c coins (I even got the coin bucket to put them in!!) and went hunting for the cheapest machines I could find – the 5c machines. Unfortunately the 5c machines were exactly the same as the machines we have at home... which is totally boring! Eventually I did find a couple of the One Armed Bandits (Old school slot machines) and pretty much lost the entire $5 in about 2 minutes!! After that I headed to the top level for lunch. I had the choice between Nuance (fine cuisine) and... well... the buffet! Considering the weight of my wallet I decided the buffet would be the best course of action!! There was quite a large choice and I was a bit adventurous (I even got escargot!!) and by the end of it I was very VERY full!! The best thing was the whole thing cost me less than $20!! Bargain!!
View down from the top level of Casino de Montréal and Food, Glorious Food!
In all honesty, all the slot machines were kinda depressing so I hopped the bus back to île Sainte-Hélène and decided to see if I could find La Ronde Amusement Park. Of course I got completely lost – crossed the St. Lawerence River and ended up BACK on île Notre-Dame not too far from the casino!! As I was crossing back I overheard the people saying the La Ronde was now closed during the weekdays as it was no longer summer... and of course once I finally got close enough to see it I determined they were correct. It was quite obviously closed!
The St. Lawerence Rive, Blending in with the trees & a very silent (and closed) La Ronde.
Only I had determined that La Ronde was definitely closed I followed the trail down to a nice little pond and bridge. I crossed over the bridge and there were a few dragonflies hanging around so I had a bit of an experiment with my camera. Over the bridge there were a few squirrels that looked like they were collecting nuts for the winter ahead. There were also a few groundhogs around that were so very cute! As I followed the trail along I also managed to come across a chipmunk!! I tried to take a photo but it was WAY too quick for me, however I decided to leave me camera out just in case I saw another one... and sure enough about 10 m up the trail there was another chipmunk... and this time I managed to get at least one shot before it disappeared!!
Dragonfly, Groundhog, Chipmunk
After walking the trail I decided to head into Downtown, mainly to find a bank as I’ve had a lil trouble getting money out... well the main trouble being that I couldn’t GET ANY!! Anyways I head to Centre Eaton and found the nearest Bank ATM that would take a Visa card and thankfully... THANKFULLY... it dispensed me some crisp $20 notes! Canadian money is actually very very pretty with lots of nice colours. Though I will admit I am still having slight problems with the coins... they all look so similar... and some of them are so small!
After that I actually headed back to the hostel as I wasn’t really feeling too crash hot. Spent most of the afternoon having a bit of a lay down and catching up on email/work. I originally decided that after such a massive lunch and since I was not feeling my best that I would skip lunch, but by about 10 pm I was feeling better and I could hear my stomach rumbling! I decided that I would head up Rue Mackay and grab some Maccas... mainly because I wanted to see what it was like here in North America! However as I headed up the street I realised there was some massive outdoor concert going on. So I headed up into the crowd and watched the band (that were singing in French) for a bit before going to Mr. Sub (the Canadian version of subway?) to grab something to eat and completely confused the poor girl by asking for some capsicum... which are (of course!!) called green peppers here. After that I was completely bushed and head back to the hostel for bed!
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