As a counterpoint to the cold winters you should definitely check out Carnaval in Quebec City. It's held in February. The whole city completely embraces winter and winter activities.
Quebec City is far more French than Montreal and has a very European flavour. You'll love it but it may not be a place you'd want to settle down in.
The Wumanz. Tabernac!
My french works fine in Europe but not at all in Quebec. Their version of French is akin to Jamaican English. Odly enough, the french they teach in Canadian high schools seems to work in Creole territory and African nations where French is spoken.
There is a French language immersion program subsidized by the gov that you can take and it was quite reasonable if I recall, might be a good way to get some exposure,
As to the cold, there is an option to live virtually indoor/underground all winter, everything you need connected by tunnels.
https://traveler.marriott.com/montreal/chilling-out-survive-montreal-winter/
Don't hide from the cold. Embrace it. Otherwise you'll be miserable.
Quebec City is a different place - much less Anglophone.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you for all the great information!
NOHOME said:The Wumanz. Tabernac!
Haha. I watched a video yesterday about québécois curse words and my wife and I got a kick out of it. Tabernacle! Chalice! Host! Such vile words!
Start following this guy....
https://www.facebook.com/matthewgiuffridaofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/matthewgiuffridaofficial/videos/718310705452191
I grew up about 50 miles WNW of Montreal so I find the accent and content hilarious. Multiply all prices by 0.75 to get US dollars and a little less heartburn. Spend some vacation time there, decide if you are a downtown person or you want to be in suburbia or out in a small town. There are lots of lakes north of the island of Montreal, all pretty heavily populated by city folk. I've managed to go home for a week or so each summer for the last several years, but I haven't been into the city in many years.
Is the Montreal Jazz Festival still the biggest one in the world? I saw Brubeck play there a few years back, but weirdly never went when I lived in Ottawa and actually played jazz.
Oh, and the roads north of Montreal are fantastic. You'll need some good suspension but they're huge fun. And Quebecers have a more euro attitude towards spirited driving. There's a reason all of Canada's F1 drivers come from that province.
In reply to infinitenexus :
Or mange le mange Ihad a high school French teacher who believed we should be able to swear in French.
In reply to Rons :
That's "mange la marde" if you're saying what I think you're saying.....
In reply to eastpark :
LOL. that made my day !
Edit: I had family in East Angus, Anglo uncle, Franco aunt. My two cousins are pretty good at bilingual cursing.
infinitenexus said:Yeah I know, the wife and I just moved to Florida some months ago. It was a temporary measure, mostly because we hated Baltimore and I got laid off due to Covid. We've been looking since then at places to live and we're giving serious thought to Montreal. We plan on taking some vacations up there once the border opens up and things calm down, but does anyone have any experience with the place?
I know it's French first, I was a linguist in the military for 12 years so I'm good with languages and started studying French a few days ago. In January I'll be taking French courses in college as well, and the wife will be studying with me. I know the winters are cold as well, that's not a negative for me. I love cold weather, and the weather for the rest of the year looks fantastic.
Being in central Florida I'm pretty much in motorsports heaven (well, without Covid) as I can autocross/HPDE basically every weekend out of the month, and no place will really compare to that. Is there autocrossing around the Montreal area? I would like to keep driving. With the snow I figure I'll probably get rid of my Mustang GT and get something all wheel drive, like a Subaru or whatever.
From what I've read and heard, rent is very cheap (for a large city) in Montreal. I would prefer a small house with a small bit of land - just enough for a garage, a small garden, and the obligatory race car, but it seems when I search for that all I find is single wide mobile homes on a bit of land for $200K. I guess rent is cheap but houses are expensive.
This move would be happening in probably 2 years' time, so we have plenty of time to plan, visit, and save. I'm in school on the GI Bill right now, studying computer networking, so hopefully job prospects won't be too much of an issue. If it's as great as we expect it to be, we plan on becoming dual citizens.
I'm late to the party, but as the resident Québécois who has lived almost his entire life in and around Montréal, I really should answer this.
As many people have already written, the Québec french is VERY different than International French. It's called Joual. If you stay in Montréal, you shouldn't have any difficulty if you speak international french. Heck, you won't have any problems if you are an english-only speaker in Montréal. I know many people who have lived in Montréal for years with minimum French speaking skills. The further you go from Montréal, the less that's true.
As Curtis and others have written, do not confuse a French-Canadian with a French. That would be like calling an American a British. That's a major faux pas.
For swear words, the easiest and most used is Tabarnak. Pronounced like it is written. If you say tabernacle, people will laugh. The swearing is an important and very unique part of Joual. You can construct an entire sentence using only swear words.
For autocross, the Montréal-area club is the CADL. I've been a member for years and have been part of organizational aspect on/off. There is also the Delta club in the Québec city region and the Motorsport Club of Ottawa. Season lasts from about April to October and between these three clubs, you can go to an event every weekend. We are having a lot of issues keeping our venues, but the clubs fight very hard. There are even more clubs for HDPE events.
While it used to be cheap to rent in Montréal (compared to Toronto and Vancouver), that is less and less true. On the island of Montréal, you won't even be able to find a condo for less than $200K. To find the kind of house you are looking for, you'll have to move out of the city by at least a 30 minutes drive either on the south or north shore.
For what you are looking for, the Ottawa/Gatineau region might be a good option for you.
DeadSkunk (Warren) said:In reply to Rons :
That's "mange la marde" if you're saying what I think you're saying.....
Closer, but it's "Mange d'la marde".
If we have questions about Ottawa, I can help there :)
And if you are thinking you'd like something a little smaller than Montreal, or Ottawa, consider Kingston! It's ideally located between Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa . . . . Plenty of access to the things you are looking for, in a slightly smaller package.
If I every moved from here, it would be to Ottawa or Montreal. The biggest downside to my city is the ho-hum winters. Too mild, with our proximity to Lake Ontario. The south side of the lake gets all the good snow.
For 6 years, we spent one weekend a month driving up from Boston to Montreal. Great place, even though we never understood the road signs. People aren't as friendly as Vancouver, but great place. I wouldn't live there long term - no need to volantarily for me to live in that kind of weather, when I have 65F "winters" here, and can run my Ao52 year round, but for those who are looking to move, great place I am sure.
Good luck.
ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:And if you are thinking you'd like something a little smaller than Montreal, or Ottawa, consider Kingston! It's ideally located between Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa . . . . Plenty of access to the things you are looking for, in a slightly smaller package.
If I every moved from here, it would be to Ottawa or Montreal. The biggest downside to my city is the ho-hum winters. Too mild, with our proximity to Lake Ontario. The south side of the lake gets all the good snow.
I friggin LOVE Kingston. That's about 100 clicks from my cottage.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:ZOO (Forum Supporter) said:And if you are thinking you'd like something a little smaller than Montreal, or Ottawa, consider Kingston! It's ideally located between Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa . . . . Plenty of access to the things you are looking for, in a slightly smaller package.
If I every moved from here, it would be to Ottawa or Montreal. The biggest downside to my city is the ho-hum winters. Too mild, with our proximity to Lake Ontario. The south side of the lake gets all the good snow.
I friggin LOVE Kingston. That's about 100 clicks from my cottage.
We should have a beer sometime.
mtn (Forum Supporter) said:They have one of the best tendys in the league, which could easily negate the rest of my statement, but they won’t win as long as Bergevin is at the helm. Seriously, trading Subban for Weber?
Thanks to copious amounts of Letterkenny, I was actually able to understand enough of this to have a basic concept of what you're saying
Mrs P grew up just a little north of Montreal so we’re familiar with the area and for the reasons mentioned above we quite like it. The Gatineau area is on our list of places to retire, at least in summer.
I’ll be in Kingston tomorrow. Leaving after work to pick up a new bike.
I've always enjoyed my time anywhere east of Toronto coming from the Kitchener area. Mostly I'm up that way for work (I'm actually in Napanee for a couple of nights right now) and the history and scenery along the St. Lawrence is great.
adam525i (Forum Supporter) said:I've always enjoyed my time anywhere east of Toronto coming from the Kitchener area. Mostly I'm up that way for work (I'm actually in Napanee for a couple of nights right now) and the history and scenery along the St. Lawrence is great.
If you haven't discovered it yet the Waterfront Pub is worth a visit. If you come into Kingston, be sure to check out Olivea -- especially if your per diem allows you to stretch to as lightly bigger budget.
In reply to ZOO (Forum Supporter) :
I'm not sure why I'd go there when I can get pizza from Avril Lavigne's favourite pizza place just down the street from it lol.
I'd like to spend a weekend in Kingston at some point just to take it in, that's one spot I haven't staid in with work and really haven't been to since our middle school trip to Ottawa when we stopped there for the Fort and Bellevue House on the way by.
There are a couple of dirt tracks south of the river but not far.
Thank you all for the informational replies! This is really a great help.
My wife and I were talking earlier and we came to a realization that should be a big help: I just started school down here on the GI Bill. Once this semester is done, I could simply transfer up to a school in Montreal and use the GI Bill up there! The monthly stipend along with my small retirement should be enough to scrape by, and then a part time job on top of that will be grand. Now I just need to find a school in Montreal approved by the VA that has a good computer networking course and I'll be set. Also a friend of mine is the top IT guy for a company and they're about to start hiring in Montreal so there's a chance he could bring me on that way. Either way, I have some options opening up for a move to Montreal in the near future.
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