Right now we're about to kick off our week long adventure through Quebec,

and we're starting in Montreal.

So before we get into all the action, we're going to get

orientated into the culture of French North America.

So we're going to meet up with

Martin who is a local tour guide here,

and he's going to show us around

the historic old quarter of Montreal.

But first, coffee.

This is the first

15 minutes in the city,

and I'm already falling in love

with Montreal.

It is so chill; super European vibe;

cool architecture. Like it.

I think I'm going to love this city.

-Bonjour. -Bonjour. -Ça va? -Oui.

First stop of the day.

We're at Le Cartet

It's a cute cafe here.

We're going to have a petit dejeuner.

Scrabbled eggs with goat cheese

and a cafe. How about you, Bro?

Que-ce que vous avez? [What are you having?]

Je vais prende le brunch des cantons [I'll have the Township Brunch]

Oui (yes)

It looks like

I ordered the right thing for breakfast.

I'm diving into Quebec culture with a

meal designed to fortify me

against the cold winters here.

It's got ham, bacon, sausage,

beans cooked in maple syrup,

some potatoes, eggs. I'm ready to do this.

Ready to explore.

What is the plan?

The plan is to venture through these narrow streets of old Montreal.

Allons-y (let's go)

All right, guys.

So a little bit of background on Montreal.

It's an island on the Saint Lawrence River.

It was originally inhabited by Iroquois

and it gets its name from Jacques Cartier,

a French explorer who came through here

in the mid 1500s searching for a

westward passage to Asia.

He claimed all of Canada for France,

and named this place Mount Royal

after the mountain in the center of the island.

Over the next few centuries

the Saint Lawrence River

became a massive artery

in this huge trading network that stretched

all the way to the Great Lakes

based on fur trading with the local tribes.

French merchants were selling beaver pellets back in

Europe for fortunes, and

cities like Montreal and Quebec were inhabited

by these fur trappers or "coureur de bois"（FRENCH" runner of woods''）

that were basically like Leo from the Reverand.

A long story short

France and the U.K were battling for

power all around the world.

That culminated in the Seven Years War.

France lost and with that lost all

of their possessions in Canada.

Quebec became part of the United Kingdom.

Today Montreal is the biggest city in Quebec.

It's the second biggest French speaking city in

all the world. It's bilingual; It's multicultural.

So before we dive into all those different aspects

of Quebecois culture, Martin is going to show us

some of the oldest parts of the city.

This looks like a pretty old building.

Where exactly are we standing?

We are in the former walled city

in what we call today Old Montreal.

Montreal was walled for about 100 years

through out the 17th century.

What was it like back in the early days?

Only 10,000 people crossed the ocean

during the French regime.

And we are pretty much, all of the descendants

of only 10,000 people

that crossed between the early days

and 1763, the beginning of the English regime.

So I'm 11 generations, for example.

Interesting thing right here.

The flag of Montreal actually has four symbols on it.

You've got the Fleur de Lis for the French

You've got the thistle for the Scots; the shamrock for the Irish

and the rose for the English.

What's the motto for the city?

"Concordia Salus" It's Latin

"Living together in harmony." That's what it means.

And now how many different nationalities live in Montreal?

It's super diverse, right? Between 80 and 90.

Very diverse.

All right, Bro. Thoughts so far

on Montreal? I've wanted to go to Quebec

for so long, and

I've never been. So to be

in a French speaking part of North America

is very cool. It definitely feels

European, much more so than any

other city that I've been to in North America.

It's gorgeous. Love the architecture.

Looking forward to what else Montreal has in store

for us. And the rest of Quebec.

It's only day one! Yes

So we're going to make our way over towards Chez Jerry

which is a restaurant by Jerome Ferrer

who is a renowned chef

and it's like his canteen where he does

a modern interpretation of traditional Quebecois food

Let's hit it!

Kind of a cool, quirky little detail

that you might not catch unless

you're looking for it.

We're right here in one of the main squares of Montreal

and on one side of the street, you have Queen Victoria,

the British influence,

and on the other behind me,

you have a Parisian metro stop.

Super cool

and a very visual representation of

the dual heritage of French Canada and

of Montreal.

I hope you're ready for a treat.

We've just got to

Chez Jerry

and we've ordered a couple little plates.

So we're having the "poutine", which is the classic

Quebecois dish, and then we're going to be

having a lobster roll and a foot-long hot dog

because that's a thing. That's a thing,

and we're going to do it. Oh my goodness

This is long, but it's girthy

Vagabrothers' sexual innuendos aside,

the meal looks spectacular.

That is a damn big hot dog!

So for the uninitiated, poutine

is Canada's signature comfort food:

French fries with this beautiful sauce,

curds, and this just looks delicious.

Wow

Oh my god.

Well that was good.

Poutine at lunch is like Christmas in July.

Onwards. We're going to go do a craft beer pub crawl

through the Latin Quarter

because that's the thing. Yeah!

And we love craft beer.

All right guys. So now we're in the Latin Quarter, and

we're exploring another one of Montreal's traditions

which is beer making.

Montreal is actually home to the oldest brewery

in North America,

which is Molson founded in 1786

here in Montreal. Interesting.

But today we're going to be exploring Montreal's craft

brew scene. So we're meeting up with Jerome

He's going to take us on a craft brew tour,

and we're starting here at Le Saint Bock.

Ready to brew?

I'm always ready. Let's do it.

We're not going to have any Budweiser today

or Molson or any of that.

You can forget it. We're going to go inside

the world of craft beer.

So this brewery

actually has more than 850

beers available

for purchase, and

the most expensive one is

3000 dollars.

OK. Well first brewery down.

How did you like that?

I'm feeling jolly. It's cold weather

with beer and poutine, It's a great combination.

It just started snowing, which is nice.

The Latin Quarter is called this because

it's where all the students and universities are.

They're 35,000 students here,

which means this intersection here

is where the most beer is served in Quebec.

My name is Jeremy, and today we're going to do a

brew pub tour. How come the beers

started to be quite very popular in

Montreal is because it

was far from France. You didn't have access

to wine. So it's one of the reasons

why they are starting to brew beer,

to at least have a type of alcohol.

Our first beer in Quebec was

a pine beer. We like to

try lot of different funky stuff,

like bacon jalepeño beer, for example

or a lot of fruit beers, as well.

Well guys. Day has turned into night.

It's a beautiful evening here in Montreal, and

we're going to do something a little out of the ordinary.

We're going to try to do something really Canadian.

We're going to learn how to play ice hockey.

I'm just joking. But we are going to try

to ice skate. That's the first step,

and that should be interesting because I haven't

done it since the Mighty Ducks movie came

out back in the day. We do live in California in the desert,

so it's not our most natural environment,

but we're going to see what happens.

Hopefully, we don't break anything.

Knock on wood.

Let's go.

My god. This is so gnarly.

I definitely don't feel I should be vlogging this.

I'm going to fall on my ass.

What just happened?

I was trying to dance to this music.

It's like a disco on the ice, and I just went

right past Alex, slipped and fell.

This is so dangerous, but it's so fun.

Addicting. I can't stop.

The DJ " sur la glace" the DJ on the ice was amazing.

You also broke your butt, man. You ate it hard!

Not that hard. Only once.

And I realize the key is turning your falls into

new dance moves.

We're going to go get some dinner at

a nice little restaurant called Mimi La Nuit.

Super fun. it's right here in the Old Quarter. Let's go!

Ladies and Gentlemen

to bed!

Pretty much. Today has been so awesome.

Wow. First day in Montreal.

Really, really dig the vibe in this city

Today we did the historical and traditional.

Tomorrow we are doing the hip and the trendy

Hipster stuff.

We're going to the Mile End

so tune in for that. If you guys like the video,

give it a thumbs-up, share it with your travel buddies,

of course, and subscribe

to Vagabrothers for videos from all around the world

every week. That button is right down there.

In the meantime, remember to stay curious,

keep exploring, and we will see you guys on the road.

Peace.

How do you say this in French?

à la prochaine! Qui.