JULY 19 2:30 PM LOCAL TIME - MONTREAL

After a seven and a half hour flight, the Air France Boeing drops us off at Montreal airport, and we meet up with our travelling companions : a total of 70 people, including wives and children, gathered for what we hope will be a month of vacation and exploration.

First surprise : the temperature in Montreal at 8 p.m. is 33°C with 95 % humidity.  It's hard to imagine that this place is covered with 2 metres of snow for 6 months of the year.

Big letdown when we get to Montreal : three of the 2CV that left the port of le Havre have not yet arrived.  That means three teams (11 people) have no tents, no sleeping bags, very little luggage, and especially no means of transportation. Happily, Canadian hospitality works wonders, and we find two excellent guides, Bertrand and Joëlle, two french citizens now living in Canada. Thanks to them, and despite our problems, we are able to get organized and to appreciate the immense city of Montreal.  As the locals say «Tabernacle» !  a huge, typically American city, with streets laid out on a grid, with skyscrapers, and that insane traffic. Certainly Montreal grew quickly, but its older quarters have continued to purr peacefully in the shadow of all that concrete. It is wonderful to discover these laid back streets, bordered by the most brightly coloured houses. Life is good, and the people are happy and gracious.

No garbage, and no crowds of street people.  Each neighbourhood has a different face, corresponding to its residents, their social class, and their ethnic backgrounds: a truly happy convergence of different life styles. Any visit to Montreal has to include Mont Royal (the hill, now made into a park, that gave its name to the city) where the children are surprised to learn that people here play with beautiful little wild squirrels, almost like common household pets.

That is something that we will notice over and over again throughout this trip: here, Nature is big and wild, and all Canadians give it the respect that it deserves. This allows them to be close to all sorts of animals, which seem not even to notice the presence of the humans.  What a great lesson!