Westmount Adventures

It started back in first year when having lunch off campus seemed so bold and adult. I had designs on a young gentleman, and having learned that he resided in Westmount, I plotted to get know his neighbourhood. It would give us more talking points for our next conversation, I reasoned. It did, for all of three minutes, but Baboushka was kind enough to accompany me to Westmount, and that tradition lasted for four years.

Now, as worldly seniors, Westmount doesn’t seem quite so exotic, although the houses are beautiful and it’s a nice reprieve not to have to choke out halting French at every shop (ya done me dirty, French Immersion). And after four years of practice, we’ve got our itinerary down.

It starts with the walk. From the McGill campus, we walk west along Sherbrooke, armed with a camera and a temporary devil-may-care attitude about schoolwork. The Westmount Adventure Afternoon is for leisurely chatter, not scholarly discussion. As we stroll past the Ritz Carlton and peer into the Holt Renfrew windows, it’s gossip and lazy what-if questions and maybe a fun fact gleaned from CBC radio. And then, boom. We’ve arrived at our first photo op. Except this year, our posing friends — statues we named Georg and Mathilde — had been removed. So we pretended, and it was almost as good.

Four years of Westmount Adventures

Once we cross Atwater and are officially in a new city (exotic!), we  detour down Green Ave., former home of my favourite Montreal bookstore Nicholas Hoare (now sadly closed), and might pop in to the Lululemon because #mcgillbiddies. Photo Op #2 is outside the Westmount Memorial for its fallen soldiers. We Adventured right before Remembrance Day this year, so were appropriately adorned with poppies.

And then it’s time to spend money. There are David’s Teas in downtown Montreal, of course, but the shop seems better suited to well-manicured and moneyed Westmount. We refill one of our tins — Mango Lassi this time — and I also splurge on a tea advent calendar, a frivolous treat I’ve been craving for three years. Next step is dinner at Le Taj Mahal. That first year, I remember being so perplexed at the lack of restaurants in Westmount. There are lots of coffee shops but so few restaurants. Do all the families on the Boulevard have endless dinner parties prepped by hired help?

Finally, before our bus ride back home, we nip into a café for dessert. And by dessert, I mean overpriced (soy) milky coffees. Because #mcgillbiddies. And because in first year, we needed a place to do Latin homework.

But it isn’t really the food and the tea and the exotic feeling of leaving Montreal that make the annual Westmount Adventure so special. It’s just wonderful to have three or four hours to talk with Baboushka. I know we live together but homework and housework and work-work can take up so much time, and in the midst of midterm madness it’s nice to just hang out.