Last week we pulled off a "last fling" vacation trip before the baby comes and travel becomes more complicated. It was my first time in Montreal, and we loved it.

The weather was perfect, mid 70s in the day, 60s at night. Great public transportation made it easy and inexpensive to get around.

The city showed a commitment to the arts in the metro and on the streets. There were very clever sculptures, for example, built around street planters. Near our place, a car-shaped framework on the side of the road was covered in morning glories. Three radio stations played jazz in the evenings.

Although Montreal's billed as a city of 3.4 million, it felt smaller and friendlier than my hometown Boston. Whenever we boarded a crowded train or bus, someone jumped up to give Aimee a seat. Our experience was brimming with European flavour too ... travel is broadening, as the cliche goes. Plus great cuisine choices all around! If I had more time there, I would have drank more and eaten more above all else.

Our B&B was in a "gentrifying" neighborhood. That included a piercing and tattooing building in the building's ground floor, but our suite had posh decor and a jacuzzi in the bedroom above. Some guys were remodeling next door in the evening, but we were able to enjoy the B&B's fantastic deck without much bother. We didn't pick up any new tattoos, but Aimee gratefully used the jacuzzi every night to recover from walking.

The first day we saw the city from Mont Royal and walked the attached park. I had high hopes for the city's contemporary art museum, but it had too much of that self-indulgent crap that isn't "real" modern art. A symmetrical sphere of cafeteria chairs wired together is not a sculpture!

For dinner we tried a terrific French restaurant, Au Petit Extra, on the advice of our B&B innkeeper. An obliging waiter read the menu to us. Aimee had delicious tortellini and broccoli (not that French a meal, I guess) and I had a Guinea hen.

We also spent a day doing Vieux-Montreal (old Montreal), particularly the Notre Dame cathedral and the Mariner's Church. We found a wonderful crepes restaurant for lunch -- it had a big outdoor seating area with soaring sun shades and live jazz. I loves me some crepes!

That was probably my favorite day, although Aimee got bored by the history and archaeology museum. (I'm the planner in the relationship. Mostly that works fine, but sometimes our ideas of a good time don't mesh.) She was pretty wiped out by evening, so I prescribed dinner in and an extra-long jacuzzi soak

During the trip we strolled rue Ste-Catherine, the gay district's main street, packed with all kinds of rainbow flags and boys holding hands and kissing. It felt much more free than stateside. Though, whilte there were energetic crowds of all description walking with us, we saw very few lesbians.

We had Italian dinner at Piccolo Diavolo and took in the vampire decor. Devils held up the bar, one wall was painted with clotted blood, and some unhappy fellows' faces jutted in cement from another wall.

The last full day of our visit we explored the botanical gardens, where most everything was in bloom. They also had a Garden of Useful Things, a carefully organized, living encyclopedia of herbs and edible plants.

Later we schlepped over to the Olympic Park and the seventies sports monstrosities that lurk there. It was the warmest day of our trip, and we roasted on the concrete expanses until we found our way into the tourist center. The view from the tower was worth a few photos, but I was more impressed by the Biodome -- the center's former velodome, converted into a zoo.