Montreal a combination of old and new

The streets begin to look familiar. I walk about 3 miles before I head back to the hotel to meet with the general manager. Jacques (and Katherine) who are both very sweet, very corporate, very professional and I can tell are used to a ‘hard-nose’ kind of industry professional. That's sooo not my way to interview.

I’m shown all over the hotel, restaurant and club. I’m also told that things really start to kick off around 10pm. Once I have a few moments with Jacques he begins to relax and his true personality begins to show. He is fun and knows his stuff. We make plans to meet up for dinner around 7pm and I’m left with more brochures to review.

Meeting done, back out in the cold and lights of Montreal.

“Lisa, we have a few friends her from Toronto, would you like to join or do you just want to have dinner with me?” Jacques asks
“No, I’d love to meet your friends.” With that, I’m told to drop my stuff in the room and meet them at the bar in about 10 min. Just enough time for me to splash my face with warm water (I’m totally frozen), and get out of the clunky boots.

This is the first time in 3 yrs that I actually put on a really pretty-girly top and black jeans. Frankly, I look totally hot!

What I didn’t realize is what I was getting into. Ian, Michelle, Jacques, Donald and I had a BLAST. We ordered about five appetizers and courses which was all served family style. The portions were huge and oh so good. Lots of great conversation, 4 bottles of wine and cognacs later, kisses on both cheeks and I bid bonne nuit (good night) to my new friends. As I leave, I can feel the energy of the restaurant change – the beautiful people are coming and the party is just about to begin. Well, maybe this 'beautiful person' will catch up with them tomorrow night.

Comfortably back in my room, I take a shower and settle into the king sized goose-down bed and sigh. Truly exhausted because I’ve been up for now almost 41 hrs, it was easy to finally fall into a blissful French sleep.