Supermarkets in Québec

Food is important, so important in fact without it we would die! In Québec, food is very important to, so when you’re coming you need to find a good supermarket.
Off the top of your hat, where would you go?
Maxi, IGA, SuperC, Loblaws, Rachel Berry, Metro, Tau, Walmart
Confused? Yep, it’s normal. Coming to a new area [...]

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Saving for your child’s education

University is becoming more and more expensive these days, so it makes sense to start saving early to help pay for your child’s education. The Canadian and Québec governments think exactly the same thing and offer incentives.
Financial institutions offer special savings accounts called RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans) which the goverment will add in additional [...]

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Child Support

In Québec there are two forms of child support that are available to parents. I was quite surprised that as new immigrants we were given information on them proactively.
The first form is The Canada Child Tax Benefit from the federal state of Canada, and the second form is from the Government of Québec. 
When we arrived [...]

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Parc Mont-Saint-Bruno Park

Only 40km from Montréal, Mont-Saint-Bruno park is a wooded delight. It’s managed by Parks Québec and thus is part of the Sépaq network.
 
The park consists of a lot of forest, some grassland, five ponds/lakes and some historical buildings. We took the kids on a 3.5km walk through the forest which was really nice. It was [...]

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Botanical Gardin – Jardin Botanique

Montréal’s Botanical Garden is one of the largest in the world and is well worth the visit. Situated in the Hochelga-Maisoneuve district it is just next to the Olympic park.
The gardens consist of three different parts:

the gardens themselves
the greenhouses
the insectarium

The gardens are vast – you can spend all day if you take the care to [...]

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Montréal Police’s groovy trousers

It’s a bit wierd to see policemen in jeans and a bullet-proof vest, but this is Québec and we have things to learn.
However, it’s even weirder to see a motorcycle policeman wearing pink trousers! Pink trousers. How strange.
Apparently Montréal Police’s fetish with trousers is a statement against their contract negotiations not being complete. There’s more [...]

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Weather in Montréal

Is it snowing yet in the cold Canadian climate. Well, no! It’s approaching the end of September and the weather is still really nice here.
The mornings are quite cold, and the evenings are cool, but during the day it’s pleasantly warm. If the sun is out and the sky is blue, which is often the [...]

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Oka Park

Oka park is just 40km from Montréal and offers a mix of a beach and forest trails. It’s part of the Sépaq network of national parks in Québec.
The beach area is one of the prettiest that I’ve seen in Québec. There is a magnificient and clean sandy beach on the Lac des deux montagnes. There [...]

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Driving Licence – the SAAQ (Société d’Assurance Automobile de Québec)

Once you arrive in Québec you have three months to change your driving licence to a Québec one. Generally speakingm if you come from a first world country you can just make a stright exchange. For other countries through, you will have to resit a driving test. For more information check out the webpages of [...]

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Schools in Montréal

The system of education in Montréal is governed by rules set at the Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sport. It’s based around school boards (Commission Scolaires in French) which run schools in the districts allocated to them.
Schools boards run either French Language or English language schools (with a few exceptions – see below), however the [...]

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