For our second full day in Montréal, we busted out our Six Flags season passes for a trip to La Ronde, a Six Flags amusement park on a small island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, just across from downtown Montréal.
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| Before hitting the bus stop, we made a stop for morning pastries at a highly regarded neighborhood boulangerie/pâtisserie. Delicious! |
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| This place was awesome. What was even better is that their sidewalk seating was right by a bus stop, so we could literally finish our pastries and hop on the bus. |
Arriving at La Ronde had me thinking of former high school students of mine back in my McNick days. The textbook for my French III-AA class included amusement park vocabulary, and this park was prominently featured as the setting of the entire chapter.
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| At the front gate of La Ronde! |
It was interesting to note that La Ronde's affiliation with Six Flags was very downplayed compared to our Six Flags parks here in the States. It is not called Six Flags La Ronde. Rather, it is called La Ronde, and in small sub-print it says (in French) "A Member of the Six Flags Family." There were other ways in which we noticed how low-key the Six Flags relationship is, not the least of which are the mascots. There are no Looney Tunes here. Instead, the children's characters are a furry guy named Ribambelle and his little friends, les Z (five mushroom guys whose names begin in Z).
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| The kids were greeted at the front gate by Ribambelle and one of his mushroom sidekicks. |
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| First ride, the carousel! |
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| Cliff and Laura on Vertigo. Laura loved this ride and insisted on riding it again later in the day. |
Another difference we noticed was the food. There were, of course, the typical amusement park foods such as pizza, burgers, ice cream, etc. However, we thought the overall offerings were much more varied than what we can get in our park (crêpes, grilled chicken, etc.). A favorite of the day was a dish of poutine with our lunch. We had tried poutine our first night at the burger place, and it was so good, we wanted it again. Poutine is a very Canadian way of eating fries. The fries are covered in a type of thin gravy and cheese curds (there are many variations on other toppings, but that is the basic idea), and you eat them with a fork. It sounds weird, but it is soooooo good!
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| Poutine!!! Yum!!!! |
In the middle of the day, we took a break to watch a show in the kids' area. It was the STRANGEST amusement park show I've ever seen (and not just because it was in French). The summary goes like this: it was Ribambelle's birthday, so the mushroom friends (les Z) decided to prepare a surprise for him. Somehow, this surprise involved a laser gun that, unfortunately, malfunctioned and turned one of the mushroom guys into a baby and one into an old man. Eventually, they fixed the problem, Ribambelle arrived, they surprised him, but then discovered it wasn't really his birthday after all. So, naturally, they all busted out into a dance number to the song "Gangham Style", but every time the part that says "Gangham Style" came around, they said "Ribambelle" instead. Make sense???!!
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| Crazy kids' show that very much seemed like a mushroom trip. |
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| The bumper cars were a favorite for all 4 of us. We rode these twice. |
Another difference....instead of the usual basketball three-point shot midway games, we saw....
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| .....hockey slap shot and...... |
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| .......soccer kick! |
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| Getting silly while waiting for La Grande Roue (The Big Wheel). |
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| Such a ham! The big swing ride in the back, Vol Ultime (Ultimate Flight), was one of Nathan's favorites of the day. |
Overall, we had a great experience at La Ronde!
Gina
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