Is the world becoming more vanilla?

[explanade]

Not sure how big cities aren't different. Just take for example New York vs. London. There are small pockets of London where they relaxed the height restrictions and you see skyscrapers but it's nothing like NY.


I'm surprised and somewhat disappointed to hear Montreal and Quebec City are like US cities? They don't have any French-influenced architecture? Was thinking of visiting some day.


As for local food, to an extent yes but I'm not terribly interested in German or English food. Fortunately, places like London and Berlin have big international communities so a lot of foreign cuisine seem to be popular in England and Germany.

[Tree-dweller]

We were in Quebec City about 3years ago and had a great time! I agree that if you stray far from the walled city you could be in any North American suburb (with more smokers), but the old town is still worth a visit.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by explanade I'm surprised and somewhat disappointed to hear Montreal and Quebec City are like US cities? They don't have any French-influenced architecture? Was thinking of visiting some day.

I think it was my comment that first suggested Montreal and Quebec City weren't that much different than US cities. It was an observation from my DW. And to put it in context, they aren't drastically different from Us cities compared to places in Asia or Latin America.

As another poster just mentioned, the old historic parts of town, especially Quebec City, are beautiful. Definitely worth a visit. But outside the historic downtown areas, I probably couldn't tell them from Chicago, Jersey burbs, etc. I also got the "somewhat contrived for tourists" vibe from the old town in Montreal though the rest of the downtown area seems normal. And Montreal has a great variety of ethnic diasporas which are cool (but like most other large N American cities).

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElizabethT Although we have no interest in eating at them, we do enjoy peeking inside of McDonalds when we travel to see how they've been modified to suit the local culture. Below is a photo of our favorite sighting to date, a praying Ronald in Bangkok, Thailand:

When we took the train into Rome for a walking tour, the tour guide said he would meet us at McDonalds in the train station. Little did we know that there were 4 of them! And then we were asking all the Italians where is this main McDonalds? Continuing the legend.

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO As another poster just mentioned, the old historic parts of town, especially Quebec City, are beautiful. Definitely worth a visit. But outside the historic downtown areas, I probably couldn't tell them from Chicago, Jersey burbs, etc. I also got the "somewhat contrived for tourists" vibe from the old town in Montreal though the rest of the downtown area seems normal. And Montreal has a great variety of ethnic diasporas which are cool (but like most other large N American cities).

Yes the only thing to be on the lookout for is the signs. They are all in French by law. In fact, the only place in the world that has Arret signs is Quebec. In France they use Stop.

But if you want to experience true French, get out of the cities. Try a trip to Tadoussac to see the whales.

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Kieth, they use STOP on a familiar red octagonal sign in Baku, Azerbaijan, too. Go figure. (Actually, they got it from the Russians!)