Montreal

Greetings from Montreal.  It’s an island. We never knew that.  We landed safely and sped through customs & Alamo’s car rental process, even getting a free upgrade, a 2016 Nissan Altima.  We ditched the car at our hotel and then trekked on foot or by Uber during our stay. Parking & traffic are a challenge, here.  We learned that we cannot turn right on a red light on the island but can do so anywhere else in Quebec.  Go figure. While the economy seems to be flourishing in Canada, our currency is strong $0.76 US to $1.00 CDN, making it a good time to visit.

We could not have asked for better weather: blue skies and temperature in the upper 60’s during the day. We stayed in Vieux-Montreal, the old city.  It definitely has a European flair with its grey limestone exteriors, cobblestone streets, artwork and modernized gas lamps.  The people of Montreal are young, vibrant and impressively bilingual.

On the first day here, we visited the Governor’s House to ground ourselves in Montreal’s history.  Although New France was settled by French explorers / cartographers Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, it was soon overtaken by the English and later unsuccessfully invaded by the Americans, whom the French speaking residents felt were less classy than the Brits.  Quebec was ultimately unified as a bi-cultural province when the merchants of both French and English ethnicities started to make beaucoup bucks.  On a more current note, Montreal is in the world news again because its government is being criticized by animal lovers everywhere for discriminating against  a single breed of dog,  the pit bull.  A new law has been passed that requires all pit bulls to be muzzled and on a short leash.  All pit bull strays must be euthanized.  Ouch!

The first gallery contains pictures we took as we walked around old town during the day. Click on a picture below to see it enlarged with its description. To navigate the gallery, use the left and right arrows. Click the “X” in the upper right corner to exit the gallery view.

Old Montreal is magical at night.  It lights up like a Christmas tree.  This year is extra special because the town is preparing for its 375 year anniversary.  On many of the old walls and alley way floors, gigantic video projections of scenes from the history and heroes of Montreal are scattered throughout the city.  We downloaded an App and listened to the audio explaining each scene as we walked in the city.

The video below shows us walking through an alley that depicts the beginning of time.  It is a dreamlike recreation of the Algonquin creation myth.  The lights follow walkers venturing into this alley.

This projection was right outside our hotel window.  We were watching the presidential debate when Pete thought he saw a ghost through the curtains.  What he saw was a recreation of Montreal’s history, when the Sisters of Charity (the Grey Nuns) took in abandoned children and unwed mothers. Very cool indeed!

On our second day in Montreal, we decided to check out a different neighborhood in the western part of the city. We signed up for an ethnic food tour in a hipster area called Mile-End, located in the artistic hub of the Plateau neighborhood.  It is the area where Leonard Cohen lives and the group Arcade Fire hung out. We learned that residents in eastern Montreal primarily speak French, and people in western Montreal favor English.  The arty Mile-End area is like Silver Lake or the Arts District in LA, but much more multicultural: Hasidic Jews meet hipsters, meet Muslims, meet Chinese, meet Vietnamese, meet Italians.  Here we toured the world through food.