The weather has changed and Montreal is HOT as in the predicted temperature today is 90 degrees. To beat the heat, we got an early start on a walk to and up Mount Royal, a large volcanic-related hill or small mountain located in the city of Montreal and 764' in elevation.
(Deborah likes this photo of me sooo much she used it twice. Not that I blame her. Or maybe, just maybe, she likes the photo of Zoey and I'm just backdrop...)
Atop the mountain is a 103' illuminated cross installed in 1924 by the Jean-Baptiste Society, an organization dedicated to the protection of francophone interests and Quebec sovereignism. Today, the cross is owned by the city. A cross was originally placed at this site in 1643 by Paul de Chomedey, the founder of Montreal.
The mountain is also the site of Mount Royal Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of Central Park and the Biltmore Estates; however, his original design was not fully implemented because Montreal experienced a depression during the mid 1870s while the park was being built and many of Olmstead's plans were abandoned.
It's a beautiful park and a nice hike to the top of the mountain. The reward—stunning views of the city.
 |
| Great view of Montreal from the top of Mount Royal. |
 |
| The juxtaposition of old and new. |
WEEK FOURTEEN—July 1st is Canada Day which marks the anniversary of the 1867 uniting of the three separate provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia into a single entity called Canada which remained a British colony. It was not until 1982 that Canada became fully independent from Great Britain. It's a three-day weekend: some businesses are closed and the city celebrates with a parade and a public swearing in ceremony for new citizens in spite of the heat wave which continues to envelope the city—96 degrees today! It's too hot for Zoey to walk on the sidewalks so after her early morning walk, she's pretty much confined to the apartment. We walk back to the JazzFestival stages but it's even too hot for jazz. Fortunately, there's a tented pavilion that serves beer so we grab a table in the shade and then enjoy the music. (I don't care what all those scientists say. There is no such thing as global warming. These temps are just a fluke. In fact, I think we should just take the handcuffs off all the corporations and let then do whatever they want to the environment. What the hell. We won't be around in 50 years anyway. Right, Ken Jones?)
 |
| Kids cooling off in the Victoria Square fountain. |
 |
| JazzFest stage |
We have two highlights this week: one is going to see Herbie Hancock. He's 78 years old but you'd never guess that by his music—he and the musicians playing with him are great. They play a two-hour set and come back on stage for an encore—great show.
The second highlight is having Chris and Peggy Bugg arrive on July 3rd. Chris and Peggy are great dining partners so we've given some thought to where we will take them. Peggy loves fois gras so for our first lunch we go to Modavie. It's just around the corner from us on St. Paul Street which is the oldest street in Montreal and named for the city's founder Paul de Chomeday de Maisonneuve. It is a cobblestone street lined with boutiques selling outrageously expensive artwork to souvenir shops pandering to tourists wanting to take home Canadian-made moccasins, Canadian-produced maple syrup or anything else kitschy and made in Canada.
 |
| Chris & Peggy. |
 |
| St. Paul Street |
Along with fine dining with the Buggs at Hotel Bonaparte; Chez l'Epicier; Pyrenees; Terrasse Nelligan; Les 3 Brasseurs; and some I've forgotten, we also visited the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts which is hosting an exhibit titled, From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present AND Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art.
 |
Great piece by a black Canadian contemporary
artist at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.
|
 |
Unfortunately, the Leonard Cohen exhibit at
Montreal's Contemporary Art Museum ended
before we arrived. This street mural remains. |
We found time for a ride on the La Grand Roue de Montreal, the tallest ferris wheel in Canada. It is almost 200 feet tall (equivalent to a 20 story building) and provides a spectacular view of the city. (And after promising we would only have to make three revolutions to the top of this terror machine, the jerk running it decided I needed to have one more fright and gave us a 4th rotation. And to add insult to injury, I had to ride it again when Kathy and Ken Jones joined us...)
 |
| La Grande Roue de Montreal. |
 |
| Jim and Chris. |
 |
Jim and I.
|
 |
| Another great view of the city from the ferris wheel. |
We visited the Montreal Science Centre to see a Dreamworks Exhibit and learned about animation from sketch to screen. Really hadn't thought about how long Dreamworks has been making films but the exhibit included movies like Antz their first computer-generated film and Chicken Run made in 2000 and, of course, Shrek. Great exhibit—made us want to rewatch some of those great animated films and watch for the first time some that we have missed.
 |
| Chicken Little. |
 |
| Maquettes for Shrek and Donkey. |
 |
These are story boards for various movies.
And we went to the Chateau Ramezay, the first building in Montreal designated as an historical monument in the province of Quebec. It was originally built as a residence for then governor of Montreal, Claude de Ramezay in 1705.
|
WEEK FIFTEEN—We had one last lunch with Chris and Peggy at 11am on Saturday, July 7th and left them to meet Ken & Kathy Jones. Since this is the last weekend of the JazzFestival, we asked the Joneses to meet us at one of the stages.
It was hot and we were pretty much jazzed out; the Joneses didn't care to stay either so we found a cool (temperature-wise) nearby bar and spent the afternoon catching up with the Joneses: seeing pictures of Ken's new BMW convertible (this is why we could never keep up with the Joneses); talking about Jim's latest book since two characters are named after Ken and Kathy's sons (one's bad and one's good); and finally, going to the Place Ville Marie Observation Deck for spectacular 360 degree views of Montreal and a couple of beers at their bar to check in on the World Cup.
 |
| Yet another view of Montreal! |
We met them a little later at La Brassierie Le Pois Penche for a wonderful French dinner. The next morning, Jim and Ken went to play golf at the Ireland Golf Course and Kathy and I went to the Barbie Expo located in RÉSO Montreal's Underground City. It's a series of interconnected office buildings, hotels, shopping malls, convention centers and performing arts venues in the heart of downtown Montreal. The Barbie Expo is a display of more than 1,000 Barbie and other 12" Mattel Dolls some dressed in costumes representative of countries and cultures; some dressed as celebrities; and some dressed in haut couture by designers such as Oscar de la Renta. After that we returned to Old Montreal for lunch at Mandy's and then browsed the art galleries and upscale clothing stores on St. Paul.
We spent the rest of our time with Kathy and Ken eating at our favorite restaurants and sampling some new ones—we took them back to Stash Cafe, Gaspar Tavern, and the Terrasse Nelligan. We explored The Village and had a great dinner at a new restaurant, Le Pelerin Magellan. We also took them to the Old Port for a ride on the ferris wheel and to the Basilica Notre-Dame. Sadly, we had to say good-bye to them as they continued their adventure and left to visit friends in New Hampshire. Looking forward to seeing them back in Ft. Myers this fall.
 |
| Dinner with the Joneses at Le Pelerin Magellan. |
 |
| Basilica Notre-Dame |
This is our last week in Montreal. We've pretty much done everything we want to do here. We try a couple of new restaurants, Kyo Bar Japanais, a great sushi bar and Schwartz Deli for their signature smoked meat sandwich considered emblematic of the city's cuisine, and return to a couple of our favorites.
 |
| Montreal smoked meat sandwich—similar to a pastrami on rye. |
 |
| My yoga studio in Montreal. |
And spend some time enjoying the Place d'Armes.
 |
Our favorite musician who played regularly at
the Place d'Armes near our loft. |
These two sculptures in the Place d'Armes represent the
cultural differences between English and French Canadians:
the snobby woman holding her French poodle gazes with disdain at
the Bank of Montreal's head office symbol of English power; and the snooty Englishman with his pug, looks scornfully at the Basilica Notre-Dame symbol of the religious influence of French Canadians.
We scramble a bit at the last minute to find souvenirs for Weller and granddaughter-to-come. We decide on cute little moccasins made in Canada for both of them.
All that remains to be done is organize our stuff and repack the car. We get up early Saturday morning and Jim goes down to start packing the car—however, access to our street is restricted and our parking lot has been cordoned off. There are police officers at both ends of the block and in the parking lot. They won't tell us what happened but do say that it will be a couple of hours before we can get to our car. We never do find out what happened but as promised, they leave in two hours and within a half hour, we are on our way to Quebec City! It's not until we arrive in Quebec City, that we notice that our passenger side mirror was a casualty of whatever happened in that parking lot. The plastic casing is crushed and we have no idea how it happened. (Note to self: always, always check out the parking arrangements for Airbnb and VRBO. This parking was the worst...and very expensive...)
|
No comments:
Post a Comment