Why I Love Montreal

[jo]

Haven't been posting much these days, just too darn busy enjoying myself every weekend in my home town!

Two weekends ago, friends treated us to the Grand Prix race. The night before the big race, we hit Crescent Street in downtown Montreal ~ jam packed with wall to wall people at midnight, eating, drinking and shopping (the idea of shopping at midnight on a Saturday night almost brings me to orgasm! ;D) The street was blocked off to cars and we were literally in a mass of revellers. The race the next day was fun (I'm not really a big racing fan but it was neat to be in the middle of the action) ~ glad we brought ear plugs! A great (and tiring) weekend.

Last weekend, Den & I and my brother and sister-in-law brought my mom to the Montreal Casino to see "Sinatra sings Sinatra". Frank Sinatra Jr, backed by a 33 piece orchestra, sang some of his dad's favorite songs. We had dinner at the casino and then the show started. It was very good, great acoustics (can't beat that big band sound ~ horns, strings, piano, drums, etc), great food and wine, and my brother won $1200 later that night in the Casino! My mom just loved the show, which is on until the end of July, in case anyone is planning on going to Montreal this month.

This weekend, Den & I took in the Jazz Festival ~ talk about a sea of humanity. One of the main Montreal downtown streets is blocked off for 10 days and about 6 stages are set up in an 8 block radius. There are over 100 free shows during the festival, along with the regular paying shows which included Paul Simon, Bonnie Rait, and many more. There are more than a million people who attend and it is the best place to just sit and listen, have a drink and people watch. In the space of four hours, we heard a bluesman from England, a salsa band from Cuba and a rockabilly band from Quebec ~ all for free. The weather was absolutely perfect, mid 80s, low humidity, slight breeze and smiles everywhere. We stayed overnight and this morning drove into Little Italy, which was preparing for the World Cup final. People and Italian flags everywhere, singing, honking horns, and waiting for the game. We had gone just to go to Jean Talon market, which is a farmer's market adjacent to the Italian part of town. I wanted to stay and watch the game but Den was worried about getting out of there to drive home, so we left just after lunch, when things were getting really heated up. Another awesome weekend.

Next weekend, we are headed back for the Just for Laughs Festival, which runs for about 2 weeks. Some of the headliners this year are John Cleese, Jason Alexander and Bill Cosby. We are seeing 2 shows with another couple, including the Nasty Show hosted by Bobby Slayton (anyone who watched Mind of a Married Man might remember him as the cigar smoking friend of Mike Binder). Apparently, this really is a Nasty show, not for the faint of heart, and I am really looking forward to some very non-political correctness!! We also hope to take in the fireworks competition which takes place every summer ~ about 10 countries compete, one show every Wednesday and Saturday for about 5-6 weeks.

I guess I sound like an advertisement for Montreal, but having been born there and lived there for over 30 years, it's in my blood. I like living in a small town now, but we go back often (as you can tell) and every single time, I sigh and wish I lived there again (withouth the traffic). I've told my hubby I want to retire there because there's just no where else like it!

Go and enjoy if you get the chance.....................JO

[innit Geezer]

This sounds like a super place to visit. We have always had an interest in visiting different areas of Canada. We know how beautiful it is. Keep on enjoying your summer!

[Liz of Chris & Liz]

We'll be up to visit at some point....we're looking forward to the grand tour by Jo & Den!!!

[Tex]

Montreal is an island and compact. If you stay in the central area, there is plenty to see and do just walking. The cathedral is worth a morning, IMHO.

[jo]

chrisandlizvt said:

We'll be up to visit at some point....we're looking forward to the grand tour by Jo & Den!!!

Anytime, my sweet!! Can't wait to see you guys in early August (the PERV just isn't gonna work ~ kiss everyone for us!)

JO

[jo]

tex said:

Montreal is an island and compact. If you stay in the central area, there is plenty to see and do just walking. The cathedral is worth a morning, IMHO.

Geez, now I know you've been to Montreal..................so near and yet so far! ;D

JO

(Notre Dame Cathedral is breaktaking, and Old Montreal is worth a trip in itself)

[edie2u]

It sounds like a wonderful place for a vacation. You wuld make an excellent PR person!!! Glad you had a great time and it sounds like you had (and will have) a great time.

[jo]

Edie, you are such a sweetheart, hope we meet up one of these days!

JO

[Tex]

IMHO, from a non-Canadian's standpoint, a good 4 day intro to eastern Canada (you can't see it all in less than a summer) would be to fly to Montreal and drive to Ottawa (1.5 hours approx) for a day or so and see the seat of government.

[jo]

tex said:

IMHO, from a non-Canadian's standpoint, a good 4 day intro to eastern Canada (you can't see it all in less than a summer) would be to fly to Montreal and drive to Ottawa (1.5 hours approx) for a day or so and see the seat of government.

AAhh, a man who knows Canada.........will you stop that dirty talk, I'm getting wet ;D

JO

[waterdweller]

Jo & Tex -

Two points:

1) Montreal & Ottawa are NOT in "Eastern Canada". As an expatriate Nova Scotian, I insist, as a point of privilege, that they are in "Central Canada". In fact, history notwithstanding, Montreal barely manages to avoid being in "Upper Canada", which, sadly, is where Toronto is! (Toronto - the Canadian city trying the hardest to be just like St Louis). Tex, I can forgive you for the geographic faux pas, given that you hail from Texas, but Jo, you, Quebecoise that you are, wound me deeply!

2) Apart from my whining above, I agree with Jo completely about Montreal! My daughter now lives in a part of that city known as "Outremont" - liberally translated as "the other side of the mountain", and loves her life there. Toronto, increasingly, may be the financial/business center of Canada, but Montreal is the more vibrant, diverse, "happy-to-be-here" place. Toronto is like your prissy Aunt Maude, while Montreal is more like your favorite Uncle Julien who used to take you fishing and let you drive his old Ford down the backroads in the Laurentians even though you were just 15.

3) Oops. Did I say I only had two things? Sorry.

I've often felt almost schizophrenic about my Canadian origins and my current life in California. My forebears (no relation to Goldilocks) fled to Canada as refugees from the revolutionary excesses of New Hampshire in 1783, and settled in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, just South of Montreal, close to the present Vermont border.

My grandfather went to school in Montreal, and began his business career there, before meeting my grandmother and moving EAST to Nova Scotia (which in the 1920's was still very much an economic force within the Canadian confederation). Jo, for your reference, he lived on Sherbrooke Street West, not far from the site of the Ritz Hotel. The house is long-gone.

Then, in 1983, 200 years after my ancestors scurried out of Manchester with a mob at their heels, I emigrated to California. I'm sure that decision caused a number of them to spin in their neatly-tended Church of England graves!

So, why schizophrenic? I love California. As I write this, I'm sitting in my office in Sausalito, overlooking the water on Richardson Bay, with Mt. Tamalpais rising in the background. A couple of ocean-going kayaks are paddling slowly past, and a cormorant is sitting on the piling just outside my window, drying his wings in the sun. The stuff of breathy tourist brochures!

But no matter how idyllic this life may be, I sometimes feel the immigrant's angst at having left so much behind. Jo's post got to me in that way, and reminded me of summer evenings on Crescent Street or St. Denis (Jo - is that street name recollection correct?), or sipping a glass of wine in Vieux Montreal with friends while simultaneous conversations swirled around us in French and English...and Hindi, and Chinese, and Swahili

Canada and Quebec may have their issues. Quebec's government is notoriously corrupt - but in a "folksy" way. Quebec may have one of the most onerous tax regimes in the world, and the Canadian health-care system may be on the verge of financial collapse, but somehow, there is still a sense that people matter there, and that there is something very good about a country that has spent a great deal of time since 1867 trying to define what it means to be "Canadian". The health-care system will probably never be fixed, but it will continue to function. There will be constant challenges to the Canadian concepts of tolerance and egalitarianism - mostly from the Western wingnuts behind Stephen Harper, but the country will stumble along just fine.

(As an aside, it was interesting that during the protracted Canadian debate about same-sex marriage, the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family both poured millions of dollars into the campaign against it. Just one more reason I was delighted when, in spite of the intrusion of these organizations into Canadian politics, the law passed. I regret that these fundie folks see a need to return the USA to mediaeval times and the orthodoxy - but I sure don't want them messing with Canada!)

Not long ago, some Toronto wit defined a Canadian as someone who can have sex in a canoe. Californians, on the other hand, get to do it in hot tubs. Speaking from experience, the canoe option requires a good deal more balance.

Thanks, Jo, for your travelogue. It made me homesick.

[jo]

Waterdweller, I exalt you for your fond reminecense of Montreal (and your accurate portrayal of Toronto the Blah!!) Your rememberance of street names and neighbourhoods is right on and it seems you share my politics as well! As for California, Den & I visited San Francisco and area in 1984 (BK ~ before kids) and we loved everything about it, especially the lack of snow in the winter (I am a proud Canadian, but hate everthing about winter ~ still waiting for Canada to annex a Carribean island so we can live our winters in the sun and still enjoy Medicare!).

So nice to hear from you..........................JO

[Tex]

Nova Scotia. Spent many childhood summer nights in Shediac (NB). My dad worked with a guy in Canadian intelligence during the big war who was a judge out in Shediac after the war. They remained lifelong friends and we went up there many times to escape the Texas heat.

OK, Montreal may not be east and Texas isn't west, but that's where everyone thinks they are.

[waterdweller]

tex said:

Nova Scotia. Spent many childhood summer nights in Shediac (NB).

Tex, you're starting to scare me! My other grandfather retired to an old farmstead just north of Shediac along highway 134. We were directly across the road from the beach... I used to spend summers there until the mid-sixties.

At the risk of popping out a cliché, it's a small world, eh?

[Tex]

We spent a few weeks of the summer of '63 there. I remember that some equipment broke down at the lobster cannery and they were selling lobsters for $.50 each. I ate so much of it that I couldn't eat lobster again until I was an adult.

[Bluejay]

Thanks Jo and Waterdweller for those wonderful posts! Brought a tear to my eye they did ;D It's been way too long since we've made it to Montreal...being from Ottawa originally, I had many opportunities to go to Montreal prior to moving to southern Ontario. Even after moving down here, during the undergrad days, we used to visit friends at McGill to party it up.

I have to admit that I am growing a little weary of the Toronto life, basically because of the horrendous traffic, stuffed transit system and overworked lifestyle. The city is basically safe and nice and reasonably well managed, but all of Southern Ontario is growing so rapidly that something is being lost. We look at house prices in other corners of the world and see what other people are living in for what we paid for our place, and it is just mind-blowing. Having said that, there are tons of nice neighbourhoods in Toronto, good theatre, dining and nightlife, a thriving downtown, plus a wonderful ethnic mix that I like...a lot like Montreal...but it's still *not* Montreal! There a tons of festivals in the summer as well. A plus about Montreal is that it is far closer to downhill skiiing in the winter than Toronto is.

However, the best part about living in Toronto is how close it is to my favourite place in the whole wide world: Algonquin Park. Here is a photo from a weeklong canoe trip last year we took in the interior. For a three day stretch, we didn't see another single person. We've tried the sex-in-a-canoe thing, and our experience has ranged from "impossible" to "hmmm...this is remarkably uncomfortable"!!!

[Chicago Jake]

As an amateur photographer, I have to say... AWESOME, DUDE!....Jake

[hardwork-DJ]

Jo, thank you for the insight on your area of Canada! It certainly sounds like a place I would love to visit. In the heat of summer, of course.

Andy, thank you for expanding on Jo's report. Very insightful, indeed. (Now I know all about your history)

Bluejay, simply breathtaking!!! It looked a bit chilly but still a place I would love to visit!

DJ