Au revoir, Montréal

Here's my parting shot, on the platform of the McGill subway station in downtown Montréal. From here, I headed back to the hotel (at Berri-UQAM). I was meeting a fellow blogger and his husband for dinner later in the evening. In the meantime, I sat in the hotel bar, enjoyed a couple glasses of white wine, and caught up with emails and the news.

On the eastbound platform at McGill Station.

I met R. and S. at a place called the Saloon Bistro Bar on Sainte-Catherine. We started with a big plate of fried calamari to share, then I had what they called a Mec' Saloon (a cheeseburger with pickles and a "secret" sauce) and fries, my first burger of the trip. Delicious! Since it was Wednesday (a school night), we didn't stay out too late.

The next morning I checked out of the hotel and picked up my rental car a couple blocks away. I drove up to the Plateau neighborhood to a bagel place that Ken and I went to in 2012. I enjoyed a sesame bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese and coffee. Yum. I bought half a dozen bagels to go.

After that, I drove out to a huge shopping mall in the suburbs where there is a Crate and Barrel store. I was in and out pretty quickly, stopped to fill the car's tank with gas (it wasn't full when I picked it up), then hit the road for my four-hour drive south to Albany. The border crossing was easy and soon I was passing through the Adirondacks. It was a nice day and a beautiful drive. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stop on the interstate to take pictures; most of the rest stops were closed.

Shiny plastic people

This is a curious sculpture, outside a bank building not far from the gates of McGill University. It's called "The Illuminated Crowd" by Raymond Mason. I won't go into the all the deep inner meaning of the piece; you can read about it here if you're interested.

The Illuminated Crowd.

Current events are once again disheartening, be they terrorism or politics on either side of the Atlantic. Ugh. At least we're having summery weather once again and the vegetable garden is growing nicely. It attenuates the stress of world events.

If you've seen one...

...you've seen the mall. This is the Eaton shopping center in downtown Montréal. Nothing particularly spectacular, but there's something about this shot that I like. This atrium is connected to another multi-level shopping mall that was in the process of opening when I was there in May.

I'm standing on the Gallery Level, one floor above street level (Ste.-Catherine), which is above the Métro Level and the Restaurant Level at the bottom.

I can imagine these places buzzing with noon-time and evening shoppers, especially around the holidays. I wonder what they're like on weekends, though, when most of the office buildings that surround them are empty. I stopped into a humongous suburban shopping mall on my way out of Montréal the next day (there was a particular store that I wanted to go to) and it was as impressive in its horizontality as these are in their verticality.

Ville Marie to McGill

This is a view up the Avenue McGill College from the Place Ville Marie to the McGill University campus. Those buildings going up the side of the hill in the background are part of the university. I walked from here to the campus, but decided I was too beat to climb up the hill, so I headed back to the subway and my hotel.

There's a compass built into the paving in the foreground. I'm facing northwest.

But not before I wound my way through a new shopping center, which was still under construction right next to an older shopping center. All of it is connected underground to many offices, hotels, and the subway system, of course. Because: winter.

Holy dome, Batman!

Here's the cathedral Marie-Reine-du-Monde from the outside. It's got an impressive dome. But these days it's dwarfed by the rising downtown skyline. Still, it makes for a nice contrast.

The large central dome and one of two smaller domes.

I left the cathedral and headed to the heart of downtown, the Place Ville Marie and it's iconic 47-story office tower, built in 1962. I hoped there would be an observation deck I could go up to for views from above. Indeed there is an observation deck, but it's new. The grand opening was scheduled for July. I missed out.

Another day, another cathedral

After my nap, I took the métro downtown to visit the cathedral of Marie-Reine-du-Monde (Mary, Queen of the World). The cathedral is built in the renaissance style, similar to the neo-classical design of the Panthéon in Paris, but much newer. One hundred years separate the buildings' completion dates.

Part of the central dome. You can see the top of the ciborium in this photo.

There was no tour, no climbing, just an open church with a mix of tourists and worshipers. I wandered around inside and took some photos, then headed back out. I went, I saw, I left.

The ciborium under the central dome.

The ciborium, or canopy, over the altar was made in Rome and is, from what I read, a reproduction of the ciborium in Saint Peter's at the Vatican. I saw that one in 1981. Now I know why this one looked so familiar.

The view up the central aisle in the nave.

Montréal street selfie

I think I posted this photo on Facebook the day I took it (over two months ago now). So for those of you who didn't see it, here you go. I was on the way back to my hotel room when I passed a storefront with mirrored glass.

Your (not so) intrepid host. I flipped the photo so that I look "correct."

When I got back to the hotel, I took a brief nap before venturing out for another, albeit shorter, walk. I had plans to meet up with some friends for dinner later that evening.

Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours

I find it important when taking photos not just to look ahead, but to also stop and look behind me. Especially if I'm not planning to retrace my steps. If I hadn't at this point, I would have missed seeing this church down the hill toward the river. The  traffic light was green as I was framing the shot and then it turned orange just as I pressed the shutter release.

Maybe I should have taken another photo after the light turned red.

In case you're wondering, between yawns, when I'll ever be done with these Montréal photos, fret not! The end is near.

Street scene

I liked the way the steeple of the church stands out against the new development behind. From what I can tell, the church (I don't know its name), or at least its steeple, was renovated as part of the larger construction project.

A luxury SUV on cobblestone streets.

I planted the third row of green beans on Friday. The garden is now complete. It's now just a matter of keeping it watered, weeded, and tended for the next month or so. Then, harvest! I hope.

My kind of bar

Or, at least, I imagine it would be. It wasn't open when I walked by, but I like the idea: a champagne bar. The place is also a restaurant. By the way, sabrage is the word for that way of opening a champagne bottle with a sword, sabre being the word for sword. I wonder if they actually do that? It's such a waste of good champagne since a lot of the wine ends up on the floor. I have never sabré-d a bottle of bubbly.

A nice looking place opposite the Marché Bonsecours in Old Montréal.

We're having a heat wave! Finally, summer is upon us. It's not too hot, but the sun is out and it feels great. A little warm for sleeping upstairs, but the fan is working fine and helps a lot.

Brunch

The place I found for lunch/brunch was called le Magasin Général (The General Store). I liked a lot of the stuff they had for sale, but resisted buying trinkets on my first day of vacation. Attached to the store was a little bistro. There were a few customers, but it was not full, and I got a table against the wall near the piano.

The view from my table. The store is through the doors on the other side of the piano.

If you click on the link above, you can take a look at their menu. I ordered an omelette au four (an oven-baked omelet) with bacon and cheddar cheese. It resembled a soufflé and came with a delicious green salad and a piece of yummy bread. I also asked for a glass of wine, a California cabernet sauvignon.

My bacon and cheddar oven-baked omelet. It was light and fluffy, almost like a soufflé.

It was funny because it was around 10:00am and I wasn't sure if they would serve me wine at that hour. I asked the server, and he had to go check. When he came back, he said I could have wine, but only if I ordered food. I assured him that I was there to eat, and all was well. And it was all mighty tasty.

La rue Saint-Paul

A shot of the rue St.-Paul on a drizzly morning in historic Old Montréal. I stopped into a t-shirt shop, but didn't find quite what I was looking for. Just prior, I had passed a nice trinket shop with a little bistro attached. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be a nice place for a bite to eat. So I made a quick loop back.

You can see the dome of the Marché Bonsecours in the distance.

Our weather here at home is improving again. We're expecting several sunny days with high temperatures approaching 80ºF. Oh, the garden will love that!

Very punny

This restaurant might have been a candidate for my late breakfast/early lunch, but it was not yet open. Still, I enjoyed the pun (I always enjoy a good pun, especially when I "get it" in French). The restaurant is on the quay (another word for "wharf"), making it au quai in French. That rhymes with "okay" in English. Writing it with an "o" instead of the au makes it a clever pun.

Bistro O'quai, bar, terrace café, and caterer.

Okay, no O'quai for me. I had to move on.

On the right track

This single rail line connects the mills at the eastern end of the Lachine Canal to the wharves in the Old Port of Montréal. I'm assuming it doesn't get used much these days.

Approaching Old Montréal from the waterfront.

The morning continued to be chilly with an occasional rain shower. Nothing drenching, just drizzle mostly. I felt right at home. The waterfront was very quiet; it was still early (not quite 10:00am) on a weekday morning and the attractions were not open yet. But I wanted something to eat.

Silo Number 5

I didn't know anything about this building when I took the picture. If I had, I might have done more with it. From what I've read since, the silo is included in a historic preservation effort that's under way at this site, called Pointe-du-Moulin (Mill Point). It's an attempt to preserve and enhance the character of some of Montréal's industrial waterfront as it transitions to a new urban neighborhood. You can read about it here.

Silo Number 5. Jake was here.

At this point in my walk I left the canal area behind and moved into Vieux Montréal (Old Montreal). As I mentioned, I was getting hungry. I knew that there would probably be someplace to eat in the streets of the old city, which is more or less a tourist mecca, replete with t-shirt and souvenir shops.

Am I blue

You'd be, too. If you were this bridge. I don't have anything much to say about it, except that it's painted bright blue. I don't even know if it has a name, but the street that runs over it is called rue Mill (Mill Street), as far as I can tell from the map.

There's a gray pedestrian bridge over the lock doors (you can see it under the larger bridge on the left), but it was closed off to the public.

There are a couple of locks at this end of the canal. In fact, the bridge crosses two parallel locks. The park on the far side is called les jardins des écluses (the locks gardens).

Something to do with Shark Week?

Nope, the sign says that it's the "end" of the construction zone. My walk was taking me closer to old Montréal, out of the transitional neighborhood and into the more touristy part of the waterfront. I was also getting hungry and wondering where I would find a place to eat.

I looked, but I didn't see any sharks.

I did find a little café, but I still had some walking to do. So here we go.

Railroad bridge number two

This is the other rail bridge over the Lachine Canal, right next to the section I posted yesterday. It looks to be in the same state of (dis)repair as the first. I think these tracks lead into Montréal's Central Station downtown, so this would be an actively used bridge.

The western flank of the bridge. That's part of yesterday's bridge on the right.

The graffiti artists/taggers have had a good time here as well. I wonder if there will come a time when this type of "art" goes out of fashion and people stop doing it. What will they do instead?

A close up of the graffiti. Notice the water bottle tucked inside the structure?

Our weather continues to be chilly and wet. No big rains or flooding danger, just light rain, drizzle actually, and high temperatures that flirt with 70ºF. I'm already looking ahead for a window in which to cut the grass again. It's loving this weather and growing at a steady clip (pun intended).

The eastern flank of the bridge.

Meanwhile, in the vineyard, the grape vines have set flower. Barring any really bad weather, grapes should form soon. Looks like a lot, too, so many of them will end up cut away, discarded, to ensure the proper yield.

Railroad bridge

There's something about old railroad bridges. They are practical, no nonsense, form-follows-function structures. And they can be beautiful. This one, over the Lachine Canal in Montréal, is covered with graffiti. Still, it's nice.

If you look real close, you can see a dummy perched inside the center structure.

This is one of two railroad bridges over the canal that I saw on my walk. I think it was a pivoting bridge, able to be turned out of the way of passing canal traffic. There are no longer any tracks on either side of the canal for it to connect to, and it's turned in the "open" position, I'm guessing permanently. I'll post some photos of the other bridge tomorrow.

Syncopated rhythm

The longer I stare at this image, the more patterns I see. Horizontally. Vertically. Even the graffiti has a rhythm to it. I wonder what this building would look like with the windows unshuttered.

Look at the texture in that stone wall just above the waterline.

Are you getting tired of this part of Montréal? I realize that these are not typical "tourist" images. I still have a way to go, so bear with me.