I haven't posted here in ages, but it feels like City Photos is having a bit of a revival. So here are some unedited phone snapshots from this past weekend in Montreal.
1pm Friday — it's been shit weather this week and finally it's nice again, so I decide to clock out early and spend the rest of the day wandering around. This is Bélanger at Saint-Hubert, a couple of blocks from my place.
Heading under one of the underpasses that connect my neighbourhood, La Petite-Patrie, to the Plateau Mont-Royal. They're separated by Canadian Pacific Railway tracks.
Brief detour in a back alleyway.
Now we've reached Mont-Royal Avenue, which is one of 11 streets in Montreal that are temporarily pedestrianized for the summer, in this case from the end of May to early September (although part of the street will remain pedestrianized until mid-October).
The part of Mont-Royal west of St-Laurent Boulevard is not pedestrianized.
Duluth is another street on the Plateau that is pedestrianized all summer, from May to October. There are a lot of pop-up junk/vintage sales every weekend.
At this point I took an electric Bixi (bike share) over Mount Royal and through Westmount. I didn't take any photos while cycling so here's a stand-in taken a few weeks ago.
I was heading over to Monkland Avenue which had a street fair this weekend, the first of its kind since 2018. This part of town is generally more car-oriented and resistant to any kind of pedestrianization project. This street fair only lasted four days but it's nice to see it taking place.
There was a stage with musical performances, mostly folk and bluegrass from what I could tell.
I stopped for a beer at one of the pubs along the street. The bartender/server was wearing a kilt.
At this point I hopped on another Bixi (not electric this time) and cycled through Westmount and the west end of downtown Montreal to reach the main shopping district on Ste-Catherine Street.
There was some kind of musical performance about to start in Phillips Square.
A little further east, on the Place des Festivals, there was some kind of festival called MAD happening. A bit of a fashion/street culture/hip hop thing.
This stretch of Ste-Catherine Street is pedestrianized all year round.
A little further east there's a new public square called the Esplanade Tranquille and for the past six days it has been playing host to a free outdoor stage for Mutek, an experimental electronic music festival. Mutek was founded here 25 years ago and it now has branches in Tokyo, Mexico City and Barcelona.
At this point I got on another Bixi (electric again) and cycled uphill to Mile End, where there are free concerts every weekend on a vacant lot in the old garment district. On Friday night it was Paige Barlow, a singer from Atlanta who now lives in Montreal and fronts a 1970s-ish psychedelic rock band.
To get home I walked through "la friche ferroviaire" which can be inelegantly translated as "the liminal space next to the train tracks." Sometimes French is more efficient than English.
There is meant to be an official level crossing here but the CPR is very uncooperative and doesn't make things easy for the municipal government. So for decades people have cut openings through the fences along the tracks.
Today, Sunday, I took it easy and spent time in a couple of local parks. I had a banh mi and a beer in Lafontaine Park.
Then I went to Mount Royal and read an Agatha Christie novel as the tam-tams (a weekly drum circle) were happening nearby.
A thunderstorm suddenly rolled in and I didn't quite make it home before the rain started bolting down, so I ducked underneath a viaduct where there is a small park. This was a vacant lot that was used for cultural activities in the 2000s and after pressure from the community, the local government turned it into an official green space.
The storm passed. Now I'm home, sitting on my back porch, grilling some corn on the BBQ.
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