Posted Sep 12, 2014, 8:10 PM
|
 |
Registered Drug User
|
|
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 8,216
|
|
We were in Montreal again for our annual vacation trip to Quebec. There were various highlights, among them:
The botanical gardens across the street from Olympic Stadium is magnificent, with various exhibits that you can lose yourself in for a whole afternoon. Really fantastic, and I'm not even all that much of an arborphile compared to my wife.
Schwartz's. What new is there to say about the most legendary restaurant in the whole country? It's a tiny joint serving up mouth-watering smoked meat to carnivorous customers crowded around little tables. The waiter looked like he could have been the son of Duddy Kravitz (aka Richard Dreyfuss). We hadn't actually been there for several years, so we made a point of going this time. St. Laurent was closed to vehicular traffic for a street fair that day. We went late Sunday evening, when it wasn't quite as crowded, and savoured the sandwich itself (with pickle and cherry Coke, of course--we're not heretics) along with the delicious summery languor of the street itself.
Which was when it really hit me full force: Montreal feels lived in in a way that no other place does. Toronto's getting there, but it still doesn't quite take possession of its public space so effortlessly and naturally as Montreal does. People in Montreal don't seem to be flirting with urban living, or trying it on for size.
Well, okay, in the Plateau there probably are loads of hipster kids in their 20s and 30s indulging in Plateau-lives who will eventually decamp to the more suburban cities they originally came from, but still, my guess is that they're outnumbered by les vrais Montréalais and non-natives who have no plans or desires to leave.
I really like Rue St. Viateur, and Mile End in general. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I really like it. Not just due to the famous bagel shop, though that doesn't hurt. I think it's because it's just so bloody comfortable. The street has multiple stop signs, keeping traffic slow, such that you can wander here and there without feeling oppressed by speeding metallic missiles. It feels sort of like Mile End's living room. And could it be that the heightened anglophone presence and alternative/indie cache result in comparatively relaxed standards of dress? Wouldn't you say that St. Denis is more fashionably-attired than St. Laurent and points west?
That seemed to be my impression, though I could be projecting my own biases and/or expectations, which are admittedly shot through with stereotypes. Confirmation bias, in other words. Maybe there's not much difference. I wonder what Montrealers would say to this.
I can highly recommend Pizza St. Viateur, just west of St. Laurent. They make a great pie. Thin crust, of course, which is really the only way to make good pizza.
I did a bike ride on La Route Verte to Chambly and back. The asphalt is rough going through Longueuil, and it's not all that scenic, but once you get out of the city it's marvelous. You have these long tree-shrouded stretches with no contact with any other roads whatsoever, making riding a joy. Like a winding country road, but just for cyclists. I mentioned this to another cyclist making the trip out, and he agreed. We ended up leisurely pedalling our way to Chambly in tandem and enjoying an hour-long conversation. In Spanish, as it happens. Which was gratifying for me. The 75-year-old gentleman was from Colombia, and could speak only rudimentary French, though he'd lived in the Montreal area for more than forty years. He said "Chambly" with a hard, Spanish "ch." I couldn't help smiling at that.
Oh, this Airbnb thing is really quite something. We got three nights in a new one-room condo on Bishop just south of Ste. Catherine for just $90 a night. That's cheaper than a regular B&B or any hotel, and it was spacious, comfortable and right in the middle of the action. What a great option.
|
Prev
Linear Mode
