Montréal: le fleuve Saint-Laurent

I'm going to finish up the posts from my first trip to Québec with a look at the "great river" (called that in Ian & Sylvia's "Song for Canada"—at least I always assumed they were singing about the St. Lawrence) that flows through Montréal.

We spent our whole 24 hours in the city on an island in this river, (the aptly named Île de Montréal) but unfortunately only got to walk along its embankment for a short period.

One of these days I want to go back and take a river cruise, so that I can appreciate it more fully. But we just didn't have time to do that on this trip.

The handsome tower you can see in the distance in the shot above (in front of the bridge) is the Horloge, which we also didn't have time to climb. But we were able to walk around its base and admire its fine proportions...or, should I say, their proportions, since there's a smaller town that's part of the same structure:

Longtime readers of this blog won't be surprised that I took a lot of pictures of this pretty tower...

Here's a shot of the nearby marina, that shows how close the river is to Vieux Montréal, which is why we had time to see it at all...

Along the quai you can see le Marché de Bonsecours, and its companion church, which I've talked about in previous posts.

The river is so wide here that there are several other islands in it. One that we had wanted to visit, but, alas, there was no time, is the Île Sainte-Hélène. It's right across from the Quai d'Horloge, so we at least got to look at it. 

The intriguing domed structure in the background is the Montréal Biosphère, just one of the island's many attractions that we wish we could have visited.

Of course, any city on an island, or even one that's not, but has a large river running through it (like London) has a lot of impressive bridges. And in spite of getting sweaty palms when driving across them (especially high or long ones), I really do love these spanning structures.

On the way into town, my GPS directed us to take the Champlain Bridge, which is very long (it even crosses another island—the  Île des Soeurs— before you get to the main one) and handsome enough. But I was too white-knuckled at the prospect of navigating this bustling city even to think about taking pictures of it.

On the way out of town, though, we were directed to a really nifty old bridge, the Victoria, that I couldn't help trying to capture photographically for you.

Plus, I was so relieved at having made it out of the most crowded part of the city that I felt I could spare a bit of attention to snap a photo with camera atop the steering wheel. 

The bridge was paved with a kind of metal mesh that made an odd sound when you drove over it, and the automobile lanes were split by railroad tracks. It felt historic as we crossed it, so I wasn't too surprised to learn that it was actually the first bridge ever built over the St. Lawrence (according to Wikipedia). What a great way to depart this fabulous city!

Our stay in Québec, as I might have mentioned before, was all too brief. But, as always when traveling abroad, even if not very far abroad, it is also good to come home.

Adieu, Montréal! Perhaps my next visit will allow me to see more of your treasures!

Montréal: trois églises

Like any European—or European-American—city, Montréal has lots of churches. In our short time there, we were able to explore three of them, to varying degrees.

Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde

The first one we saw was just a few blocks from our hotel, a late-19th-century jewel in amongst the skyscrapers of modern Montréal. The Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral occupies a very impressive block in downtown (right across the street from Dorchester Square, the site of the "unexpected memorial" I wrote about here).

We didn't go inside, but we were able to circle the whole block and got some nice looks at the Cathedral from different angles...

panoramic view of the front, on Boulevard René-Lévesque

a closer look at some of the saint statues decorating the façade

around the other side

a little further around

On our walking tour the next day, we found time to see inside a couple of fabulous churches in old Montréal, both also dedicated to Mary, Notre Dame.

First up was Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, next door to the market of the same name.

Here's its altar...

...and one of its lovely stained-glass windows:

On a walk along the river embankment (more about that river next time!) I was able to get this nice shot of the church with some late summer flowers in the foreground:

This Notre-Dame's big sister, the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal is on the Place d'Armes, and it is a really monumental structure.

It's so big that it's difficult, given its location in the heart of rather congested old Montréal, to get a good picture of the whole exterior. But I hope these shots of the interior can give you a sense of its size and grandeur...

...as well as some of the exquisite details that I always love exploring in old churches...

gorgeous galleries

gallery and column detail

details like this pulpit really make me wish
I had a better low-light camera...

candles, candles...

...and more candles!

Our only regret was that we didn't have more time to spend in these great buildings, and were unable to see any more.

Montréal: La vieille ville

Montréal's old town was high on our list of must-sees during our brief time in Québec.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints and old legs, we couldn't see everything, but we think we hit the high spots and saw several charming small streets like the one above.

The large domed building down the street there is the Marché Bonsecours, a famous market that we didn't enter (no time for shopping!) but admired from outside. Here's a better look at it:

(By the way, the handsome steeple a bit further down the street in the photo at the top of the post is one of the fabulous churches that we did go inside in vieux Montréal. I took so many pictures in and around them that they will have to constitute a separate post.)

We spent some time in a couple of lovely outdoor public spaces: the Place d'Armes, with its impressive Maisonneuve Monument, erected in honor of the founder of the city, and impressive surrounding structures...

...and the Place Jacques Cartier, where we got some yummy smoothies and enjoyed the urban ambiance before heading back to our hotel...

There's an impressive monument here, too, commemorating the early French explorer of le fleuve Saint-Laurent (about which more in another future post). Here's a detail of the carving on his plinth:

Here you can see the top of the Cartier monument, as well as one of the gorgeous buildings in the neighborhood, Montréal's City Hall. 

I was quite taken with the City Hall, and can't resist showing you a couple more of the many shots I snapped of it:

Even the buildings I couldn't identify were quite stunning...

...as were the small details I had time to notice:

What's especially great about vieux Montréal is that it's not a museum, but a living part of the modern city. For instance, I assume this planting outside of City Hall was in honor of Canada's recent hosting of the Women's World Cup...

It wasn't the only eye-catching horticulture on display there, though. Here's some more:

And of course, being a tourist mecca, there are souvenir stores—some pricey, some cheesy, and some funky enough to feature—as an antique, no doubt—a TV like the first one I bought after college...

Love the political bobbleheads on top, too!

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Next up: some of those wonderful churches.

Montréal: La nouvelle ville

Montréal is famous for its old buildings and storied past. But of course it's also a vibrant modern city that is as bustling and crowded as can be, with lots of intriguing amenities that we were unfortunately unable to sample.

Taking advantage of a very favorable exchange rate (and I mean, very favorable) we were able to stay in a hotel right in the middle of downtown and close to many fine sights. [Including le Parc du Mont Royal, which I told you about last time, but inexplicably forgot to give its official name. Je suis désolé!]

Our room was cozy, reminding us of our boutique hotel in San Francisco two years ago, but quite comfortable, and we were able to leave our car in a lot across the street for our entire stay. This was a real boon, since the downtown traffic we encountered was pretty horrible. I was as proud of my ability to find our hotel (and then find our way out of town the next day) as I was about scaling Independence Pass 5 years ago!

And we didn't starve, either. There were so many food options it was difficult to settle on one, but we ended up having a nice dinner at Le Pois Penché. It looked pretty pricey, but we said, what the hey! our vacation's almost over. Then, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much it ended up costing in US dollars...still a chunk of change, but a much smaller chunk than I feared. And it was delicious.

Our table was outside and right on the street, which wasn't as yucky as sounds, since there's a nice double bike lane between the curb and the cars. What a great idea!

gendarmes waiting in the well-traveled bike lanes

Here are some other samples of snazzy downtown Montréal architecture:

down the street from the park...
that's the St. Lawrence River in the background

And of course there was public art (in addition to the war memorial I wrote about over on Bridges to London)...

that's Le Parc Mont-Royal in the background

But the real architectural attractions around here are the old buildings, and I'll tell you about the ones we saw next time. Here's a taste, with old and new mingled. The lovely Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde (built in the late 1800's) was just down the street from our hotel (which wasn't, unfortunately, the Queen Elizabeth)...

Le mont réal

You might wonder if this photo was taken on the same trip that I've been telling you about the past several posts. Mountain scenery, quiet lakes, charming little towns, and baseball ceremonies...how did a big city get mixed up with these?

It's all about proximity. Since Montréal isn't far from the Adirodacks, and neither my sister nor I had ever been there, we decided to take the last day of our vacation north of the border. Laissez les bon temp roulez!

We didn't have much time to spend there (just about 24 hours).  So in spite of wanting to see some of the city's famous museums, historic sites, and night life, we knew we'd have to pick and choose. We opted to just immerse ourselves in the general ambiance and see as much as we could of what makes Montréal unique.  

First up was the wonderful park that encompasses the mont itself. You can see part of this pretty impressive hill at the end of the street at the left. In fact, walking up the street from our hotel to get to the park entrance reminded us of some of the steep streets in San Francisco.

Although the trails within the park leveled out some, making a spiral around the hill, we still didn't make it all the way to the top. But it was a very enjoyable trek, one that we shared with locals and tourists alike...

In addition to the nice surface, convenient stairs, and other well-kept amenities, there were some funky touches along the trail, too, like this sculpture that we thought looked like a horse trough...

We just figured that horse-drawn carriages used to use this trail, too. And that's probably true, but this fountain has a special purpose: it's a memorial for a no doubt an important park patron who was a "lover of horses," according to a plaque on its side.

There were natural sights of interest along the way, too, like this impressive exposed face of slate...

...and some semi-natural features, like this attractive lake...

I was not very good about identifying landmarks in this post;
that's L'Oratoire Saint-Joseph in the distance

The terminus of the hike for us was the Chalet du Mont-Royal, a handsome plaza/cafe/meeting space with terrific views of the city. Here's the inside of the structure:

And here's the plaza:

But the views are the main attraction...

looking east

using a sighting marker to see some distant mountains...and some cool clouds!

city and trees

 As you can probably tell from these photos, the landscaping at the Chalet was gorgeous, too...

we also saw these attractive plants elsewhere in the city but have no idea what they are

On the way back down into town, we enjoyed seeing several buildings belonging to McGill University, which is scenically perched on one shoulder of the Mont Réal...

After walking up quite an appetite, we were ready for what we knew would be a first-class meal. Then, suitably refreshed, we strolled around some more before hitting the sack. [I was actually kidding when I included "night life" in our list of things to do in Montréal.  ]

I'll share some of the other sights from this fascinating place in upcoming posts.