Canadian Christmas Blog 2
Daisy & Jack
Montreal
Thursday 27th
We were up at six to go to Nanaimo airport for our 0730 flight to Vancouver.
Joyce kindly drove us. It was quite sad as I wasn't sure when we would be back
(I have been averaging one visit every four years over the past 35 years). The
weather was cold but thankfully there was no snow. However, there was a blizzard
raging on the north east coast of America which was bound to end up in
Montreal.....so we wondered if our connecting flight would be held on the
tarmac. Meanwhile, our plane to Vancouver (no snow) was delayed anyway by twenty
minutes which was pretty poor given some passengers were linked into flights to
Seattle, San Fran and Toronto. For what its worth, we flew at 5000 feet in a
Bombardier 8-300.
The airport at Vancouver is one of the most relaxing in the world which cannot
be said of any of our airports back home. As Jack had stayed overnight on the
mainland with his cousins Mark and Erik he joined us there where we boarded an
Air Canada Aerobes 320-2 for our 2293 mile flight to Pierre Trudeau Airport,
Montreal. The city is three hours ahead of Vancouver (or five hours behind
London)! We assumed as we'd had clearance to start our flight that the weather
experts at Montreal airport knew what they were doing.
We flew at 35,000 feet but you've guessed we failed to miss the severe snow
storm and we were held in a holding pattern for two hours over Montreal whilst
they cleared the runways. When we landed, the gates were frozen so we were held
on the ground for a further two hours! Thank goodness we had packed cards! Air
Canada domestic flights do not serve hot meals in steerage and so all we had to
eat was a cold sandwich just after take off. We'll know differently next time.
Eventually though we were, as they say here, "de-planed" (could this be because
the French for disembarking is "décoller" as in de-coupled?). However, it was
another hour before our luggage arrived as the carousel system was also frozen.
The queue for taxis - the roads were two feet deep in snow - was half way round
the block and so Daisy had gone ahead to queue whilst we waited for our luggage.
Thankfully, it was a good call as we only had to wait ten minutes for a cab. The
drive in was better than we could possibly have hoped for as most of the major
interchanges were clear though snow was piled high and stranded cars were
completely covered. We made it to St. Paul's Hotel in the Old Town fifteen
minutes before its restaurant closed at 11pm. Never has a glass of Chablis
tasted so good.
Friday
We took some time to come round but we braved the -7C temperature and walked in
the deep snow searching for a breakfast bar. All the hotel's recommendations
didn't seem to wake up until eleven so we played safe and snuck into Louige's
for a bagel or two. The snow was thick and cruel as were the sidewalks.
Jack had revision for his second year exams and so Daisy and I decided to walk
down to the St Lawrence river which, to our surprise, was completely frozen
over. We spotted Buckminster Fuller's famous BioSphere, we took afternoon tea
inside the hard on the eye Palais des Congres despite the coloured glass, we
adored the Habitat 67 by Moshe Safdie which formed part of Montreal's Expo and
we were much taken by some of the colonial architecture of the mid to late 19th
century especially of the custom house and the surrounding commercial buildings
which had had sensitive conversions into retail or beautiful apartments. They
had an authority you do not often find in the glass and steel buildings of
today. We went in search and found Basilique Notre-Dame and the old NY Life
Insurance building built in red brick which was the tallest building when
finished in 1889 with eight floors and two more which make a slightly odd
decorative tower. The key to tall buildings was not just better engineering but
the arrival of two innovations - electricity and lifts - especially those
designed by Elisha Otis in 1852 which enabled the lift to stay secure if the
hoisting ropes failed. I.M.Pei and Mies van der Rohe 's building still resonate here.
We stumbled on Pointe-A-Calliere (the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and
History) which triggered the need to seek a book shop specialising in local
history, art ad architecture. Our Lonely Planet guide suggested Archambault but
their books were almost all in French and so we sought a Chapters but that was
no better and we left empty-handed.
In the evening, we settled on Gibby's for supper and the children had lobster
such that I had to seek a mortgage to pay the bill. But hey, you do these daft
things on holiday and then talk about them for the next decade....
Saturday
We started with the best intentions but failed to rise much before ten thirty
and so walked a block to Vallier for a delightful laid-back brunch. Jack then
went back to study for his exams whilst Daisy and I risked the metro at Victoria
Square and made our way to the Centre for Canadian Architecture (1989).
Thankfully, the City fathers had not adopted the sclerotically designed Paris
metro maps choosing instead to borrow from the simpler graphics of Washington,
DC's system. I doubt if Harry Beck's brilliant map for the London Underground
will ever be bettered.
We had a guide at the CCA and saw the library, the deposit centre for prints and
film, the former centre known as the Shaughnessy House (1874) which has been
incorporated into the E plan of the new building. They have started to digitise
their collection of prints, drawings and books something which our own RIBA is
contemplating. We loved it there and I bought A Guidebook to Contemporary
Architecture to Vancouver and Discovering Modern Montreal and the Esterel Resort
in Quebec. As the weather had closed in and the snow was settling we called it a
day. It's surprising how tiring it can become on holiday!!
We tried to book an evening of Jazz but were unsuccessful as one club was closed
for the holidays and the other booked out so we found a table for tomorrow and
legged it to the Montreal Casino and had an overpriced supper in its Pavilion
67 which was anything but and played a couple of Bandits and tried an electronic
version of Roulette. It was pretty tacky really.
Sunday
A pattern of rising late seems to have taken hold. This morning we had a brunch
in Holder which was a class act - quite the best yoghurt and muesli anywhere in
the world. Then we moved on to the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Place des
Arts which was a disappointment and we didn't dwell. It is surprising seeing the
work of what was for us so many unheard of French Canadian artists who have not
been exposed to a wider audience. We then legged it to the outskirts of the city
to the 1976 Olympic stadium and observatory.
Back then, we won 3 golds, 5 silver and 5 bronzes to finish 13th. On the track
we had a single bronze in the 10,000m otherwise our golds came from swimming,
sailing and modern pentathlon. Rowing, sailing, swimming, judo, cycling and
boxing shared the other 10 medals between them - not much change there then!
Montreal's Olympic facilities took 30 years to pay off (C$1.5 billion!) and its
stadium is more or less a white elephant restricted to trade shows and the odd
sporting occasion. Baseball has faltered, ice hockey too and there is no longer
an NFL franchise whilst soccer has its own smaller stadium close by.
I hope our own Olympic stadium will not become a white elephant. We need an Expo
or a bid for the Commonwealth Games 2022 which is already being mooted. I just
cannot see West Ham filling 60,000 seats - 45,000 maybe - but they want the GLA
to pay £350m for the alterations to the stadia. I wouldn't waste tax payer's
money on supporting a professional soccer team unless the Legacy borrowed from
its counterpart - the Stade de France in Paris - which moves seats in and out
for different sports. Having watched rugby there for a decade or so you do not
notice the track at all.
Daisy then went to Mile End to the north east of the city which she said was
reminiscent of Georgetown but more cosmopolitan whilst Jack continued his
revision. I listened to Dave Brubeck's Live in London 1966 which Jack had bought
me for Christmas. It was sad to record his death earlier this month a day short
of his 92nd birthday. I love his music.
We spent the evening at the House of Jazz. We booked it blind and the service
was dreadful, the food awful, the music dire.........and it was so expensive -
clearly a night to forget......
Old Year's Night
We had a mild panic because we couldn't find anywhere to celebrate New Year's
Eve so we went to Presse Cafe and had bagels and goodies and then called a few
restaurants and lucked out.
Daisy re-visited Mile End to do research for a piece she is writing on design
whilst Jack and I went to the underwhelming Bank of Montreal's museum. We then
walked to Rue St Catherine to shop. He bought some memory for his new camera,
sunglasses from American Eagle and tried to find jeans at Levi's and Roots
whilst we both did quite well with shirts and jumpers at Old Navy.
We had at bite to eat at the friendly Restaurant Plaza on McGill just across the
road from our hotel. Daisy returned just after four having completed one
interview and arranged some others.
We then took some rest before the epic night ahead......and I caught up on some
work which has slipped a little this past fortnight. As London was five hours
ahead we sent lots of messages home wishing every one a Happy New Year.
Meanwhile, we set sail for 2013 at Buono Notte, an Italian restaurant up in Mile
End. The atmosphere was great, the price was atmospheric, the food was dreadful
but the music was on the button and we toasted family and friends and I
suspect my children will recall where they were this night in 20 or 30 years
time; goodness knows which disco they finished at!
Another year another set of promises but our political masters whether in
America, China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Brasil, Europe or Russia cannot offer
any leadership whatsoever. These are dangerous times.
New Year's Day
We woke at different times with our minds and bodies not necessarily in the same
space for most of the morning. But as we all know recovery sometimes takes
longer than we all expect....It had snowed just a tad overnight but not enough
we thought to delay our flight home...