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Montréal's biggest feature is so big that we don't see it anymore. I am referring of course to the Mont Royal that gave the city its name, seen here from the roof of my condo located in the "Plateau" area east of the mountain.
Downtown Montreal is south of the mountain at the foot of the slope on the left. At the extreme right of this picture lies Outremont and just beyond the mountain is Westmount.
Montreal's weather is rough. Extremes of temperature can go from -35 at night in winter to +35 degrees Celsius at noon in the summer. On those hot days I sometimes go sun bathing on the terrace I built on the roof of my condo. That is where the previous picture of the mountain was taken.
The mountain's flat top is occupied by a wooded park that includes a large pond called Beaver Lake where Montrealers love to stroll on hot summer days. I did not take a picture of the lake because its shores were cluttered with machinery redoing the landscape.
This is looking east from a lookout on the mountain. The white spot on the horizon is the Olympic Stadium and my condo is one third of the way from here to the stadium. We will have a look over there before visiting downtown but first lets see the place at the foot of this hill, where bongo drummers meet every Sunday afternoon in summer.
This place on the eastern edge of Mount-Royal park is swamped by drummers and dancers every nice sunday afternoon. The air is pleasantly perfumed by cannabis and most of the crowd float on cloud nine.
This is the white spot you could barely see from the mountain.I mmediately to the left of the stadium you can spot one of the two pyramidal appartment buildings where the olympic athletes were hosted during the games.
Measuring 105 by 175 meters, it can hold 58 500 spectators under its fiberglass fabric roof held up by 26 steel cables tied to its 170 metre inclined tower. Initially the roof, made of kelvar, was supposed to be retractible but repeated tears put an end to that idea and a permanent fiberglass roof was installed.
Built by the French architect Taillibert for the 1976 Olympic summer games, the stadium's futuristic design struck every Montrealer's imagination but it also struck their pocketbooks severely. Delays, cost overruns and technical difficulties with the roof sent the cost well over one billion Canadian dollars. We, the poor taxpayers, are still paying for that folly thirty years later.
Montrealers enjoy railing against this great folly but we all love its bold sillouette on the horizon. As usual, the black border around the four photos below indicates that these are not mine (I will remove them if the copyright owners ask.)
This is one of the olympic pyramids seen from the top of the other. On the right runs Sherbrooke street, the longest in Montreal.
You can see the Saint Laurence river flowing from left to right south of the city in this view from the 19th floor of one of the Olympic pyramids. On the right, Sherbooke street leads to the downtown area whose skyscrapers you can barely glimpse on the horizon. That's where we will be going next. The wooded green patch at the extreme right, across Sherbrooke street from the olympic stadium, is the southern edge of Montreal's Botanical Gardens. I'll have to take you there someday, the Chinese garden is stupendous!
Place d'Armes with its Notre-Dame Basilica once was the centre of Old Montreal but now it marks the eastern edge of downtown. What is left of Old Montreal has been carefully restored as a tourist attraction south east of here.
The importance of this stretch of rue St-Jacques from Place d'Armes to Place Victoria has waned as businesses have moved into skyscrapers west of here.
The Tour de la Bourse (stock market tower) is still very busy but only options and derivatives are traded here since 1999 when the speciatization of Canadian stock markets concentrated the senior equities in Toronto and the speculative penny stocks in Calgary and Vancouver .
A roof over a narrow street has transformed these venerable building into Montreal's International Trade Centre.
Further west we come to the maze of underground passages that I mentioned earlier. I went through this one, near the Peel street Metro station, on the friday before the Formula One Grand Prix on my way to Crescent street where racing enthusiasts gather on this occasion.
Rue St-Catherine downtown is the second best place to show off fast cars on the F1 Grand Prix weekend.
This interesting hybrid between a motorcycle and a golf cart drew a lot of attention. That's why it was there!
As did this bright red Ferrari
And this more somber but equally luxurious Bentley.
And another Ferrari on the corner of St-Catherine and Crescent streets.
The two blocks of Crescent street between Sainte-Catherine and Sherbrooke streets are invaded by Formula One exhibits and fans during the Grand prix week.
This high powered go-cart was an amusing oddity.
A number of racing cars were on display. I like watching the races on TV but I frankly could not tell you the class of each of these various cars. I am told this is a Renault F1.
Just another sidewalk cafe.
And another, different, racing car.
This one looks like the blue one above but I still don't know what class it belongs to. I am told this is a BAR F1.
Bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants are door to door on Crescent street.
Some lucky owner parked here to show off his beautifully painted custom rebuilt car.
Here is another.
And another.
No street party can do without lively music.
The Grand Prix week is a good time for showing off not only Ferraris and custom cars but also fancy motorcycles like this one.
Mountain street crosses Maisonneuve one block east of Crescent. This two storied restaurant and bar has been a popular cruising place under a variety of names for as long as I can remember. I used to hang out there a lot when I was a young man. At that time, I lived in the last house at the end of Mountain street, just below the Mount Royal Park.
On the other side of the huge mountain park from this busy, noisy downtown is the quiet residential district of Outremont. Lets go have a look at some fine real estate.
