Through the French
Montreal and Quebec City
I found in Montreal that the park was not a park meant for walking. On my visit it had been converted to a venue space I’d some kind, possibly a concert, turning the pathways into motorways for the golf carts and blocking off pedestrian access. Instead of walking around the island, I was continuously redirected by fences and ended up spending more time backtracking through parking lots than seeing anything of value.
After much walking and several detours I made it from the biosphere that was the American pavilion for expo ’67 to the Canadian expo and finally habitat 67. This multi family residence by architect Moshe Safdie was awesome. The cubic rooms are designed so that every unit has an outdoor space and from certain perspectives it appears to effortlessly float. I forgot that you can get guided tours so I didn’t get to go inside but it still impressed from the sidewalk.
To my disappointment the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) was closed the day after the long weekend. The rest of my time in Montreal was mostly spent along the waterfront promenade overlooking some ruined industrial buildings. They might be an eyesore covered in graffiti but to me they looked like an excellent opportunity for an adaptive reuse project.
The most awkward part of Quebec was that I never new if I should speak French or English. Sometimes I’d start in french but not have the vocabulary and sometimes someone would respond in english and that change would trip me up. Other times they spoke english to me and my brain had an internal conflict on how to respond, flickering back and forth between languages without being able to decide how to speak. This made it hard sometimes to order food which was weird, because I didn’t recall having these kinds of problems in France.
In Quebec I walked the old town and around Chateau Frontenac. I spent most of my time wondering if I’d been here before on my grade 6 class trip. Some spots I knew I’d been because they’re focal points, while other spots were just suspicion but no recollection.
The most interesting thing I saw was actually the Quebec bridge and a nice riverside park with a cool pavilion and lookout tower. I’d forgotten about the Quebec bridge until I saw it in person and knew that I needed to get a picture with it. As well, on leaving the city I drove across the bridge.
Montreal and Quebec were more typical backpacking experiences in that I stayed in AirBnBs and only used the car to get between cities. Once I left Quebec City, I entred New Brunswick and the Maritime provinces. I was excited to be in a part of Canada never seen before and to get into camping again; that in the next post.
