It’s been quiet around here for awhile. My excuse for last week is that I was out of the country. I’d heard a lot about how beautiful the city of Montreal is and thought I would have the opportunity to find out last week. There was work to be done however and nothing like having it close at hand.
Here is the building where we were meeting….taken from my hotel room window. So not much sightseeing to be done on that short walk every day. Except for the hockey arena just out of frame to the left. Home of the Montreal Canadiens, or Habs as they are known locally. Unfortunately the Habs were playing in Philadelphia while I was there so no riots or burning squad cars during my stay. Would have had a great view from the room.
So I always knew that Canada was a bilingual country….by law. In previous visits to Toronto I had seen the great care they take to ensure everything is labeled in both English and French. Even on the flight up the Air Canada folks always provide a French translation after each announcement. What I wasn’t prepared for was that after I changed planes in Toronto, the Quebec based flight crew did all announcements in French, with the English following. Once on the ground, all pretense at bilingual is gone and almost all advertising, signs, etc are in French exclusively. Like this van parked outside the the hotel.
So if you are ever in Montreal and have a problem with your plomberie or your chauffage give the guys over at Les Services Hydroniques a call and I’m sure they’ll be out tout suite to give it a look and voila you’ll be tres magnifique.
And while I didn’t get the opportunity to see much the beauty was not entirely lost. This church was just down Rene Levesque Ouest from the hotel. The cell phone picture taken at .075 megapixels doesn’t do it justice.
