VIVE LA DIFFÉRENCE
Soak in the sights and sounds of Montreal’s many festivals
A tubby guy in a pink
MONTREAL pig suit shuffling on stage to Ace of Spades by Motörhead. Men in small bits of black underwear juggling beer kegs. Not to mention women wrestling in mud under the whip of a dominatrix and a naked guy suspended in a red punching bag.
I’m not suggesting every night is like this in Montreal. Or that all of the 110 festivals they stage each year involve nudity and bizarre plot twists that John Lennon never dreamt of putting into Beatles lyrics. But there’s definitely something different about a Montreal festival; a certain off-kilter sensibility that you’re unlikely to find in Prince George or Peterborough.
My three-night visit begins with a show by Toronto’s Jesse Cook at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, which celebrated its 37th season this year.
Cook’s band is smoking hot, with a thunderous drummer who straps a tambourine to his leg and who taps out a rhythm on a wooden percussion box like nobody’s business. Cook plays a mean, Flamenco-style guitar and he’s also got a fiddler from Halifax who would make the Rankin family proud.
After the show I wander about downtown Montreal and soak in the sounds of more country-influenced bands and a funky R&B band. Both shows are open to the public, part of the 50-plus free shows they do during the jazz fest each year. The entire downtown seems riveted to one stage or another, with families picnicking and dancing long into the night.
After a day touring a veganfriendly, organic food shop called Crudessence and checking out the lovely Jean-Talon Market on an electric bike tour I take in some of the city’s annual Cirque Fest the next night.
They have a segment performed by Les Minutes complètement cirque, where this year raggedy actors and acrobats perform with the public on a small square at the University of Quebec at Montreal.
Folks dance madly about and spin and whirl until the emcee orders a stop and they all freeze in place. Stragglers who don’t stop in time are ordered out of the show.
When this is over the troop members scamper along city streets urging the public on to the next show, called Duels.
It’s more of a traditional acrobatic bit featuring a tightrope walker high above Place ÉmilieGamelin, with performers spinning and tumbling in the air on a balmy summer night.
The festivals I’ve seen so far have been great. But it’s all a prelude for something called the Barbu Foire Électro Trad, presented by a group called Cirque Alfonse. The show begins with four burly guys on roller skates, pulling each other around the stage by NHL-playoffstyle beards. And then it got weird.
There was hula hoop juggling and golf club balancing and a guinea pig on the shaved head of a tall, skinny guy. Video screens on the side of the theatre show close-ups of buzzing bees and waving purple flowers, as well as naked guys popping up in a field.
There also are the aforementioned burly guys in tight black Speedos live on stage; this time waving twirly bits of cloth around like they’re in a rhythmic gymnastics competition.
I’m utterly bewildered and entirely amused. I think the message is something to do with escaping life’s normal boundaries and some kind of commentary on old-style circuses. But I don’t know. And I’m having too much fun to care.
My final day I take in a food tour of old Montreal, noshing on creamy Portuguese nata pastries at Cantinho de Lisboa, crunching my way into the sublime macarons at Maison Christian Faure and sampling maple syrup and even maple beer at Sucrerie de Normand in Bonsecours Market. I borrow a Bixi bike from a downtown stand for a couple bucks and stop to admire the city’s annual Caribbean festival as it rolls down Ste. Catherine with blaring horns and the sound of steel drums. On the way back to my hotel I hear the strains of a piper as a bride and groom enter their wedding reception.
I have dinner that night at a lovely restaurant on the edge of Old Montreal called Da Emma, a marvellous spot carved out of an old women’s prison. The co-owner, Emma Risa, greets diners in her kitchen with big hugs after their meal. Near the front entrance you’ll find photos of such celebrity diners as Penelope Cruz, Al Pacino and a rather groggy looking George Clooney; all of them locked in an embrace or standing proudly alongside Emma.
My final night I take in the Montreal International Fireworks Competition on July 4th. It’s Independence Day in the U.S., but I watch a British team stage a magical array of fire in the skies high above Canada’s largest Frenchspeaking city. The British squad has named its show Vive La Différence.
You can say that again.
The Canadian dollar is falling faster than Justin Trudeau’s polling numbers. Trips to the U.S. are getting more and more expensive. Which helps explain why Canadian visits to the state of Maine were down 24 per cent last year and why they’re hungry for Canadian visitors this summer. Luckily, lovers of New England and that beautiful Maine coast have options. The Kennebunkport Resort Collection is offering Canadians a 20-per-cent discount on accommodations at a variety of hotels and inns, including Hidden Pond. To get the discount, use the code OHCANADA at select KRC locations. kennebunkportresortcollection.com
Many Canadians love to travel to Europe in summer, as it’s a time when a lot of folks can take time off or bring the kids. The trouble is that things can get mighty crowded in Paris or Rome or London. I suggest getting out in the countryside a bit to smaller villages and towns, where you’re likely to have a bit more elbow room.
One of my favourite destinations anywhere in the world is the Dordogne Valley of France, just east of Bordeaux. You’ll find magical castles and rivers you can canoe or kayak and gorgeous towns with creamy, yellow-gold buildings and winding streets. The villages of Sarlat-la-Caneda and La RoqueGageac are particularly handsome. The food is top-notch, including local duck, foie gras and delicious wines and cheeses from Bordeaux and the surrounding countryside.