HOW DO I LOVE CITY?
Author counts 300 ways
It’s easy — too easy — to be cynical about life in this orangeconed metropolis we inhabit. Winters are long. Springs are almost non-existent. This summer is starting to look more like monsoon season. And fall is a fun reminder that six months of winter will soon beckon.
And then there are the ubiquitous orange cones that play no seasonal favourites, that can spike the blood pressure of even our toddlers. Fact is, you just can’t get there from here, or anywhere, any time, it seems in this city.
And don’t even get many of us started on our billion-dollar 375th birthday and its $40-million Jacques Cartier Bridge light show and its planned Old Montreal urban rodeo, which should rightfully conclude with our Kodak Mayor Coderre trying not to take a tumble aboard an irate bull.
But enough griping — for now. Time to don those rose-coloured lunettes, which may be dusty from time spent in the attic.
Claire Bouchard is not from these parts. She was born in the relatively tranquil burg of Baie Comeau. She arrived in Montreal 20 years ago to study communications and, after landing a job in La Presse’s creative media department as a digital content producer, she has never left.
Bouchard is absolutely enamoured with her adopted city. Her glass is not just half-full — it is overflowing. She has taken in this city like few homegrown residents ever have and has emerged with an opus, 300 Reasons to Love Montreal, that will warm the hearts of even the most ardent of local cynics.
To mark our …. grrrr … 375th B-Day, Bouchard has added 75 additional reasons, courtesy of 12 vedettes, including Guy A. Lepage, Arianne Moffat, Sugar Sammy and Coeur de Pirate.
Bouchard’s book is more than just a collection of raves about our oft-cited smoked meat and bagels and poutines and both cheap and high-end restos and festivals and parks and exquisite wrought-iron staircases and fabled Underground City. They are mostly all included, but Bouchard has dug way deep and has uncovered a series of gems that this lifelong Montreal explorer — not exactly a Magellan, granted — had never heard of. Like sturgeon fishing in the Old Port and a … mmm … bacon bar, Brutus, and the honey haven Alvéole and, hello, La Maison de Mademoiselle Dumpling and hidden murals and sculptures spread throughout the island.
But above all the attractions, what really bowled Bouchard over about Montreal were the smiles and joie de vivre of residents — and not just at Happy Hour. And, oh yes, the city’s cultural diversity, featuring inhabitants from some 120 countries speaking close to 200 different languages — a far cry from Baie Comeau.
“Not to take away from Baie Comeau, but when I first moved to Montreal, I felt I had been born in the wrong city,” Bouchard says. “I fell totally in love with Montreal right away.”
Bouchard is much aware that Montreal-bashing — not to mention more specific Plateaubashing — has reached epidemic proportions, yet she chose to dwell on the positive.
Still, surely Bouchard has also been left aghast by countless city road blocks.
“The solution for me is that I don’t own a car, and that’s probably why I love Montreal so much.”
Ah.
“I’m a Bixi and public-transit girl, and one of the dates I most look forward to every year is April 15, when the Bixis come out,” she says. “Honestly, I think the only way you can hate this city is if you try to drive in it.”
On that note, Bouchard is asked to glean her Top 7 from the 300 reasons she loves Montreal:
La Grande Fonte: A stunning, 15-metre-high, sci-fi-evoking sculpture by Robert Roussil — a short walk along Pointe-du-Moulin, near the Silo No. 5 collection of grain elevators. “Probably the most hidden piece of great art in the city — I couldn’t believe I had never seen it before.”
2. Hommage à René Lévesque: A magnificent nine-column concrete sculpture also by Roussil in Parc René-Lévesque along the Lachine Canal. “Also a local
treasure that so few are aware of, and while there, check out LeBer-LeMoyne House, apparently the oldest fur-trading post in Canada and the oldest building in Montreal, built between 1669 and 1671.”
3. Fishing with Pêche VieuxMontréal owner and guide Jean Desjardins on the tip of Parc de la Cité-du-Havre. “I, too, was surprised to learn that not only are the fish — sturgeon, bass, pike and walleye — plentiful, but that if you don’t choose to catch and release, the fish are healthy and perfectly edible. Studies show that the quality of the water there and the fishing there is actually quite excellent. I’m no expert, but I’ve never failed to catch a fish there.”
4. Alep and Le Petit Alep, the Syrian-Armenian eateries a few steps away from the Jean-Talon Market. “Not only my favourite restaurants in the area, but also among my favourite in the entire city. At Le Petit Alep, I can have an incredibly exotic dinner plus wine and, with tax and tip, it will cost about $35. I love that I can eat and drink well and that it’s so affordable.”
5. Le Butterblume, a café/resto/ shop on the border of Mile End and Rosemont. “It’s the German word for buttercup, and one of the most charming brunch places in the city where you can get homemade granola and organic wines and even buy flowers, perhaps even buttercups.”
6. Ruelle Beau-Dommage in Petit Patrie: A mural by Jérôme Poirier depicting an album cover by mythical Québécois band Beau Dommage can be seen at the south end. More colourful murals — Montréal Love by Nicolas Fortin, and L’Esprit d’été and La Mère Créatrice by American artist El Mac — can be seen nearby as well. “Some of my favourite murals in Montreal, but not as noticeable as so many of the others.”
7. Mycoboutique: A boutique in the Plateau devoted entirely to mushrooms and the inspiration of devoted mycologist Pierre Noël. “The owner’s enthusiasm for fungus sometimes borders on obsession, but this place is just so special and unique — and I just love mushrooms.”