Canada is constitutionally a bilingual nation, and there are laws to protect that status. For example, all prepackaged food products sold in Canada must be properly labeled in both official languages.… [Read More]
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Author: Sylvain Descartes
Montréal has many, many churches. So many that one of the city’s nicknames is “ville aux cent clochers” (city of a hundred bell towers). Images Montréal, a website dedicated to documenting architecture in the city, lists 437 buildings in the “Churches” category.… [Read More]
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A Maple Rain’s Gonna Fall
Manon has already shown you the fluffy snows of June. But that’s not the only weird weather, what with the winds and the … rains?
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Iris Season
Given that the tulips are all gone, I thought the spring flowers were pretty much over with. I was wrong! The irises are taking their turn.
The neighborhood is iris-etic.
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Jardin botanique
The Botanical Garden of Montréal is big and relatively expensive — $22.50 for adult admission, with a $5.50 discount if you live in the greater Montréal area. But if you get a $9 Accès Montréal card, you can have free access to the outdoor portions of the Botanical garden!… [Read More]
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Maple Seeds
The breeze brings down clouds of these exquisite little helicopters. The sidewalks are strewn with them.
Maple samaraFor what it’s worth, the botanical name for this kind of seed is a “samara” or a “winged achene.”
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Garden Morning
The arrondissement of Rosemont La-Petite-Patrie had a promotion this morning, widely advertised, of a gardening give-away day.
Translated notice on FacebookOur neighbor in the condo organized a group to go and pick up some flowers and shrubs with the intent of creating another small garden plot in front of the building.… [Read More]
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Internet and The Old Port
Yesterday, both Manon and I were just about to start meetings over the internet, when my notebook started throwing server not found errors.
Down in the data closet, the modem’s lights were all dark, except for the one, sad blinking “trying to sync” indicator.… [Read More]
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A Bike Adventure
Manon has written before about Montréal’s Bixi bike program. I’m a newcomer to the program this year, and have lots of not-especially-well-organized thoughts about it.
Today, I set out on a small expedition, starting at one of our nearby Bixi stands.… [Read More]
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Spring Green
Growing up in Southern California, I was often annoyed by the people who griped that “there are no seasons here.” Of course there are seasons, they’re just more subtle than elsewhere.… [Read More]