Category: Experiences

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Experiences French Musings and Observations Places

The French Flip

After six months in California laboring to reduce our load of possessions and make an all-encompassing list of them for the Canadian government (required for settling in Canada), weeks of getting our new tenant installed and repairing newly-discovered defects in the ADU, and days of cleaning, schlepping, and shuffling all our household and personal items around to pack and make way for the caretaker, we finally got to sit still for five hours on the plane flying us to Montreal for the summer.… [Read More]

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Experiences

Beurk encore! (Oh noes, part II)

Using a phone as a hot-spot to provide internet is less than ideal, especially if you’re a programmer. I’ve already burned through most of my 5GB roaming data for the month.… [Read More]

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Experiences Musings and Observations

Home Again, Jiggity Jig

What a weekend! Our grueling travel day back across the border was endured, the post-COVID-booster-and-flu-shot side effects weathered, and now it’s Monday and back to business for us both!

So much business–mountains to climb, tunnel through, and raze for new foundations.… [Read More]

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Experiences Musings and Observations Only in Montréal

Au Revoir

We’ve been packing up and cleaning for several days now, but today is the massive push to pull out and fly home. I’ve been sad and wistful; said goodbye to one of my Montréal Facebook friends who became an IRL friend and got teary, and today feeling keenly all the “this is the last time” thoughts crossing my brain like shooting stars of sentimentality.… [Read More]

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Experiences Only in Canada Places

Ought We To Ottawa?

We took our exploratory trip to Ottawa this past weekend. It was productive; we got a sense of the town and found some viable neighborhoods if we decide to spend our next residency stint one province over.… [Read More]

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Experiences History, Culture, and Politics Musings and Observations Only in Quebec

Fall Is Here + Updates

Technically the equinox isn’t until Thursday the 22nd, but last week Montréal definitely shifted gears into greyer, cooler, start-to-hunker-down mode. Probably just the shorter days, but it seems as if the arms of the sky are closing after the wide-open embrace of summer.… [Read More]

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Experiences Only in Quebec Très Intéressant

It’s Magic!

"Mago // Magician" by eva.pébar is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

YIL that the world’s biggest magic competition is held in Québec! It’s run by the FISM (Fédération Internationale de Sociétés Magiques) and over 100 professional rabbit-pullers-out-of-hatters compete in eight different categories each year.… [Read More]

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Experiences Only in Montréal

Sexy Elevator’s All Wet

There was a fast, heavy rainfall yesterday that took a toll on the city: one of the big Metro stations was partly under water, a chunk of the main highway through town was closed, several basements got flooded.… [Read More]

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Experiences Only in Montréal

The Tam-Tam

"Montreal Tam-Tams" by ruffin_ready is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Every Sunday in the spring through fall, you can hear the heartbeat of Montréal thrumming near the famous Angel of Mt. Royal.**

That heartbeat comes from the city’s famous tam-tam, a drum circle that has grown and evolved for the past 50 years.… [Read More]

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Experiences Pictures Places

The Other Side of the Mountain

I’ve been spending most of my time to the East or South or Southwest of Mont Royal. This afternoon I took a wander up into some neighborhoods on the Northeast side.… [Read More]