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Très Intéressant

Here’s the Church, addendum

I just read today that one of the churches featured in the “Maintenance Problems” part of my post was damaged by a fire. It’s expensive keeping a building maintained, and according to the article, the timeline for permits and planning when repurposing a church takes years.

Categories
History, Culture, and Politics Musings and Observations Only in Canada

You Don’t Look A Day Over 39 Million

At approximately 3 pm today Canada’s population reached 40 million people (according to Canada’s population clock, which really looks more like test tubes….disturbingly).

By comparison, California has a population of about 39 million packed into a lot less geographical space–lookee here**:

This is one of the many reasons we’re in Canada.… [Read More]

Categories
Food Only in Quebec

Maple Report #11

Bibitte à Sucre

Montréal’s Jardin botanique is a beautiful place to stroll. It has lush greenhouses, winding outdoor paths, and a gourmet cafe, but the admission is pricey if you have to pay the rack rate.… [Read More]

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Food French Only in Canada Vairy Fransch

Protecting the Language

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]

Categories
History, Culture, and Politics Musings and Observations Pictures

Here’s the Church. Here’s the Steeple.

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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History, Culture, and Politics Only in Montréal Only in Quebec

The Fires

You’ve certainly heard about the massive wildfires in Canada–there have been over 160 in Québec alone. The drifting smoke is choking East Coast cities and causing airlines, baseball games, and Broadway shows to cancel.… [Read More]

Categories
Experiences Only in Canada

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?

Click to view
Categories
Only in Montréal Places

There’s Buried Treasure in Montréal – For Real

Solve the puzzles and (maybe) win a precious jewel, but good luck–no one has succeeded for 40+ years

In 1982, just a few years after the children’s book “Masquerade” kicked off the first “armchair treasure hunt,” Byron Preiss released his own challenge to the treasurially-inclined: find twelve buried “casques” following the clues in his puzzle book “The Secret.”… [Read More]

Categories
Experiences Only in Montréal

Summer Snow

It has been blazingly hot this week, and yet there’s snow:

No, Hell hasn’t frozen over. These floaty bits are part of the seed release strategy for the eastern cottonwood.

Each tree can release 40 million seeds per season, so even a few cottonwoods can create quite a show.… [Read More]

Categories
Pictures

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.