After a day spent running around Le Village, Montreal's gay district, I was excited to get back to my hotel and relax. I had booked all accommodation for my trip about six months ago, but with the exception of Montreal for a couple of different reasons. Can you imagine my horror when I tried to book a room on June 30, for July 1 to 4, and discovered that there was nothing available in Montreal? When I asked why there was a problem, I was told that the upcoming weekend was a holiday weekend for both Canada (July 1 is Canada Day) and the USA (July 4 is Independence Day). As luck would have it, I found a room in the business section of the Governeurs Hotel. It ended up costing me AUD $266 per night (including breakfast), but it was very luxurious and had a spectacular 28th floor view of the city.
I split my sightseeing in Montreal over two days. On the first day I walked a very long way, from Old Montreal to the observation platform in the Parc Du Mont-Royal that overlooks the city. Montreal is a very leafy, beautiful city, filled with many old buildings of European design. I know that I have compared Toronto to Melbourne, and on a street level with the trams, restaurants, and the buzz this is very true. But when comparing the two cities, Toronto is very much Canada's Sydney - big, brash, bold, loud, and a little trashy (all things that I love about both cities). And likewise, Montreal is very much like Melbourne in terms of architecture, laissez faire feeling, but of course sans street-cars. There is also a historical rivalry between the two cities that mirrors their Australian counterparts. When Canadians were deciding where to locate their capital city, both Toronto and Montreal wanted it for themselves. In the end they chose a place that was between the two, but closer to the bigger of the two cities.
Teena was telling me that Montreal was the bigger of the two cities until the late 60s, when ordinances came into effect that made French the language of the province, and thus the city. This made life very difficult for people and companies who did not have French ethnicity as the intent was more than just making people speak the language.
And I have to say that Quebec is very French, almost annoyingly so. All one hears all day is French. Well, at least they call it French... It sounds a little different to any French I've heard before. :-) On top of the oral language, all street signs and advertising are in French. Even stop signs are in French, which is ridiculous when you consider that stop signs in France say STOP. It's like Quebecois are trying to make a point. There is a very strong separatist movement within the province. The last referendum held on the issue was only narrowly defeated, and there is another scheduled for later this year. What annoys me as a visitor is how much I see the rest of the country bending over backwards to make life easier for the Quebecois. There are two official languages, and in Toronto all official signage will appear in both English and French. But in Quebec you'll only see French. It's really rude. I'm beginning to think, as someone suggested to me, that Canada should just let Quebec go as the country will be better off financially. Quebec has 25% of the population, but receives 50% of the government grants.
On Sunday, my last full day in Montreal, I visited the Olympic Stadium. Held in 1976, the games were a financial disaster. In fact, they were so bad that no other city besides Los Angeles bid for the 1984 games. (I understand that the L.A. games revolutionised the business of the games, and were the first to make it into a profitable exercise). The stadium's retractable roof wasn't finished and the inclined tower, with an observation deck, opened much later. I took the funicular to the top of the tower, for a pretty spectacular view. There are signs everywhere saying how the tower is the world's highest inclined tower. Kinda cute when you consider they're trying to compete with Toronto's monster CN Tower. I'm not sure if the tower wobbles, but I felt vertigo (and never normally do). If you visit Montreal, then the Olympic Stadium and it's neighbouring biodome (an artificial flora and fauna reserve) are a must. The complex's design is very French, and a study of what can be achieved by using prefabricated concrete as the only construction material.
On my way to the stadium, a fellow train passenger tipped me off to a Tea Dance that was held on a nearby island. I took the subway (which is fabulous in Montreal) to the Parc Jean-Drapeu. There, in the bright sunshine, was about 1500-2000 daytime revellers dancing the afternoon away. Unlike Australia the organisers hadn't bothered to erect sun-shade. So I joined in and danced for a little while, before wandering off in a sun-stroked haze. One other big difference between this type of event in Canada and Australia was that there was no alcohol available at the event. Obviously there was more going on than that, but I can't think of any daytime event in Australia that could be organised past the paper phase without obtaining an alcohol license. One of those little cultural differences, I guess, that makes travelling so interesting.
