Camping Alouette, Quebec, Canada (Montreal)
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. ~ Proverbs 3:7-8
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE JULY BABIES! Jen, Karen, Ben, Michelle and my wonderful baby brother by 10 years, Lance!
I hardly know what to say about today!
We began with our long, traffic clogged, slow moving drive into town where we found a parking lot to leave the Jeep in.
That’s at Olympic Park.
You can buy tickets to visit the park, but they’re something like $25, and the tower (which was the most interesting thing) is temporarily closed.
By the way, it seems most everything that charges admission here, charges around $25.
The amusement park you can sort of see? Turns out, that’s a Six Flags location.
It’s not the same one.
The original caught fire and all the acrylic that made up the dome melted.
They rebuilt it and use it for science-type stuff now.
Blaine turned and tested out the gps re-calculations. : )
I had to take it crooked in order to get it into the frame. We were waiting on a light to change.
We were a little early for our tour, which was fine. There was plenty to see, plus we bought a snack in Café Olympia where we were to meet.
This is – – are you ready?
Notre Dame de Bon Secours
In English please? – – Our Lady of Good Help. It’s the oldest chapel in Montreal – over 350 years – built in 1771. Once the port (which is right about where we parked) became important in the 1800’s, many sailors worshiped here. Hence all the ships hanging from the ceiling.
We went inside after lunch, but I’m going to go ahead and put the pictures here. : )
Back to our quick peek around town before our tour.
They have a short weather window to complete their work.
Too bad it coincides with tourist season.
We were told that the Mayor has moved his offices from here
to the courthouse (?) because of the renovations.
It’s going to take several years . . .
In case you’re wondering, as I did,
those are artificial flowers.
Still pretty though. : )
This is an Italian version we bought in Cafe Olympia.
About the half the size and not nearly as good! : (
This one’s stuffed with Nutella.
We definitely enjoyed our 3-hour walking tour around Old Montreal with our guide, Leah. She was fun and interesting and it was a small group of only eight, so that encouraged conversation with both here and others in our group. In addition, this company (Fitz & Follwell) advertises that they cater each tour to the group, so after introductions, Leah asked each couple what they wanted to see or hear about. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning/early afternoon! And she kept us in the shade a lot, which was important because it was another stinking hot day.
I’ll give you what we can currently remember that’s not attached to pictures.
She had to go through 240 hours of training to get her tour guide license. Added to that, is 7 years of guide experience.
She does all kinds of other jobs – teaching kids bike safety around Montreal, a bike tour of the city, and an entire host of other things that 24 hours later, we just can’t remember.
Leah was raised in Quebec city, about 2 1/2 hours up the road.
In Quebec City, you must be educated in French unless one of your parents was educated in English. She told us this when we discovered we planned to go there. She also gave us some tips of things to see and do, but again, we couldn’t remember. However, she gave us her email address and said we could ask any questions we wanted. That email went out this morning. 😊
The Province of Quebec has voted twice in recent years to secede from Canada and form their own country. The last time was in 1995. The vote was 49-51! According to Leah, it’s because those who vote for the representatives who want secession, don’t believe it will ever happen and other than that issue, they like what the representatives stand for.
Montreal is a much more “progressive” city than Quebec City. According to Leah, the people in Quebec City will tell you that Montreal is “different”. She can say that, since she’s originally from Quebec City. 😊
Montreal is recognizing the 50th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Bed-In”. Apparently, John and Yoko staged a bed-in (as opposed to a sit-in) for two weeks (their honeymoon), in Amsterdam & Montreal. Their slogan being, “Give peace a chance”. They wanted to go to New York rather than Montreal, but the US wouldn’t let them in because of John’s cannabis conviction. My, my, my . . . . how time’s have changed! Anyway, Yoko has a museum and they’re planning some stuff.
Once the weather breaks, people in Montreal spend an enormous amount of time outdoors. You are allowed to have alcohol in the Montreal Parks – – as long as you also have food.
The main street in Old Town Montreal forms a dividing line. One side is French, the other is more English. But the signs, etc. are still in French. If you have English on your sign, that’s fine, but the French lettering has to be larger.
And a most distressing comment she made? Most people in Quebec have no interest in church, and she told us that she was raised by two atheists, so if we had questions about the spiritual/biblical things inside the Basilica, she’d have to find someone else to answer them. So very sad. But that begs the question, who keeps up all these churches Blaine and I visited today???
Fortunately, they began building here in 1962,
rather than tearing down the historic buildings in Old Montreal.
Unfortunately for some buildings, the protection didn’t take place until 1964.
and also about the construction of the historic building across the street.
The Notre-Dame Basilica charges $6 or $8 to enter – more if you want a guided tour. Their entrance fee was included with our tour. We were absolutely stunned by the opulence when we entered! We thought we’d seen some gorgeous churches in the past, like St. John’s in Savannah, Georgia, but this place? There are no words. Just lots of pictures. We had 20-25 minutes to roam at our leisure before rejoining the tour outside. It wasn’t enough time.
Construction of on the new Notre-Dame Church—the present-day Basilica—began in 1824 and was completed in 1829, and it was consecrated on 15 July 1829. The building can accommodate 8,000 to 10,000 worshippers and remains to this day the largest church in North America. The architect was James O’Donnell, an Irish immigrant from New York City.
The much smaller and less ornate original was built from 1672 to 1683. By 1800, the congregation had grown so much that a larger building was needed.
Starting in 1872, the interior of the church was redecorated under the direction of Montréal architect Victor Bourgeau (1809–1888), who chose colours and motifs reminiscent of the interior of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. The process of transforming the sanctuary and the confessionals, installing new mouldings and painting them took nearly 10 years. The 1880s saw further changes, notably the construction of a pulpit 14 metres high, sculpted by artist Louis-Philippe Hébert (1850–1917), as well as the installation of icons and sculptures and the replacement of all the pews. ~ Canadian Encyclopedia
During peak season, they receive an average of 2,500 visitors – – per day!
And Celine Dion was married here December 17, 1994.
Here are a couple pictures of the original 
Since then, the instrument has undergone some restorations.
On the occasion of its 100th anniversary, its composition was increased to 7,000 pipes:
the largest measuring 32 feet and the smallest, 1/4 in.
Since 2002, the organ has 92 sets arranged on four keyboards, with a pedal board.
The current console is from 1962.
Even to hear a few minutes would have been amazing!
Can you make out the actual organ console? It’s really tiny up there!
The actual place where he preaches from is about 12’ from the floor!
Shortly after the founding of Ville-Marie (Montreal) in 1642, the small colony near the St. Lawrence River was threatened by rising flood waters because of a sudden winter thaw just before Christmas. De Maisonneuve prayed to the Blessed Virgin to spare the colony and promised to erect a cross on a small mountain a short distance away if his prayers were answered. De Maisonneuve, a devout French military officer, kept his promise. On Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, he and his settlers erected a wooden cross on land that would become part of Mount Royal. After leading the colony for 24 years, de Maisonneuve returned to France and died in 1676. More than 339 years after his death, a cross, albeit in a different form, remains one of the most prominent fixtures of Montreal’s landscape. ~ Montreal Gazette.com
We’ll be hiking up to that cross at some point during the next week.
The rest of the tour was still fun and informative, but kind of anti-climatic after that. Still, I imagine they can’t end here, or groups might never leave to allow others to come in. 😊
A truck pulled up just as we stopped to talk.
Somehow, Leah managed to make herself heard. : )
Remember when I told you about the street dividing English and French? This sort of rivalry between the two is a very important part of the makeup of the people of Quebec. Leah explained these two statues to us – – The woman with the French poodle is (obviously) French. She’s looking down her nose (which is why it’s exaggerated) towards the Bank of Montreal – a major English symbol of power. The man is English with an English bulldog and he’s looking towards the Bascilica – a major French symbol. These two buildings sit opposite of each other on the square. The statues are in front of a high rise between the two, and if you notice, the two dogs are eager to play and get along. : )
It’s a dining table now. : )
Among other things, they used 15 million tons of rock.
Each unit has it’s own garden. It’s exclusive housing now.
The city is still deciding what they want to do with it.
Leah and others say – – no more condos.
This piano sits outside the museum and is there for any random person to sit down and play. We listened to this guy for a few minutes. He was remarkable – and no music!
Once the tour ended, Blaine and I discussed our options and returned to the Jeep for our tuna snack we’d brought. All the benches were out in the sun, but it didn’t really matter – we were already hot and sweaty from our walk back. However, the chocolate chip cookies were so warm, it was like they just came out of the oven! But then again, so was the tuna . . . . ☹
Anyway, we went back to the Jeep, cranked up the air and plotted our next course of action. I had made a list of sights and we decided to tackle all the churches this afternoon. It was a lot of walking on asphalt and concrete in the blazing sun, but these places were all spectacular! And again, we wondered – – who cares for these historic monuments to faith? There were so many, and we didn’t even visit them all. There are still a couple more we’ll do another day because they were too far away. I’m sure after looking at all the pictures, you’ll be glad! 😊
so we watched that for a few minutes before heading in for dessert.
We both wanted homemade ice cream and we both wanted a pastry.
So we bought one of each and shared.
That’s what happens when you eat at a place with a professional French baker.
But it sure was delicious!!
This building said “Fairy Land” on it and had a lovely facade. That’s why Blaine took the picture.
I researched it and discovered that it was built in 1869 and was a costume shop for 150 years!
It’s been vacant since 2014 when the property was sold.
Then, hot and tired and a bit achy, we faced a dinner dilemma. The place that Leah had recommended for dinner was pretty pricey, and looking at the people waiting in line for the place to open up, we felt pretty scrungy by comparison.
The restaurant had a nice bench, so we sat and researched. It was difficult because there are so many just in this small section of the city. We finally settled on, of all things, Polish food. It was close by. We were starving. The price was right. And the food was excellent, and need I say, we were no longer starving. Quite the opposite! It was a good thing we had to walk back to the Jeep.
It included soup or salad and dessert!
Tomorrow promises rain all day, which will present a great opportunity to get this long, photo-filled post done!