Montreal

Je me souviens

August 2016

Heading to one of the Montreal finger islands to visit the famed Habitat 67, the amusing stacked box apartment goes for a cool $1.8MCAD for a 3,839sqft luxury apartment. Oh, but don’t forget to add the co-ownership fee which runs $55.6KCAD additionally and the monthly contribution of $4.6KCAD.

Habitat hosted Montreal Expo in 1967, hence the name Habitat 67 (Note 1)
Modeled after stack of Legos, the final 146 units do resembled originality of its creator Moshe Safdie

Beside clay tennis court with an available instructor, the occupants can also enjoy river surfing on St. Lawrence River constant waves which one local surfer told us “We make do with what we have!” and with a smile and he quickly paddle out to one of the rapids.

Lone surfer on Saint Lawrence river

Notre-Dame Basilica is one of the most dramatic Roman Catholic church in the world, so standing there in the hot sun and smiling with anticipation, we patiently wait for our scheduled time. Finally shuffling through its Gothic entrance after a throng of other tourists, we practically stop dead in our tracks. The amazing multitude of a deep rich colored altarpiece, withering high nave vaults decorated in a deep blue hue and simmering golden stars, and intricate wooden carvings pulpit and saints suddenly seem so real and seem to beckon one silent and demanding respect with one kneeled knee.

Various Saints statues adorn The Crucifixion
Saints Peter and Paul statues underneath the pulpit
Even the votive candle holders were color-coordinate with the beautiful church

After a good dose of cappuccino and freshly baked croissants at a local Boulanger, we headed to Montreal Botanical Garden and Insectarium to see hundred years old trees and some exotic insects. While examining the diminutive thorny Elaeagnus bonsai, we were shocked to learn this tree is 105 years old, we realized that this moss covered root with its crackling trunk, has live through Wright Brother’s first flight, Hindenburg crashes,  America enters WW2, Hiroshima atomic bomb, first man in space, Martin Luther King speech, JFK assassination, Beatlemania, first man on the moon, etc. then to our astonishment we found even older bonsai, the Azalea, tipping the age scale at 210 years old.

Montreal Botanical Garden
Moss covered 105 years old Alaeagnus bonsai
Close-up of the 210 years old Azalea bonsai

Sidestep over to the Insectarium, we entered the largest insect museum in North America. The bi-level museum appears small in dimension but big enough to house more than 160,000 insects and animals (mainly creepy crawlers) under one roof. We were attracted to a shiny and colorful beetle and we are not the only ones… other cultures have been stringing certain kind of scarab beetle species into a bright green necklace for centuries. And there one such a necklace in the Montreal Insectarium.

Just one case of beetles amongst thousand more cases of insects in the museum

Climbing more than 280 stone steps, we enter the Saint Joseph’s Oratory from Chemin Queen Mary beautiful side door. During summertime, there is also 99 wooden steps if one wishing to climb the church on their knees. The enormous cavity of the church almost took our breath away and not because of climbing stone steps earlier. It’s the 195ft inner dome, 210ft wide, and 341ft length is a sight to behold. The huge sacred space that can easily house 15-story building was as serene and peaceful as simple wooden Christ statue quietly observing his flock farther down below. In various sections, one can find several relics such as the preserved heart of Saint Brother Andre (founder of the oratory), cloth containing the Saint’s dried blood, and other artifacts. Out to the right side of the Oratory, one can find a music instrument consisted of 56 bronze bells which made up of Oratory Carillon and to our surprise actually play by a titular carillonist, and not a machine. 

St. Joseph's Oratory view from Queen Mary boulevard
The 32ft organ made in Germany in 1958 and has been restored in 2012
There is a small sacred chamber behind the Station of the Cross

Being surrounded everything in French; from street signs to everyday language, to shop names and its corresponding advertisements, to even food names and menu… We felt like tele-transport to somewhere in Paris and not in North America. Our Caleche driver (beautifully bilingual) adamantly stressed that France has changed to newer French and that French Quebec is THE old French. No problem, on with crash course on “Bonjour, Madame!”, “Comment allez-vous?”, “Bien”, “Est-ce que je peux parler anglais?”, “Merci”, “Au revoir” or occasionally “Bonne journee!”

GPS Coordinates

  1. Habitat 67 – 45°29’59.8″N 73°32’36.9″W
  2. Notre-Dame Basilica- 45°30’15.7″N 73°33’22.3″W
  3. Montreal Botanical Garden & Insectarium – 45°33’35.9″N 73°33’46.6″W
  4. Saint Joseph’s Oratory – 45°29’31.3″N 73°37’00.7″W

References

  • Note 1: The History Behind Montreal’s Habitat 67, Imane Madi, February 16, 2016
  • Architecture specifications are from respective attraction literature, it’s websites, and Wikipedia
  • Attraction coordinates are from Google map in Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (DMS)