Montreal

Dinner in a cafe along Rue St Paul in old Montreal featured this view of pedestrians shopping and talking (mostly in French) in Place Jacques Cartier. I guess you could say I share a name with Cartier, the first Frenchman to reach Quebec and Montreal.

Not all domes are on churches. The Marcee Bonsecours in old Montreal is a temple to commerce — both originally as the customs house and today as a market.

This downtown office building from a century ago includes lion heads atop the facade and plenty of geometric lines in the windows and walls.

The lime-green sports car and young lady in neon colors create quite a contrast with the cobblestone street and the building behind, one of the oldest in Montreal. A taste of Paris on this side of the Atlantic!

When it was time to expand an old building in Montreal, instead of demolishing it, they just added new bricks to the old stone walls to make it larger. The original outlines are still visible, showing the layers of history you see in this old-new city.

Our walk through old Montreal passed 4 or 5 wedding parties getting photos or saying their vows in various gardens and church settings. A city of romance!

In downtown Montreal, this statue of an Englishman turning up his nose at the French Basilica is mirrored by a nearby Frenchwoman looking offended by the English Bank of Montreal. But the pug in his arms and the poodle in hers are looking very affectionately at each other — a fun metaphor for the love/hate…