au revoir, Montreal
Well, actually, half of this trip will be in Michigan, with Janna's mom, so there will be a little more forthcoming. Janna and I had a great trip since I talked to you last on Sunday I saw...- The Pointe a Calliere Archeology Museum
This was an excellent museum which had a special exhibit on Roman Gaul with tremendous artifacts including a household lararium and a massive table carved with a decree from Emperor Claudius. The regular exhibit was also exquisite, taking one on an underground tour of Vieux Montreal - The Centre Canadien d'Architecture
This was a fun museum, but Janna enjoyed it more than I. An interesting exhibit featuring (I can't remember his name) the author of Microserfs and Generation X and an interesting exhibit on city planning in Montreal in the 60s - The Sir George Etienne Cartier Museum
This was a hidden gem. It's interpreters were top notch and enthusiastic. It had a great explanation of the transition of Canada and Quebec from colonial to national status. It picked up right were the Ramezay Museum left off. It was also only two blocks from the hotel. So after a very brief nap, some freshening up, and dinner at a lovely Italian Pizza Restaurant in centre-ville(downtown) we started the climb to... - Mont Royal
which we reached by walking through the lovely McGill University Campus full of wonderful Romantic Victorian neo-gothic architecture. The mountain is falling apart (erosion problems) so we had some difficulty located our path, but we made it up to the belvedere (overlook) and it was a lovely evening.
Mont Royal
That night we crashed after watching an episode of the Simpsons.
Today, we had some serious difficulties with the Metro (i.e. it was evacuated so it could not be used) So we decided to drive. Janna was a great navigateuse. We saw...
- The Lachine Fur Trade Museum
another hidden gem with the same stuffed mannequins as the Cartier Museum. The stuffed beavers were precious. Our guide was exuberantly enthusiastic. We got to pet the animal hides--so soft, I can see why they dragged them halfway across the globe. Poor little animals though. But, hey everybody's got to make a living. - The Biosphere
This is a giant Bucky (Buckminster Fuller) Ball located on an island in the Middle of Montreal. It was covered with transparent acrylic for the World's Fair (Expo '67, and to save money was welded together so that it could not be taken apart (as the original plan called for. The U.S. (that was our pavillion) sold it to the City of Montreal for a dollar. It stood with the original exhibit until 1976 when the acrylic caught fire and it all burned off. However, the infrastructure stood strong. It lay vacant until 1995, when they put in a wonderful exhibit on water and conservation. - The Insectarium
We had to drive across town, however, we were both presently suprised at the intelligent traffic flow we had learned at at the CCA yesterday. It was a museum full of insects. At least I could be in the same building with them and not be freaked out, I've gotten that far. - The Jardin Botanique
The Insectarium was part of the Jardin Botanique, so we wandered the grounds and saw the Japanese, Chinese, and First Nations gardens, all of which were beautifully maintained. Then we took the overstuffed, but free, train around the rest of the grounds. Lovely.
Fur Trade Museum
We had dinner this evening at a lovely Quebecois restaurant on Rue St. Pierre. I had a capaille (meat pie) and Janna had crepes. The wait staff was not busy and eminently friendly. What a wonderful visit.
posted by lucretius @ 5:54 PM
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