Thursday, November 12, 2020

Montreal

For our visit this week, let's go to a very special city. Montreal is a special place to me because the dock there is where I first landed in North America. The other thing that makes Montreal special is that, being the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec, it's primary language is French while the rest of North America speaks English.

But even if not for this, it would be a special city anyway.

Montreal is a natural place for a city. Ships sailing into North America by way of the St. Lawrence River sail as far as they can go, until they come to the Lachine Rapids in the river. That is also where the river splits, before coming back together, to form two large islands.

On one of the islands, now known as Montreal Island, French explorer Jacques Cartier found an Iroquois Indian village, known as Hochelaga. There was a large hill on the island that is now known as Mount Royal. The name of Montreal means "Mount Royal", in French. Quebec is an Indian, and not a French, name. Cartier named the river for a Catholic saint, St. Lawrence.

Not only was the island in the St. Lawrence river with the hill as far as a ship could sail up the river, it was also an easily defensible location. A French settlement was later formed on the island, known as Ville Marie. 

The settlers were Catholics, and the name means "City of Mary". The name of Ville Marie is often seen in Montreal, just as the name of York is often seen in Toronto. You may notice that Montreal began on an island in the St. Lawrence river just as Paris had begun on an island in the Seine River.

One thing that becomes obvious about the names of Mount Royal and Ville Marie, is that the settlement took place before the French Revolution of 1789. In the French Revolution, the royal family was deposed and executed, and the power of the church was greatly curtailed. Had the settlement been founded after the French Revolution, it is highly unlikely that we would see these names today.

The provincial flag of Quebec features the fleur-de-lis, the symbol of the old French royalty that was overthrown in the revolution, as well as a cross on the French royal blue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Quebec#/media/File:Flag_of_Quebec.svg

One of the most photographed views in the world is that of downtown Montreal from the viewing platform on Mount Royal. In the first scene, the rotating light beacon is on top of the tall building named Place Ville Marie. The cylindrical building is part of McGill University.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.503435,-73.5867978,3a,75y,112.14h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipN4E_mZAs38w7YncbbyHnjapN0oSof1ZFFFL_-L!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipN4E_mZAs38w7YncbbyHnjapN0oSof1ZFFFL_-L%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya343.13712-ro-0-fo100!7i9728!8i4864

Also atop Mount Royal is the famous cross, that is lighted at night and can be seen far away:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Royal_Cross#/media/File:Montreal_-_QC_-_Gipfelkreuz_Mont_Real.jpg

Here are the photos from the travel photo blog of North America, from the same viewing platform. A photo can be enlarged by clicking on it:

http://markmeektravel.blogspot.com/2006/09/montreal-as-seen-from-mount-royal.html

Being located as it is, as far as ships can sail into the St. Lawrence River due to the Lachine Rapids, at least until the Lachine Canal was built, as part of the St. Lawrence Seaway, it became a natural place to offload crude oil to be refined in the refineries to the east of the city. These oil refineries became a major business of Montreal.

A major occupation of Montreal today is aeronautics and aerospace. It is the headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency, and one of the best-known companies is Bombardier which might be considered as the Canadian version of Boeing or Airbus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Inc.#/media/File:Bd700.jpg

In one of those now-it-can-be-told stories, early in the Second World War Britain's gold reserves were secretly shipped to Canada, and stored in the Sun Life Building:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Life_Building#/media/File:17-08-08-Montreal-RalfR-DSC_3562.jpg

Montreal can get cold in the winter, but there is a vast "Underground City" of stores and restaurants below the downtown. One thing that I liked about Montreal is the Autoroute Ville Marie, the highway that goes right under the downtown:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Autoroute_720#/media/File:Through-tunnel-1-east.jpg

The following scenes are of McGill University, and the surrounding area. McGill is probably the best-known university in Canada, and certainly one of the world's great universities. The accomplishments at the university are far too numerous to go into, in detail, here. Several Canadian Prime Ministers have been educated at McGill. The element radon was discovered here. As for sports, the first rule book of modern hockey was written by students at McGill and the inventor of basketball, James Naismith, was educated here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5042659,-73.5768169,3a,75y,180h,105.57t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-LR8_rif-VkM%2FVKnT-q09aGI%2FAAAAAAAAAYQ%2FOemh7YdSq40I4iI9fjDZUoANC8ZUIGk-w!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-LR8_rif-VkM%2FVKnT-q09aGI%2FAAAAAAAAAYQ%2FOemh7YdSq40I4iI9fjDZUoANC8ZUIGk-w%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Downtown, in the Old Montreal area, the inside of Basilica Notre Dame has to be seen to be believed. You can see how the outside of the basilica resembles Notre Dame in Paris, with the twin spires and arched doorways. But unlike Paris, which tries to keep old and new buildings separated, Montreal puts them right next to one another. The nearby docks are where I first landed in North America :

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5043325,-73.5556072,3a,75y,91.38h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOiBDUBy0ZWATmQFFZ0YwfHihmPiXWORxy4rxeX!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOiBDUBy0ZWATmQFFZ0YwfHihmPiXWORxy4rxeX%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya338.685-ro-0-fo100!7i5376!8i2688 

Montreal's copy of St. Peter's Basilica is Mary, Queen of the World. It is across the street from the Sun Life Building.

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4992693,-73.5684101,3a,75y,101.06h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMAdBpqQZjTCk96Kqs13jk4WXMGUpBjL6Rwrhdf!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMAdBpqQZjTCk96Kqs13jk4WXMGUpBjL6Rwrhdf%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya345.58398-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Here are some photos from the travel photo blog of North America of Old Montreal:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/dc_250945.jpg

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/dc_250944.jpg

This is a view of the downtown, the tall building to the left of the photo is Place Ville Marie. In a link to Montreal's history, in a way similar to that done in Paris, Place Ville Marie is in the form of a cross because the original settlement of Ville Marie was primarily for missionary purposes:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/dc_250942.jpg

On the opposite side of Mount Royal from McGill University is the University Of Montreal. Unlike McGill, this is a French language university, where everything is done in French. This is a vast university, and very highly rated, and is especially known for it's nuclear research. It is also unfortunately remembered for the shooting of female students, in 1989:

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5047839,-73.6134261,3a,75y,77.96h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sE92ccMmkVwVa4ZxmLeyipA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DE92ccMmkVwVa4ZxmLeyipA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D73.072708%26pitch%3D0!7i3328!8i1664

Moving eastward in Montreal, we come to the Olympic Stadium. This is where the 1976 Olympics were held. I went in the Biodome, which is housed in one of the stadiums where the Olympics were held, and you can go up the tower which supports the roof of the Olympic Stadium. The triangular apartment buildings were where the athletes stayed during the Olympics.

Montreal is a stylish and artistic city, known for it's murals painted on the sides of buildings and for it's ice sculptures in the winter. Notice how the cables from the tower supporting the roof of the Olympic Stadium is a reflection of the structure of the nearby bridge, Pont Jacques Cartier:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Cartier_Bridge#/media/File:Jacques-Cartier_Canada.jpg


https://www.google.com/maps/@45.558351,-73.550935,3a,75y,73.2h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-uEPyjrDrca0%2FVfhhVlhU59I%2FAAAAAAAAipY%2FxWpaEMuewbIqgpgJ3Jlss8IGhf76xvv8w!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-uEPyjrDrca0%2FVfhhVlhU59I%2FAAAAAAAAipY%2FxWpaEMuewbIqgpgJ3Jlss8IGhf76xvv8w%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Here is a photo of the Olympic Stadium, and the tower that supports it's roof by cables, from the travel photo blog of North America:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/dc_250943.jpg

What Montreal really excels at is putting on an event or celebration. Nine years before the 1976 Olympics was the celebration of Canada's 100th birthday, known as Expo 67. I was a child, living on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls at the time, and I remember when it was held. There were advertisements for it everywhere. It might have been the most successful international exhibition or world's fair ever held. Just as with the Olympic Stadium, there is a well-known and artistic building that remains from Expo 67 today. It is known simply as Habitat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67#/media/File:Habitat_panorama.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67#/media/File:Montreal_-_QC_-_Habitat67.jpg 

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