Poutine - tres jolie!
Trying on butterflies at the Cirque de Soleil
Place d'Armes
Montreal waterfront at Night
Place d'Armes
Montreal waterfront at NightIn Amesbury, we are blessed to be situated approximately equidistant from The City and Montreal. This weekend we choose Canada over the Big Apple. (n.b. in New England, ‘The City’ is always New York and never Boston.)
After all, Canada is a foreign country. One needs a passport to even get in! Plus, the people speak a different language, the highway signs are in French, and the inhabitants cover their ‘pommes frites’ with cottage cheese and brown gravy. This local Quebecois delicacy is called ‘poutine’ and can clog small coronary arteries at thirty paces.
(P.S. - what a shock to realize that French fries, French braids and French toast do not exist anywhere in metropolitan France. But that – along with French courage and French letters - is another story.)
We stay overnight in Malone, NY with our friends John and Margaret. John is the friend who got mugged by a monkey in Kenya’s Amboseli Park last year - http://daktari-mark.blogspot.com/2009/08/africa-2009-mugged-by-monkey-part-3.html
Next morning, we embark in John’s Nissan for the Canadian border.
“Hey John, do you think we will have any trouble getting through customs?” I inquire from the navigator’s seat.
“Only if they ask for money,” chirps Marg from the back. “John didn’t bring any!”
“They have ATM’s in Canada,” returns John. “Besides, on this trip we need Canadian money and not US.”
The comely border guard looks at our passports and levels her steely gaze at us. Then, disregarding the fact that the photos bear no resemblance, she casually waves us through.
John has no luck with the ATM at the bank of Canada.
“I always have this trouble,” he complains loudly.
“It’s because your credit card doesn’t speak French,” I explain. “Use mine, s’il vous plait.”
I insert my card. The machine gives a few electronic burps and contentedly coughs up a fistful of multicolored moolah plus a one dollar and a two dollar coin.
“Voila!” I exclaim. “ Mi visa es su visa!”
I examine the coins. Both coins have a likeness of the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, on the front. A picture of a loon is on the obverse of the $1 while the back of the $2 displays a bear. Native Canadians call the $1 coin a ‘loonie’. And the $2 coin is ‘Queen Liz with the bare behind’. (Foreigners are forbidden to do this, as the loon is a protected species and Queen Elizabeth is still the Canadian head of state.)
In Montreal, we drive straight to the ‘Vieux Montreal’ arrondissement on the St. Lawrence riverfront. We have tickets for the new Cirque de Soleil show “Totem: the Odyssey of the Human Species”. I love the circus, especially the flying trapeze (see http://daktari-mark.blogspot.com/2009/02/mature-gent-conquers-flying-trapeze.html)
and Cirque de Soleil is the absolootal best circus on the entire planet!
John and I try on butterflies in the Cirque gift shop, while the girls “cherchez les toilettes.”
“Do you think these wings make my ass look bigger?” I inquire.
“Bigger than what?” John deadpans.
I’m a member of the Cirque Club, so we check in at the ticket counter and upgrade to the front section. The closer the better works for me!
C’est magnifique! Totem is the best! It begins as a creation story with the stage in the shape of the carapace of a primordial turtle. It ends with Mayan cosmonauts moving out into the universe and beyond! Everywhere in between there is a sublime mix of legend and science, myth and evolution. Through the use of projectors even the stage environment evolves – from a spring, to a lake, to the ocean, to interstellar space. My favorite acrobats are the Native American Hoop Dancer and the Duet on the Fixed Trapeze.
After the show we go to an enclosed courtyard off the Place d’Armes for dinner and live jazz. We find ourselves distinctly underdressed. The Canadians, especially the women, are well coiffed and elegantly robed. Cheek kisses are of course ‘de rigueur’. The local desmoiselles are not averse to sizing up available males with a gaze both bold and sensual. Ah, the allure of the Gallic female. “Toujours l’amour.”
(The French word for ‘young ladies’ is the same as the word for ‘dragonflies’. Les demoiselles – those aggressive and beautiful fliers whether in the skies or at the cafe.)
After dinner, Marg and Rena lead the way to the riverbank for the evening’s entertainment. The Montreal International Fireworks Competition, the largest pyrotechnics competition of its kind in the world, takes place at 10 PM on certain Saturday nights in the summer. Each night a different country does it’s very best to outshine the competitors.
The shows are launched from Le Ronde- an island in the St. Lawrence and are visible all along the waterfront. Best of all, the show is absolutely free! Tonight is the Italian team’s turn. We are serenaded with arias from Verdi’s Rigoletto as the heavens burst with beautiful chrysanthemums of colored light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJqjd2EBuw
Then it’s “au revoir Montreal”.
What a terrific day it was! Alas, one day in Montreal is never enough.
After all, Canada is a foreign country. One needs a passport to even get in! Plus, the people speak a different language, the highway signs are in French, and the inhabitants cover their ‘pommes frites’ with cottage cheese and brown gravy. This local Quebecois delicacy is called ‘poutine’ and can clog small coronary arteries at thirty paces.
(P.S. - what a shock to realize that French fries, French braids and French toast do not exist anywhere in metropolitan France. But that – along with French courage and French letters - is another story.)
We stay overnight in Malone, NY with our friends John and Margaret. John is the friend who got mugged by a monkey in Kenya’s Amboseli Park last year - http://daktari-mark.blogspot.com/2009/08/africa-2009-mugged-by-monkey-part-3.html
Next morning, we embark in John’s Nissan for the Canadian border.
“Hey John, do you think we will have any trouble getting through customs?” I inquire from the navigator’s seat.
“Only if they ask for money,” chirps Marg from the back. “John didn’t bring any!”
“They have ATM’s in Canada,” returns John. “Besides, on this trip we need Canadian money and not US.”
The comely border guard looks at our passports and levels her steely gaze at us. Then, disregarding the fact that the photos bear no resemblance, she casually waves us through.
John has no luck with the ATM at the bank of Canada.
“I always have this trouble,” he complains loudly.
“It’s because your credit card doesn’t speak French,” I explain. “Use mine, s’il vous plait.”
I insert my card. The machine gives a few electronic burps and contentedly coughs up a fistful of multicolored moolah plus a one dollar and a two dollar coin.
“Voila!” I exclaim. “ Mi visa es su visa!”
I examine the coins. Both coins have a likeness of the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, on the front. A picture of a loon is on the obverse of the $1 while the back of the $2 displays a bear. Native Canadians call the $1 coin a ‘loonie’. And the $2 coin is ‘Queen Liz with the bare behind’. (Foreigners are forbidden to do this, as the loon is a protected species and Queen Elizabeth is still the Canadian head of state.)
In Montreal, we drive straight to the ‘Vieux Montreal’ arrondissement on the St. Lawrence riverfront. We have tickets for the new Cirque de Soleil show “Totem: the Odyssey of the Human Species”. I love the circus, especially the flying trapeze (see http://daktari-mark.blogspot.com/2009/02/mature-gent-conquers-flying-trapeze.html)
and Cirque de Soleil is the absolootal best circus on the entire planet!
John and I try on butterflies in the Cirque gift shop, while the girls “cherchez les toilettes.”
“Do you think these wings make my ass look bigger?” I inquire.
“Bigger than what?” John deadpans.
I’m a member of the Cirque Club, so we check in at the ticket counter and upgrade to the front section. The closer the better works for me!
C’est magnifique! Totem is the best! It begins as a creation story with the stage in the shape of the carapace of a primordial turtle. It ends with Mayan cosmonauts moving out into the universe and beyond! Everywhere in between there is a sublime mix of legend and science, myth and evolution. Through the use of projectors even the stage environment evolves – from a spring, to a lake, to the ocean, to interstellar space. My favorite acrobats are the Native American Hoop Dancer and the Duet on the Fixed Trapeze.
After the show we go to an enclosed courtyard off the Place d’Armes for dinner and live jazz. We find ourselves distinctly underdressed. The Canadians, especially the women, are well coiffed and elegantly robed. Cheek kisses are of course ‘de rigueur’. The local desmoiselles are not averse to sizing up available males with a gaze both bold and sensual. Ah, the allure of the Gallic female. “Toujours l’amour.”
(The French word for ‘young ladies’ is the same as the word for ‘dragonflies’. Les demoiselles – those aggressive and beautiful fliers whether in the skies or at the cafe.)
After dinner, Marg and Rena lead the way to the riverbank for the evening’s entertainment. The Montreal International Fireworks Competition, the largest pyrotechnics competition of its kind in the world, takes place at 10 PM on certain Saturday nights in the summer. Each night a different country does it’s very best to outshine the competitors.
The shows are launched from Le Ronde- an island in the St. Lawrence and are visible all along the waterfront. Best of all, the show is absolutely free! Tonight is the Italian team’s turn. We are serenaded with arias from Verdi’s Rigoletto as the heavens burst with beautiful chrysanthemums of colored light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPJqjd2EBuw
Then it’s “au revoir Montreal”.
What a terrific day it was! Alas, one day in Montreal is never enough.
DAKTARI
