Good to be back.

It was 2012 when I first became obsessed with finding the right website design to house my photography. For a little while I was really into Graph Paper Press designs, but was hitting the hurdle of not having an in-depth knowledge of Word Press. When I say Word Press, I don’t mean the relatively easy use Wordpress.com, I mean Wordpress.org which requires you to host and manage your site from your desktop. I hit a wall; coding, managing a website…it was all a language in which I was not fluent. Luckily I met a coding wizard along this journey, Laurie M. Rauch, who I had exchanged some emails with in regards to creating a custom Wordpress site. We became email friends eventually, which was nice, and she invited me to attend WordCamp in August of 2012 in Montreal.

I didn’t have too much going on that year aside from shooting a few weddings and grieving the loss of my mother (so heavy, right?), so it felt like a trip to Montreal for a few days would be a good idea. It turned out to be great fun. I listened to Laurie speak about coding techniques that to tis day I still don’t understand, and then we ran into each other serendipitously after her talk and demonstration. She was sweet enough to sit down with me and go through my proposed web design. We’d eventually work on it enough to create something that would go live on the net. This was all before finding Squarespace and obsessing over it until I landed on this site that you are currently reading.

Montreal 2019

Speaking of serendipity: this trip to Montreal in 2019 was honestly inspired to try to reunite with some new friends that I met in the most incredible way while in Chicago, IL in 2016. That full story can be read here: Serendipity in Chicago. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see those friends during this trip, but I still took much advantage of visiting a city that I am fond of. This was now my fourth journey to The City of Saints, the first being a family vacation many years ago, the second being a 7th grade French field trip in 1997, and third, the aforementioned WordCamp attendance in 2012.

Strategy

Granted, I have been to Montreal before, I have to admit, I was very please with how well I was able to navigate the city and see many sites. I’m pleased because I had a strategy and it essentially worked. My travels have taken me back and forth between two main travel/navigation ideas: walk the streets and get candid photography of people, moments, and details, or try to see as many attractions, spaces or buildings as possible and don’t worry as much about street photography. This has gone back and forth since 2017 where in Peru, getting street photography and moments felt very natural. However in 2018 in Barcelona, I found myself walking and walking and walking the streets thinking I was going to get a lot of candids, but instead the architecture and places were worth more attention. I wish I had used public transportation more in Barcelona to just get to places quicker. This journey was my compensation back in the other direction. I was much more attraction and site focused in Montreal and less concerned with walking a and candid street photography. It paid off. (Note: the destination focused strategy did not work in Tokyo which I will blog about soon…)

Moving on…

Day I

Day I in Montreal began wonderfully with a visit to my favorite vista of the city from Mount Royal. I was able to catch a great sunrise. I blogged those images earlier on a separate page. Feel free to click the link below:

Mount Royal Sunrise

6.17.19 | Montreal, Quebec

streets

After enjoying sunrise, I already plotted my next move. I was headed for the Olympic Stadium and Botanical Gardens who are neighbors on the same site about 8km north of Mount Royal. Most of my route involved a walk along Sherbrooke St. I could not help but be fascinated by the expert juggling of Benjamin Peru, who entertained cars at the red light. I also caught the spires of a few churches nearby:

Olympic Stadium

A long walk, but worth it. I finally made it to “The Big O,” built for the 1976 Olympics. Not much else to say about it other than that it was impressive in scale. There is an observation deck at the top of an angled elevator lift (fun ride) that provided ample views of the Montreal landscape:

Montreal Botanical Garden

Just a few paces across the Olympic Park, I entered the Jardin Botanique de Montréal as it would be said in French. At 190 acres and housing 22,000 species of plants, what’s not to like? It was an excellent, relaxing stroll with wonderful color and a few themed gardens worth capturing. Also of note, there are massive “growing sculptures” within the Garden that I completely missed. It’s probably for the best because I have a weird fear of being close to very large faces, like sculptures or in this case landscape objects. I’m not sure what that’s about. It’s something about the proximity. I can handle the Statue of Liberty and will probably like Mt. Rushmore someday, but if I’m up close…no thanks. If you’d like to see those growing garden sculptures click here: [Not my cup of tea, but beautiful]

streets

After leaving Olympic Park, my next destination was the Old Port of Montreal. My route would include a few image worthy moments:

Place d'Armes + Notre Dame Basilica

I don’t know why, something about Montreal feels really cozy to me. I’ve been in many public plazas before, and have even been to one with a similar name, but something about Place D’Armes in Montreal felt great. Plenty of historic statues and the undeniable centerpiece the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal:

Notre Dame Interior

I’m always a fan of when the words “Roman Catholic” and “Gothic Revival” are in close proximity to each other. I was unprepared for how beautiful the interior of the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal was going to be. The lighting at the alter was gorgeous. The blue tones were definitely a treat. I had much respect and reverence of and in this place:

streets + Old Port of Montreal

It attracts 6 million tourists annually, so naturally I had to go. The Old Port of Montreal along the St. Lawrence River on a sunny day, you really can’t ask for anything better:

Biosphere + Jacques Cartier Bridge

I had it on my heart to visit the Montreal Biosphere, a museum devoted to cool environmental knowledge, but it happened to be closed this day. That didn’t stop me from enjoying the exterior. It was a quick bus ride to Parc Jean-Drapeau, on Saint Helen's Island to view the 62 meter tall geodesic dome. Afterward, I would take a long stroll through the Parc and capture some views of the Jacques Cartier Bridge and a hint of La Ronde theme park:

streets - Parc des Faubourgs

The next idea on my mind was to actually walk across the Jacques Cartier Bridge and another short bus ride would get me close to its western end. I had to walk a bit to find the pedestrian walkway, but the stroll would take me around Parc Des Faubourgs for a couple of cool sights and moments:

As previously stated, I walked the bridge. Click on the link below to see those images:

The Jacques Cartier Bridge

6.18.19 | Montreal, Quebec

Day II

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

How could I not take some time to visit the largest art museum in Canada (by gallery space)? I spent more time strolling and enjoying the art inside of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts than photographing it, but here are a few moments and pieces that caught my eye. My apologies for not catching the name of everything within but I captioned a few things:

Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral

The remainder of this day in Montreal pretty much involved nothing but visits to churches. I started out with the third largest in Quebec (keep scrolling to see the second).

The Roman Catholic, Renaissance/Baroque Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral was a site to behold. I made a quick stop in Dorchester Square before entering the Cathedral. Show me an equestrian statute and I’ll photograph it, for sure:

St. Patrick's Basilica

Gothic Revival ✓ Roman Catholic ✓ Again, I have yet to come across a structure that fits those descriptions that I don’t like. This minor basilica finished in 1847 warmed my heart like most churches do. If the name didn’t give it away, this church was linked to the Irish. Apparently there was a swell in Irish immigrants to Montreal in the early 1800’s and attendance overflowed two other churches before the groundwork was then laid to create St. Patrick’s. That beautiful lamp hanging in the space weighs almost a ton. Gorgeous marble and stained glass throughout.

Before finding St. Patricks I strolled past a really nice Olympic torch monument:

Phillips Square

Before entering Christ Church Cathedral, I wandered into Phillips Square (named after the patch of the city land’s owner, city councillor, Thomas Phillips). There is an impressive statue dedicated to King Edward VII, but hilariously, I never photographed it from the front in full, instead I was captured and impressed by the allegorical statues that surrounded its base. In particular the winged figure representing “liberty,” with broken chains…thrilling:

Christ Church Cathedral

I couldn’t miss this Neo Gothic, Anglican Gothic Revival cathedral by architects Frans Wills and Thomas Seaton Scott. Very beautiful and cozy interior. Open confession (no church pun intended), I do my homework after my travels using a lot of Google Maps, Wikipedia or location’s websites to be able to write about my experiences with more detail and accuracy. I try to find a fun fact about everywhere I went. For this church, I learned that the original steeple was made of stone and was so heavy (3.5 million pounds!) that the soft ground below could not support the weight. The steeple ended up leaning almost four feet to the south. It was removed and replaced by an aluminum replica. The controversy of the stone steeple was so great that it created a legal precedent that helped formed part of Quebec’s civil code. All that talk of the steeple and I now realize I never actually stepped far enough away from the church to photograph it. *face palm of embarrassment. Oh well:

Streets

My next stop was St. Joesph’s Oratory, which was another few transit stops away. En route, I happened to walk by the really cool Ilot Balmoral building designed by Provencher_Roy Architects. It houses a number of artistic interests including the School of Digital Arts, Animation and Design and the National Film Board of Canada:

St. Joseph’s Du Mont Royal

Since I previously confessed that I borrow information from Wikipedia, I’ll go ahead and copy it directly for the description of this massive structure. The St. Joseph’s Oratory is…. “a Roman Catholic minor basilica and national shrine on Mount Royal's Westmount Summit in Montreal, Quebec. It is Canada's largest church and claims to have one of the largest domes in the world.

Enough said. Super impressive structure.

I felt very close to Jesus while visiting this structure because there were beautiful stone engravings and sculptures that depicted that final day of Christ as he journeyed to Calvary. I photographed a few of these objects both on the interior and exterior of the church. You’ll know them when you see them. A big part of my journey as a Christian lately has been opening my heart back up to Jesus amidst all the grief I have inside. I am coming to trust Him again, knowing that whatever pain I feel, He’s felt it too and worse. I don’t need to run from my pain, but embrace it as a tool to get me closer to my Savior. (Yes, I really thought about all of this while visiting St. Joseph’s. What else are churches for?)

The last thing I’ll say is that I was really taken with the juxtaposition of the Oratory’s design. From the exterior, I was expecting a very…antiquated, but beautiful, design on the interior. Nope. It felt very contemporary and I loved it. Wonderful place and experience:

Francos de Montreal

It wasn’t planned and it wasn’t part of my agenda, but I happened to be in Montreal during the week of the beloved Francos de Montreal concert series. It’s held every year (2019 was the 31st edition) in Downtown Montreal and features French-speaking musical talent from all over the world. Most of the performances are held outdoors for free which is kind of amazing. I couldn’t help but pass by the venue multiple times during my trip. To end my second day of exploring, I made sure to stop by and listen for a moment. I did my best to retroactively find out who was on stage while I was watching, but I couldn’t find it. It was a cool performance and venue either way: