Montreal – Part 1

Montreal, which is part of the Quebec, was founded by French missionaries in 1642. They were there to convert the local Indians to Christianity. But once they discovered the abundant wealth of fox and beaver pelts, the mission became one of making money – lots and lots of money. Plus, the Indians were formidable warriors and not really interested in the Wonderful World of Jesus anyway.

The white explorer Jacques Cartier gets credit for discovering the city. According to legend, he saw the big hill where the town would one day sit and he christened it Mount Royal, after the French king. And after a while, the two words morphed into one – Montreal.

Most of the city center is filled with shiny, modern glass and steel skyscrapers. Montreal’s stately old buildings only date from around the 1840’s due to numerous fires that burned the earlier structures to the ground. Most of the solid and attractive older buildings are made of grey limestone, which is kind of gloomy. I’m thinking that it gets pretty depressing by the middle of winter.

The locals joke that there are two seasons in Montreal: Hockey Season and Construction Season.

Montreal is a very large island – there are fifteen bridges connecting the island to the mainland or other smaller islands. We didn’t get the chance to explore any of the nearby islands, but we heard they were quite interesting and lovely.

Montreal Island is much bigger than Manhattan in New York to which the city is often compared. That comparison is kind of silly, but we heard Montrealers tell us this over and over again. I didn’t want to argue, but while you might be able to fit a bunch of Manhattans onto Montreal Island, it’s equally true that you could easily fit all of Montreal’s most stellar structures into one borough of New York City and still have room for Yankee Stadium and some bagel shops.

Speaking of bagels, because of its very large Jewish population – Yiddish was the third most spoken language in Montreal well into the 1930’s, as Jews fled Europe in droves seeking refuge and a safer life – smoked meats and bagels are Montreal’s most famous foods. We didn’t try the bagels, but the smoked meats at the world famous Dunn’s restaurant were simply out of this world.

Food is really important in Montreal. It’s like an art form, really. And they have more restaurants than any other city in North America. I don’t know who keeps track of these sorts of things, but that’s the party line in Montreal. We ate almost all of our meals at French restaurants – mostly in the Old City – and they were all incredibly yummy and fun.

French is Quebec’s official language. But almost everyone, especially the younger folk, not only speak English, but do so without the faintest trace of a French accent. Inna and I were fascinated how they pulled this off. I guess it’s because they learned both languages at the same time, starting at a very early age.

Several times, we heard guides say, “Quebec is the second largest French speaking nation in the world.”

Well, they are technically a province, not a nation. Canada is a nation. And that, of course, has been a point of constant conflict for a very long time indeed.

It has always been a delicate balancing act between the French and British cultures for the Francophiles who live in Montreal and Quebec. The British run the show, and the seat of government is in Ottawa, so it is sort of like living in two worlds.

Montrealers have a saying to describe their French and British heritage: “We were born under the Lilly and we flourished under the rose.”

The west side of the city is primarily French and the east is mostly English. And Montreal is home to two English and two French universities. Believe me, Montrealers keep score.

All around the city, you will usually see three flags flying from the landmark buildings, like hotels and government offices.

There is the very beautiful Montreal flag with its four flowers, one in each corner, symbolizing Montreal’s complicated cultural past. It consists of a blue Fleur-de-lys, representing the Royal House of Bourbon (French); the red rose of Lancaster (England); the green and purple thistle (Scots), and the green shamrock (Irish); all set on a white background with a red cross, very much like the English flag.

Then there’s the Quebec flag, which is sky blue with a white cross and Fleur-de-lys in each corner.

And last but not least, there is the Canadian flag, consisting of a red and white flag with big red maple leaf in the middle.

We rarely saw these flags flown individually in Montreal. They seemed to be a trio. I suppose they do it in order to keep everybody happy. Canadians like to keep everybody happy.

In the 1970s, when Quebec began transforming itself into a modern day economic powerhouse the Parti Québécois, or PQ as it is known today, was founded. It was led by a charismatic journalist named René Lévesque. The PQ’s primary goals were to obtain political, economic and social autonomy for the province of Quebec. Basically, they wanted to secede. The PQ is a formidable political force in Canada these days, but Canada is never going to cut them loose, no matter how many times they vote for independence. It’s very much like the rift between Catalan and Spain.

 

The independence movement triggered a myriad of unintended consequences. If you could change the government, why not everything else?

When Quebec started saying that they wanted to leave Canada and become their own country, the exodus began and everything of prestige and importance, like the stock exchange, started steadily moving to Toronto. Montreal used to be on top, but now it plays second fiddle to Toronto.

But any way you slice it, Quebec is unique in that it is truly a bilingual province. In truth, given the diversity of its population, many Montrealers (especially the immigrants) speak as many as four languages.

• French

• English

• Your mother’s home language

• Your father’s home language

Irish is third largest group in Montreal. And a little known fact is that the traditional Irish parades of spring started in Montreal, and theirs is one of the biggest in the world.

Interestingly, especially given the daily headlines, Arabs comprise the fourth largest group in Montreal today. The Arabs come from all of the former French colonies, like Morocco. And guess what? The Arabic people of Montreal are happy, productive people with loving families who have become an integral part of the city’s overall flavor and character. You know, just like America’s huddled masses.

Up until the 70’s, when people said that Quebec was French, they really meant Catholic. But in just two generations there has been extreme social change in Montreal.

On the religious front, the Catholics have been inexorably losing their power and influence. They are now on the down slide and many Montrealers no longer even identify themselves as Catholics. In fact, most people don’t even wear wedding rings because they think it’s just another senseless formality concocted by a heavy-handed Roman Catholic church that ruled the roost for far too long.

Here is an example that was told to us by Marie, our guide when we took the Hop-On Hop Off Bus, that conveys just how arbitrary and foolish Catholic doctrine eventually became in Montreal. There are about 200,000 trees on Mount Royal, the city’s highest point and magnificent park designed by the world famous Frederick Olmstead, who created Central Park in New York City. But they are all about 60 years old because during World War II, there were a lot of soldiers coming through Montreal and they would go up onto Mount Royal and engage the services of prostitutes behind the trees on the mountain; so the Catholic Church ordered that all the trees be cut down. Then the mountain began eroding, so they all had to be replanted. And that’s why they are all about the same age and size today.

 

In point of fact, there has been a lot of blow-back against the Catholic Church in the last decade. For instance, Montreal was once known as the City of Spires because there were over 200 churches with slender silver spires. Today, many of those churches have been re-purposed into things like brew pubs, condos, and government offices. A nunnery near McGill Stadium was recently converted into high-end housing. The locals refer to it as “convents into condos”.