Montreal Attractions

Last year we wrote about the massive reconstruction project in the Quartier des Spectacles - namely, a new plaza for the yearly Jazz Festival and similar events. One year has passed and the project bore its first visible (or, rather, walkable) fruit.

The $40-million Place des Festivals plaza was unveiled last month with an inaugural show featuring fluttering multi-colored water jets (a rather expensive spectacle, opined some local journalists) and packs of awe-stricken tourists enjoying the last warm days of Montreal's short summer.

Having snubbed the inauguration festivities, I went by with my camera to take a look a few days later...

Read the rest of: "Place des Festivals Opens, Fountains Operational"»

The Montreal Jazz Festival 2008 has just finished and the city is already fevereshly preparing for the 2009 edition. You might think this is an overstatement - after all, there's almost a year left! But in fact, in this short year, one of the most important concert spaces, the plaza between Place des Arts and Rue de Bleury will have to be completely redone. The models and renderings for the new Place des Festivals were made public a few days ago and the city's mayor took the opportunity to assure everybody the project is "on schedule, on budget"...

Read the rest of: "Montreal to Get New Plaza in 2009"»

A visiting Parisian recently made me laugh. Stretched on the grass next to the esplanade in the Old Port, she suddenly noticed Habitat 67's retro-futuristic assemblage across the Lachine Canal.

"Et ça" - she said peering confusedly at the distant building - "Ce sont des logements sociaux?" ("And that... that's a housing project?"). I laughed because although nothing could be further from the truth (the internationally acclaimed building houses well-to-do Montrealers - one could even say, the city's elite) many people somehow make a similar mistake. They are put off by the building's stern look, uninviting color and absurd shape, and so they wrongly assume something of the sort can only be used to house the underclass. I am here to clear up the confusion and defend the merits of Habitat 67...

Read the rest of: "The Habitat"»

I've met quite a few people in Montreal, and all of them surprised me with the same statement: "I've never been to La Grande Bibliothèque". Worse, that would happen immediately after I'd answer the most common question, which is: "What have you liked the most in Montreal so far?" La Grande Bibliothèque is definitely one of the top things on my list and when I mention it many people seem surprised...

Read the rest of: "La Grande Bibliothèque: Not Only For Geeks"»

You no longer have to fly to Paris and take the TGV to experience your favorite Provencal views! Until January 8, 2006 you can visit Provence at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal, for the exhibition "Right under the Sun. Landscape in Provence, from Classicism to Modernism"...

Read the rest of: "Provence in Montreal"»