Making Eye Statements: Celebrating Montréal, Part One

“It’s that combination of sophistication and funkiness that I like.”

- Leonard Cohen speaking about his hometown.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I love meandering around cities with my camera. No doubt about it – I am a city brat at heart. And I play favourites, without apology: Toronto, Sydney, New York, Montréal, Hobart, London, Hong Kong, Cape Town, Rome, and Vancouver all have very special niches in my soul.

I seem to have acquired a delightful new pattern in my life: the annual spring trip by myself for a few days of urban photography, wandering, and pondering. I love it. Mind you, I also love returning home. Part of the fun of travelling by myself is knowing when I’ll be back in my own bed with its accompanying spouse, cat, and dogs. As Spencer once said, “There need to be spaces in our togetherness.”

Last year’s spring sojourn was five days in Toronto. This year’s destination was four days in Montréal. Making the trip even sweeter was the having my hotel paid for with points. Woohoo!

My first extended visit to Montréal was in 1967 when I spent two weeks exploring EXPO 67 with a university buddy. This is one fabulous city – and the fact that its subway runs on rubber tires makes it even more delicious.

My camera, of course, went bonkers in Montréal last week, and I came home with a large number of very gratifying and exciting images. I’ll split the best into two blog entries: this week will focus on the visual arts in Montréal, while next week will look at people and architecture.

Enjoy!