Canada Summer 2013: Montreal, Quebec Arrival

Saint Joseph's Oratory

August 8, 2013: I arrived at Montreal's Central Station a little late due to the border security check and freight train passing delays. I was picked up at the station by the couple I was going to stay with for most of the trip. They are relatives of my father's wife and live in the upscale Westmount neighborhood.

They are very knowledgeable about the city having grown up there and have a unique perspective being English speakers in predominantly French-speaking Montreal. In fact, Montreal is the second-largest French-speaking city in the world after Paris.

They drove me to the Outremont neighborhood, a wealthy neighborhood with mostly Francophones and a large Hasidic population, where we ate at a Greek restaurant and picked up bagels at St-Viateur Bagel, which locals say is the best bagel shop in town. We also walked by the very popular Patisserie Chez de Gaulle.

The restaurant was showing the Canadian Football League game between the Montreal Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts at Molson Stadium on the McGill Univesity campus downtown. It was interesting to observe the popularity of American football in the most unlikeliest of places -- French Montreal. The Rogers Cup men's tennis tournament was also taking place in the city at the same time, with Canadian players Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil doing very well. The Rogers Cup women's tournament was taking place in Toronto.

The couple I was staying with told me some interesting anecdotes and observations about Montreal. They explained that many churches have been converted into apartments and condos. They also said that Quebec has its own language police that has become more aggressive recently, even targeting a frozen yogurt shop for having plastic spoons with English text molded onto them. The Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) (English: Quebec Board of the French Language) has been around since 1961 trying to stop Anglo encroachment upon the French-speaking province. Quebec has a long and tense history with language at the center of the movement to secede from English-speaking Canada. Many Quebecois feel threatened by English Canada, who they see as colonialists imposing Anglo language and culture upon them. Therefore, unlike in the English provinces where the signs are both in French and English, in Quebec the signs are only in French, except for English enclaves like Westmount where the signs are defiantly English.

They also pointed out to me Canada's new plastic money, which launched in 2011. The polymer banknotes are more difficult to forge, are more durable, and last longer than paper money.

After dinner they drove me up to Westmount Summit for spectacular views of the Montreal skyline lit up at night. We also got up close to one of Montreal most famous landmarks -- Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, which is Canada's largest church.