The Annual - 2014

 

I just got back from my annual visit to my home province of Quebec. As usual, it was amazing. We changed it up a little this time, though. Instead of going to the pottery exhibition in Val David, we took in an exhibition of Quebec music at the McCord Museum on Sherbrooke street.

I loved it. It was so well done. It tracked the music and musicians from the early sixties to the present, through the quiet revolution years, the civil rights movement in the U.S., the Vietnam war, and the FLQ crisis, just to name a few. You could listen to entire tracks or excerpts, as well as some of the famous political speeches. There were some iconic Quebec poets and songwriters, like Robert Charlebois and Gilles Vigneault, as well as Leonard Cohen and Jesse Winchester, who fled to Canada to avoid the Viet Nam draft in the U.S. McCord Museum

There was also a small exhibit devoted to Ben's, an iconic Montreal Deli that closed down a few years ago. Ben's was the place you went to after the clubs closed down. It was open 24 hours a day. Sad to see it go, but that is progress, I guess.

We drove by my old high school, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, which has been converted to lofts. I think it would be fun to live there, and there are three units for sale at the moment. But I am moving to Vancouver. See McGee.

I had forgotten how beautiful and interesting Montreal is, despite all the wackiness that goes on there. You will fall in love with it if you ever go.

 

Every year when I drive to Montreal I stop at the tourist information centre just inside the Quebec border. There are two signs there which clearly remind me of the quirky sense of humour Quebeckers have. Here they are, both "biology break" related, and they need no explanation.