Montreal: Fete de la Lumiere

A couple of students from Bouchereau in the student lounge asked me if  I'd like to go to Montreal for the weekend.  I thought "Why not?"  So we booked a cheap hostel for one night and left Saturday morning to check out the city. I went to Montreal with Elly from near Salzburg, Austria and Roxane from Prince George, BC. Montreal is only a 3 hour drive from Quebec.  If Quebec is the center of french culture for the province, then Montreal is the commercial metropolis.   It's very modern and multi-cultural.  It's a city of immigrants.  After checking into our hostel off St. Catherine's St, we drove to the top of Mont Royale to view the city. Next to the observatory area, there was a cool building. Locals were sitting around tables on one side talking, playing cards, or warming up after cross country skiing or jogging. Look at the squirrels on the rafters.  We also ran into a lady sitting out front with her dogs.  They were wearing sweaterds & little doggie boots.  People in Quebec also dress up their dogs in these.  It's so funny.

We took the subway to a stop near the Old Port.  On the way, this crazy old guy started ranting to us about how the Greeks are the smartest people in the world because philosophy, math and science came from the Greeks.  He kept poking my arm really hard when he was talking. It was really annoying. I got up out of my seat to move away from him.  Roxanne was standing next to me and he started bragging about how many languages he spoke.  Then, he started talking to us in Bulgarian.  Roxanne's parents are Bulgarian.  It was a weird experience for her, because she never speaks to anyone other than her family in Bulgarian.  The Old Port is on the St. Lawrence River. It was beautifully lit for the festival. Carnies were dressed up in festive attire and amusing the crowds.  People were roasting saussages and marshmallows around fires the city set up, a local tradition.

After dinner at the Old Port, we walked down St. Catherine's Street to Place D'Arts to watch a visual & performing arts show on the big stage. The squares of the city and many buildings buildings were illuminated in color for the feast. We passed through Chinatown on the way.

Place D'Arts is a large square right next to Le Mussee D'Art Contemporain for the Provence of Quebec.  It's the Quebec version of MOMA in Manhattan.  The square was awesome!  There was a building with a scene shining on each window. Click on it to look at it close-up.  Who do you see?

The show was one of the best I've ever seen, and free for the public.  It was a mix of contemporary dance, multimedia, acrobatics, songs, DJ mixes, and incredible sparklers, fire, and fireworks.  There was a guy who was filmed dancing, then an artist recreated the guy on film and then the man danced in front of the film of himself to mirror his movements in the film.  There was also a couple dancing.  Look at them close-up. Tres Bizzare!

Night Parade

Dude in Quebecois Carnaval attire

The absolute best event of Carnaval was the Night Parade.  I went to check out the parade with Gozde and Maria.  Here was one of the guys on the bus on the way to the parade. Check out his festive attire!  Real fur is the thing to wear at carnaval, especially fur hats (sorry peta). In Canadian culture people value living off the land and trappers are still common. The red/multicolored woven belt is also worn for carnival. It's made by the Amerindians of Quebec.

Boy selling noisemakers to the crowd

We had no idea what to expect. Crowds of people lined the streets.  There were cops on motorcycles with the little seat attached to the side of the bike. They were whipping by with lights flashing and sirens blaring, partly to clear the street but mostly for fun!  The boy with the demon eyes was part of the crew that came by to sell long trumpets that people blow for Carnaval.  Their traditional noise makers are cooler & louder than the ones we yanks blow for New Year's.

The crowd was almost entirely sober, unlike Carnival (Mardi Gras) in New Orleans.  There were plenty of singles hanging out but it was also a family event. There were kids, aunts, uncles, and grandparents together.  The sides of the streets were packed.  We had to climb on top of a snow bank to see over the crowd. That's Gozde and I.

Dancing Balloon People

Clown car and dancers

Now that's a big skirt!

Sweet Mardi Gra-esque float

The floats were both fun and beautiful.  Everything had a french flair to celebrate the heritage of Les Quebecois.  Some floats had singers, dancers, or musicians.  In between the floats were companies of marching bands, acrobats, clowns, and men twirling sticks with fire on the ends.  Here's only a small sampling of the parade floats.

In french, a snowman is called un bonhomme de naige.  The guest of honor at Carnaval de Quebec is a snowman who's called "Bonhomme" for short. No, not the dude from U2.  His float was the very last one in the parade and it happened to stop very close to us.  He climbed down, walked to our side of the street and had fun with the crowd.  The guy in the suit was a giant.  He had to be almost 7' tall.

Marie & I heading home from our winter dance (I'm so cool)

After the parade ended, we warmed up on the bus ride back toward the old city.  Then, we joined a hip hop dance soiree outside.  Instead of dico lights we had a castle made of ice lit in a rainbow of changing colors!  Super fun.

Carnaval de Quebec

When I first heard about Quebec holding their carnival during February, I thought "how genious!" When most places have their carnival in the Springtime near Mardi Gras, Quebec gets all the tourists to come into the city during the slowest month of the year for tourism. What a great way to make money.  But that's only part of the story. As I've gotten to know many Canadians here, they tell me they like winter. One of the coolest things about Canadians is when the weather gets cold, they don't whine about how much it sucks and how they wish could move to some warmer state. Instead, they actually go outside and have fun. When I ride the bus every morning and evening, I see people outside cross-country skiing at parks and athletic fields. The And there are runners on the sidewalks around the city. The outdoor skating rinks are full in the late afternoons. People are strolling the streets with friends. People aren't hiding inside, afraid of getting pneumonia or of slipping and falling on ice. This time of year, it's all about ice. Ice is a good thing. All over the city are fun ice sculptures to celebrate winter and Carnaval.  Here are a few for your enjoyment. :-)

Last Friday night, I went with a bunch of my classmates to Carnaval near the old city. The Carnival lasts for over two weeks.  Before we could go, we had to buy our passes ($12).  Your "Ticket" is an ornament that your tie to the zipper on your jacket.  This year it has a bonnehomme de naige (Snowman) on it and a disco ball over him.  He looks like he's doing a John Travolta move from Saturday Night Fever. The slogan for this year's carnival is "Le Carnaval Vous Fait Danser!" (The Carnival Makes You Dance!)  My roommates ran into this festive pair.  These guys were wearing all of their passes for every year since the Carnaval began.

Just inside the gate were sculptures made of snow, illuminated for the night.  Artists come to Quebec from around the world to make snow sculptures for Carnaval. Then, they have competions.  The artists were out there carving in front of spotlights by night.  One artist from France was making a sculture of an enormous hare standing on top of tortoises. He had the bushiest mustache I've ever seen. It had small icecles hanging off the ends. He'd been out there a bit too long!  He was a little embarrased about the ice on his face as he talked to us :-)

Next ,we passed 2 ice slides that look like rather straight Luge courses. Men & women were going down them on their sleds. There were taller snow slides in the distance. Then, we passed people in their bathing suits and winter hats sitting outside in giant hot tubs, in the snow.  I'd hate to have to get out of one of those to get a towel!  As we approached our final destination, there was a tent with a Bistro inside. In front of it was a place where people were drinking red drinks out of glasses made of ice.  This has become a tradition for Carnaval.

After taking in the sights, we walked into the midst of a crowd of about 1,000 people to watch feux d'artifice (fireworks). That was to kick off the Soiree with a hip Quebecois band up on the big stage.

Most of the crowd were wearing their thick mittens, snowpants and Sorrel-type boots. Some people had colorfull winter "jester" hats for the festival.  Meanwhile, all the tourists, like me, were freezing our butts off in our gloves, jeans and long johns.  The band played awesome hard rock. People sang along in French. The crowd was jumping around to the music and cheering. You can't really clap with your mittens on, right?  This is how they do it!!