The highlight of our stay was the Fete de Rire that was taking place at the intersections around the Berri-UQAM Metro Station several blocks up from Vieux-Montreal, where our hostel was.
Fete de Rire Mascot
Evains tries his hand at acting during street storytelling. What do you think of his leading lady!?
Both kids attempt street-wise acrobatics.
The funkiest part of the festival, however, was definitely the packing tape structure in-process, accented by blacklight, underlined by trance music. Complete with extra rolls of packing tape and climbing children.
The next day we saw LOTS of rain so sought the shelter of the BioDome! The perfect artificial climate controlled earth complete with four different ecosystems. All on a rainy day!
A large part of what endears Montreal to me is the language. Lovers of language among you will know what I mean! There is something implicitly romantic about someone speaking the language of their culture, their land, their people, their ancestors. I've been romanced by this allure many times in my travels... !!
It is the language that changes everything about Montreal - not the least among the quaintness of its infrastructures, the microcosm of all the world's non-european french speakers... What I realized today as announcements 'pour la prochaine stationne' spilled over the speakers on the Metro is that I can't SEE the spoken words in my head. The language has no life in my consciousness. This is intensely beguiling. It drives a desire to engineer an excuse to spend one continuous month (minimum) in Montreal to allow these words to germinate in my fertile mind.
Aaah! C'est la joie de vivre.
Footnote: I can't let this go by without mention of the woman I exchanged words with today in town from Alberta for the PowWow. Let us not forget the First Nations peoples connection to the land - pre-Quebecois.
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