exploring old, historic and thrilling montreal

proudly presents:

Exploring “Old Montreal”

on a beautiful summer day.

Montréal, Québec, Canada.

written & photographed by: Fergus JM Ducharme,

assisted by: Roselyn J. Parrenas & Jessica Ducharme-Gauthier.

She Who Must be Obeyed # 1(my wife Roselyn Parrenas) along with

She Who Must be Obeyed # 2(my daughter Jessica Gauthier)

At the outset I want to sincerely thank my companions on this trip who were:

One beautiful Saturday morning during our visit home this past summer, we decided

to drive to Montreal, to show “She Who Must be Obeyed” the historic “Old Montreal”

section of that magnificent city, just about 90 kilometers east of our ‘home base’ in

Brockville. Using the 401 Expressway it was less than a 2 hour drive.

This is what greeted us…

As we headed east, we encountered many places of interest and historical significance.

Montreal City Hall

Montreal City Hall and the Calèche drivers

who will guide you around the historic district

in style, for a fee of course…

Just across the street from City Hall and immediately next door to the Chateau

Ramezay Museum is a lovely little park named after one of the original founders of the

City - Jerome le Royer de la Dauversiere. The park is officially called Parc

Dauversiere.

In the park itself is a statue of Jean Drapeau: Born on February 18, 1916 and died on

August 12, 1999. He was a lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of Montreal

from 1954 to 1957 and from 1960 to 1986.o 1986. During his tenure as mayor he was

responsible for the construction of the Montreal Metro system (the subway) and

the Place des Arts concert hall, for conceiving Expo 67, for securing the 1976 Summer

Oilympics and for helping to bring Major Leabue Baseball to Montreal with the creation

of the Monrreal Expos.

Although remembered as a great visionary, his mishandling of the construction of the

Olympic Games facilities resulted in massive cost overruns which left the city with a

debt of over $1 billion that has taken its citizens over thirty years to fully pay off.

Here you see him posing with She Who Must be Obeyed…

The Chateau Ramezay Museum

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A few blocks down the street, we come into Place Jacques Cartier. The ‘Place’ is

dominated by a massive column in honour of Jacques Cartier.

A classical music quartet is playing some magnificent pieces on this Saturday

morning and it is so relaxing and enjoyable.

After 1850, new hotels were built here and, along with those on Rue Saint-Paul, made

this an important hotel district. The Nelson Hotel pictured here was one of those. The

square itself was livelier and friendlier than ever, with its market gardeners and their

stalls, its restaurants and shops, all just moments from the Port. Even some

manufacturers remained, with a large shoe factory opening here in 1867.

Our visit to the old quarter of Montreal is coming to a close. But, before we leave,

please join us again shortly when we provide you with a visit of the Bon Secours

Church which dates back to the 1650’s, it is not to be missed.

We want to thank the following for their contributions to this article:

Photos provided by: ,

Other materials and some photos provided by: www.wikipedia.org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

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