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Published: December 28th 2005
I felt a little adventurous today, so I took the metro and did a little exploring around the old European part of town - Old Montreal.
The Notre Dame Basilica was pleasantly around the corner once I stepped outside of the mall that was connected to the metro station at Place D'armes. I was already happy to see the European-style buildings.
It only took me $2 to get in because I'm under 18. No surprise, the Notre Dame was very beautiful, as evident in the pictures. I'm not sure if it's because of the whole Christmas ordeal, but a lot of enchanting candles were lit around the inside of the church (I got to take a lot of amazing shots of them:
my Art Gallery). There was an almost hidden Chapelle Notre Dame Du Sacre-Coeur behind some doors. I was also lucky enough to witness the baptising of a young boy in front of his proud family.
I took a stroll around the old streets, and stepped inside a little French bistro/cafe called Folie Baguette (13 rue Notre Dame ouest). Boy did I have the best lunch since I came to Montreal. The owner was a very nice man, and
no wonder his bistro has a little claim to fame, as the newspaper clippings he has posted on the windows suggest. Found myself bobbing in tune to quaint English holiday oldies. I'm so grateful for the free Old Montreal maps in there too!
Then as I wandered on my way back to the mall, I had a glimpse of a towering sign that read 'Chinatown'. So this was it! I glanced at the shops on each side of the rather short street, and wasn't really amused by what the street had to offer. It's what every other Chinatown would typically be like.
Last stop of the day: Atwater's AMC Cinema. Watched "Memoirs of a Geisha". I loved the book tremendously, but the movie really disappointed. Gorgeous imageries, no doubt about it, but Zhang Ziyi, as much as I like her, has to really brush up her English. Same goes for Gong Li. They could've portrayed so much more if they understood the lines they were delivering.
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Linda
non-member comment
Name confusion
You have a lot of great shots of the basilica and the surrounding area, however the building accross the square from the basilica is the Bank of Montreal building, not City Hall, and the square itself is Place d'Armes, not Place Royale. The picture of the street titled Place d'Armes, is actually a view of Notre Dame Street, just East of Place d'Armes.