Après un An à Montréal
Posted: December 7th, 2009 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 2 Comments »
I moved to Montreal one year ago, and thought I would share my observations. I’m originally from British Columbia, but directly prior to Montreal I was living in San Francisco. Montreal was a perfect destination for my move as I was keen to return to Canada, but also wanted to try somewhere new. I quickly found that Quebec has some interesting differences from the rest of Canada. I considered writing a thought provoking essay on the cultural nuances of the various regions of Canada. However, I instead figured I should show some respect to the fifth graders of the world. So I made a simple like/dislike list.
Some of these would be true in general for most folks, and others are very specific to my preferences. Here is just one man’s opinion of living in Montreal for one year.
Likes:
Restaurants: There are heaps of good restaurants of all type. I’m not starving here.
Architecture: Old Montreal gets all the credit for cool architecture, but regular parts of the city have plenty of cool buildings also. It’s visually an interesting city to drive around. Or in my case, ride in the back of a taxi around.
Identity: Montrealers seem to generally take pride in their city and their identity.
Language: French is a wonderful language. It’s been great being surrounded by it. Even if I did an abysmal job learning any of it.
Scooters vs SUVs: Previously living in the USA I was sick of seeing giant SUVs used to transport one person and a chihuahua to the mall. Not only are there far fewer SUVs here, but there are tons of scooters. How rad is that? I live and work downtown, so maybe the scooter population is more here, but it’s still cool.
Snowflakes: So far, Montreal has the record for the largest snowflakes I have ever seen. Not every time obviously, but once in a while the snows here are beautiful. I just wish it would snow more often.
Hockey: Anyone who loves hockey is in some small way a Habs fan. The Montreal Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups over their 100 year franchise history. Any hockey fan can’t help but respect that. So for me it’s been a lot of fun being around the Canadiens fanaticism.
Clean: Comparatively speaking, for a big city Montreal is rather clean. More so downtown than the other areas it seems.
Safe: Downtown Montreal feels really safe. I’ve never had any fear or uncertainty while walking around. Which is pretty good for a large city.
People: I was hesitant to add this one to the list because I’ve found that there are nice people to be found anywhere in the world. Montreal is certainly no exception and I have come across plenty of really nice folks here.
Don’t Likes:
Styrofoam: Coming from the west coast I was shocked when my lunch was handed to me in a styrofoam box. I felt like some unfortunate time traveller to the past. I half expected my fork to be made of ivory and the ketchup to come in a disposable aerosol can. Montreal is not a very environmental city.
Smoking: I didn’t think anyone other than characters on TV still smoked. Holy crap do a lot of people in Montreal smoke. It’s disgusting, and right up there with huffing paint out of a paper bag in the good idea department.
Door holders: I noticed it right away when I got here, and have mentally noted how often it occurs all year. Almost every time, the person in front of you will let a door close in your face rather than hold it open a few seconds. I’ve never seen it in any big city as often as I have here. It’s actually the rare exception when someone does hold the door for the person behind them. I also regularly see people turn sideways and duck their shoulder so as to avoid the door and slip through in the last few seconds. I always hold the door, and people often look surprised. Sad.
Pumpkin pies: These are my favourite, and I have yet to see one for sale in the city. What the hell?
Remembrance Day/Canada Day: These holidays are very important to me, but they are totally slagged off in Quebec. It is unacceptable that the national day of remembrance for those who give their life for our country is not a holiday. How incredibly disrespectful can you get? I also have no patience for childish sovereignty agendas – get over yourself.
Leases: The apartment leasing process in Montreal is ridiculous. My one year lease (jan-dec) was silently renewed for an additional year because I didn’t notify the property manager in August stating that I didn’t want to renew. August!
Provincial Government Offices: Wow is it painful to get anything provincial done here. For example, I phoned the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec to make an appointment for my drivers license. Couldn’t make the appointment online. And the soonest available appointment was 6 weeks away. Then at my 10am appointment I waited an hour to talk to someone (I guess appointment doesn’t mean what they think it means). After all that it turns out that a lease and rental payment receipts are not proof of residency – how silly of me.
Well, that’s my list. I hope it didn’t come off as too negative, because I have really enjoyed my year here. It’s a cool city, but not one I would call home for longer than a year or so. Now I need to figure out how to get the opportunity to live in Tokyo or London.
.
// shawn
ps: The photo is a tiny segment of a beautiful Montreal cityscape at Digital Apoptosis, please check out the full image, it’s wicked! Plus I can see my balcony in there.
The list makes me think I’d want to visit Montreal…. after I see Quebec City.
But I don’t think living there would work for me.
[Reply]
I moved to Montreal over 10 years ago from Ontario. I agree with many of the things you wrote.
I hate the casual use of styrofoam here too. I even avoid buying vegetarian fast food because most likely it will end up packaged in styrofoam. What I do collect end ups in a small stash that I take to Toronto to recycle when I visit family.
Canada Day is a major disappointment if you’re patriotic. Even the downtown annual parade is small with little fanfare. The St. Patrick’s Day parade is probably 50 times more popular. I recommend going to a very federalist area like Cote Saint-Luc if you want to celebrate Canada Day.
As for Remembrance Day, well I don’t think it’s been a holiday in Ontario for over 25 years either. I was surprised to learned it was still a holiday in BC when I had a job doing telephone sales targetting BC a couple of years ago.
You still see lots of young people smoking on the sidewalks downtown, but it’s not nearly as bad as ten years ago, when smoking was permitted all over the corridors of most shopping malls and at the concessions at the Bell Centre. You are also coming from the BC which has the lowest smoking rate in the country.
As far as the good thing, Montreal is a very affordable city, particularly if you rent. It’s also relatively safe and still a good public transportation system fo the central parts of the city.
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