Day 7--Montreal's Place des Arts & Place des Congres

Day 7—Fri June 18
An Evening in Montreal

After the market, we walked the distance home, rested for a bit, ate a burrito dinner, and then walked to the Metro and took it to Place des Arts. On the way we passed a bakery with elaborate cakes in its window, a store selling fresh seafood, and walked through an alley where I took a shot of a colorful clothesline.

At the Place des Arts we stepped into the jumping beat of a big concert of salsa, calypso, reggae, meringué music with thousands of people crowded into a large plaza before elaborately lit stages. Here among the throngs, we met Luke's girlfriend, Diane, at the Starbucks. It was so hot and so packed with people that Suz and I waited in long lines to get cold drinks.

Diane introduced us to a lot of her friends (all gay men) and we stood for a couple of hours way back from the stage, listening to the music and people-watching. I was leaning on the building and an older man came and leaned beside me; then leaned into me, closing the space each time I moved away. Finally, I stepped back into a doorway to get out of his reach, but he kept looking back to see what I was doing. I was uncomfortable because of this and because we had walked such a distance and stood for so long. My feet and tailbone were sore.

Diane, Luke, and Suz in our little niche before the Starbucks



The windows of this building on the edge of the park flashed to the beat of the music and changed color

The windows are now red; note the crush of young people

From where we were standing we could see the stage performance best on the huge TV monitors

The stage like the nearby windows changed colors to the beat of the music

We left about 10:30 pm for the Metro and got home a bit after 11. The Metro was in the Palais des Congres with its varied colored windows and an art display called the Lipstick Forest. I took pix of Suz and Luke in the forest .

As soon as we got back to the apartment we all fell into bed to read a bit and cool off before going to sleep. 

Father’s Day tomorrow and and Jessica’s birthday today. Just now remembered. Dang! Missed them both.