First Impressions of Montreal

After having been in Montreal for about three weeks, I have seen some of the city, but haven't been as much of a tourist as I have in the other cities, as I have mainly been focusing on settling in.

Touristy Activities

A few days after setting up camp in my apartment, I began to explore my new home by visiting the Oratoire de St Joseph and Mont-Royal, the mountain after which Montreal was named.

The Oratory is on a bit of a hill and has a great view of the city and my university here. There is a great big set of staircases that lead up to it, and as I struggled up the hill, I was a bit shocked to see pilgrims climbing the stairs on their knees.

Oratoire de Saint Joseph

The Oratory itself was an incredible space with fantastic acoustics. It took me back to my Chapel Choir days when I saw the enormous organ and I found myself wondering what it would be like to sing in the space. The sheer size of the room as well made it almost seem all the more grand, and a great place for reflection.

Inside the Oratoire

There were also beautiful gardens around the side and back of the Oratory, telling the story of Jesus as told in the Bible through sculptures, and eventually leading to a gorgeous fountain.

Behind the University, there are two enormous cemeteries, and behind those is the Park of Mount Royal (again, enormous!). It took me about 3 hours to walk the park and cemeteries, which are an absolute maze. I already have a bad sense of direction, but this was taking it to a whole new level! The paths were winding and in the middle of woods... Anyway it was worth it, because I got a sweet view of Downtown Montreal from the Chalet du Mont Royal!

View of Downtown Montreal from Mont Royal (taken at the end of summer)

Another day I also explored the two islands (Ile Saint Helene and Ile Notre Dame) in the middle of Montreal with my roommates, where we went canoeing on the lake, had a picnic, and spotted a Groundhog! None of us had ever seen one before so we made like real tourists and took about a hundred photos. Here's one of them:

Woodchuck, Groundhog...whatever you want to call it!

After we had exhausted the islands, we hit up Old Montreal, where we got an awesome ice cream and explored the historic streets and Old Port.

It's also interesting to see how the architecture of the shops and metro in Montreal have been adapted to account for the snow in winter! Right now when the weather is so nice, it's almost impossible to imagine that snow is going to cause a problem, but as I have been told by locals, it gets really deep on the streets, very windy and very cold. The shops and metro stations almost all have two sets of doors you have to get through before you get to the actual entrance of the store. The doors of houses usually have a mini roof above them and there are a lot of stone houses around my suburb, and the buildings of my university are almost all connected by tunnels. If there's one thing I'm slightly worried about as an Australian in Montreal, it's the impending winter!

Example of roof covering door

First Impressions of the Culture & Language

As soon as I arrived in Montreal, I instantly noticed that the culture was markedly different from New York and Australia, particularly made obvious by hearing the French language everywhere. There seemed to be a much more European influence in the city, in the fashion, products, brands and architecture I was seeing around the place.

All the signs were in French, which I found interesting - my French roommates told me that even in France, stop signs read "Stop" but here, they read "Arrêt". I felt like there was a real pride in the francophone culture of Quebec, but in a different way to France.

Stop sign on my street

The people seemed really nice, and the accent came as a bit of a shock! Not only is the accent different here when people speak French, but there are a whole heap of slang phrases that neither me, nor my French roommates had even heard of! (for example, "T'es-tu au courant?" where French people would say "Tu es au courant?/Es-tu au courant?") My linguistics subject on French-speaking times and spaces is proving very useful in decoding québécois!

I have found the language quite difficult to get used to. Learning French at school and university seems to be a very formal way of getting to know the language. For instance, I am finding lectures at university a lot easier to understand than general everyday conversations, where a lot of slang is used and people talk a lot more quickly. It does also prove a bit of a barrier for making new friends - it's hard to get by with just the formal French I have learnt just by studying!

Through my university - which is on a mountain! - I have started to meet a lot of other international and exchange students from all over the world! Whilst most of the international students seem to come from France, I have met people from Senegal, Mexico, the US, Aruba, Mauritania, Reunion Island, England, Ireland, Poland, Brazil and many more! I guess this has been one of the most interesting parts of the experience so far - meeting people from so many different backgrounds, cultures and first languages, I can't believe how different everyone is but also similar! Often it is easiest to connect over a mutual love of international things such as films, TV series and music.

That's about it for now, my next post will be soon, probably about the campus life at my university and social experiences I've had!

Erin x