Thursday, October 13th
Along the Montreal street Chemin Queen Mary there was a very ornate regal looking building with an impressively long staircase leading to an entrance; we passed it daily when we were on our way to or from our home base. We learned it was Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal, St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal.
It was an eight minute or so drive from where we were staying so we set out Thursday morning to visit the Catholic basilica. Rain was falling so it was good to have an indoor activity.
In an annotated bird's eye view, courtesy of Google maps, the yellow line is the main street in front, Chemin Queen Mary, that we traversed routinely and the red dashed line shows the extent of the long staircase. I believe on pilgrimages, faithful followers climb that staircase on their knees with pauses for praying. The overview accentuates how the domed facility is truly nestled within a hillside.
Inside, in an area behind the small Votive Chapel, it is much clearer how some areas were carved out of the rock of the mountainside.
Over to the left in the next photo, above my shoulder near the top, is an arched support between the building and the rock face.
Here is a closeup of that support showing how integrate building and mountain are.
The main large basilica area is call the crypt-church and seats 1000. The church is also called a crypt because its vault is supported by flattened arches and because it is at the foot of the basilica. It was the most impressive size-wise of the portions of the oratory. Here is the grey silhouette of Saint Joseph's Oratory at 124m tall compared to other world renowned churches.
In the crypt-church area were four confessionals with bible phrases in French carved in the granite (maybe marble) on the wall next to each confessional. Margaret and I, with our limited few years of French, were puzzling out bits and snatches of the phrases. Probably the most amazing part of our tour for me was when Joe used his iPhone camera with a Google translation app. All he did was focus the camera on the wall area next to the confessional with its chiseled phrase and it appeared in English with the same font and same background. It was amazing. It was like a real life Harry Potter and a magical Marauders' Map coupled with the ability to translate parseltongue. I did not get a photo of our particular example (I was busy struggling to close my mouth from when my jaw had dropped open) but here is an example I screen-grabbed from the internet of what a translation would look like on a iPhone.
The previous example is from Russian, not French nor parseltongue! Should you wish to try translating an image from a language of your choice, here are the instructions to do so. (On the off chance that you should desire to expand your linguistics repertoire to include parseltongue, check out this link https://sites.google.com/site/parseltongue101/lesson1.)
After St Joseph's Oratory we went back to home base to check on Frank. He had opted out of this side trip because he was still feeling sick; but, after resting some, he was up for an afternoon outing. We would be checking out the underground city of Montreal.
We accessed the Montreal Underground City (La Ville Souterraine) from within a Metro station. Apparently the subterranean area is very popular with the locals in inclement weather so they never have to go outside. Wall decor going from the Metro station to part of the underground city varied by tunnel. This one I thought was attractive with several different styles and textures of bricks; but one side is in beige tones and one side is in red tones. Other tunnels had displays of art work behind clear acrylic panels. Daily pedestrians probably no longer notice but for tourists there is a fair amount to see beyond just a route.
Once emerging from a tunnel via an escalator, the skylighted ceiling still provided a view of the outdoors. Even though offices towered on either side of the walkways, it did not feel claustrophobic.
I must admit the shopping was not very appealing. Many of the shops were high end – far beyond my price comfort zone and exceedingly outside my design style comfort range. But there were other items of interest besides stores. There was the occasional statue or oddity to see. If you think Frank is pointing to the man on the staircase you do not know him very well. He is performing the classic Vanna White gesture toward the lovely naked lady to his right. Imagine working in one of the offices in the background and having such fountains and stonework and scenery right out your office window all the time.
A piece of history was right there in the underground city, a section of the Berlin Wall, within tangible range. The East Berlin side is pretty bleak.
The opposite West Berlin side is much more artistically adorned with colorful graffiti.
There were a few scenic reflective pools and cafe-like restaurants about. The one with red umbrellas in the background was too busy to seat us so we walked on. Someone at the information booth in the underground city recommended a restaurant to us. It was nearby but not within the tunnel system.
Although it was against the whole raison d'être of the underground city, we ventured outdoors to find a place for a late lunch / early dinner. We exited this rather architecturally striking building through an otherwise nondescript pair of doors. The emblem above them reminded me of something, but I just could not quite put my finger on what it was.
After a closer look I made the connection.
It reminded me of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. logo from the popular television spy show featuring Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series ran from 1964-1968 and it was my favorite TV show during its hey-day. Even in the days before VCRs I never missed it!
Then I noticed that the brownstone building that sported this two door portal and the overhead sign also reminded me of the subtle tailor shop that camouflaged the headquarters of one of the world's largest law enforcement agencies (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement). Who suspected what lurked within that tailor shop on the streets of New York? Who would suspect that an entire underground city lurked behind that double door portal in Montreal?
We left the allure of the underground and continued to walk directly across the street to go to the restaurant Steak frites.
Their website advertises:
Wine lovers, we have a challenge: finding the best value wine at the best price! Share with us your choice of wine with a photo on Instagram to #lesteakfrites with your geolocation.
The most spectacular Instagram pictures staging you with your choice of wine could be on our Instagram mosaics of our website.
The wine price is not important. YOU are the sommelier, surprise us!
The place had a comfy feel to it. We happened to be there during a retirement party on the upper level so the noise trickled cascaded down. But it was a very jolly type of noisy with cheering and laughter so it created a happy mood for us. I had a filet mignon ka-bob and it was excellent.
After our meal we went back briefly to the underground but decided that we preferred to go back to home base. Once back in California I researched where we had been that day. The Underground City of Montreal was much more extensive than the small, fractional, possibly even non-representative, area we visited. La Ville Souterraine consists of over twenty miles of underground tunnels so there is no way we could have visited it all. The link http://montrealvisitorsguide.com/reso-underground-city-la-ville-souterraine/ displays a much different tone from the area we visited. But we were not there to be product consumers so we were content with what we did see and had no regrets about skipping the highly retail section. After six consecutive days of travel and non-stop tourism, we were OK to slow down a bit and rest. The gently falling rain made the mood conducive to do so.
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