Whether gardens or shops, enjoy Montreal inside out
Posted on Sunday, October 5, 2008
MONTREAL — As dusk falls over the Montreal Botanical Garden, a serpentine string of lanterns leads to an enchanting realm of beautiful maidens, warriors, gods and dragons. Temples with flaring rooflines outlined in small, white lights are reflected in a pond that merges reality and dream. From inside one of the temples, the sweet, mournful sound of an ancient stringed instrument evokes longing for beautiful, lost things.
For the past 16 years, during September and October, the Botanical Garden’s Chinese Garden has been transformed by hundreds of traditional lanterns and dozens of huge, illuminated figures. The stories depicted by the lanterns originated in Chinese performance arts such as juggling, acrobatics, opera and music.
This year’s Magic of Lanterns show is on the theme “A Thousand and One Stars” and runs through Oct. 31.
Not just a traveling show, this is Montreal’s and has been around long enough to take root and flourish. The Botanical Garden’s handpainted, silk lanterns are designed in Montreal and every year, a new display is handcrafted in Shanghai. The show takes a year to plan and a month to set up. The central piece this year is an opera mask and banners, 20 feet tall by 22 feet wide.
Magic of Lanterns is just one reason to visit Montreal in the fall. The largest French-speaking city in the world outside of Paris offers a taste of Europe at a fraction of the price, and in a city whose Gallic heritage includes an aesthetic appreciation of food, the markets are brimming. Plus there are new restaurants to try, fun, new hotels in which to bed down and boutiques selling handcrafted clothing, jewelry, glassware and gifts.
As a postscript to the Magic of Lanterns show, consider taking in Montreal’s Chinatown. It’s small but has some interesting shops. One, facing a plaza on rue de la Gauchetiere Ouest, sells calligraphy, inkstones, brushes and hand-printed batik textiles. Another, My Cup of Tea, sells a proprietary line of teas grown in China. The father of Kenny Hui, the owner, is a Chinese doctor. My Cup of Tea touts the medicinal qualities of its product as well as the aesthetics in its three chic little shops.
In Montreal’s Latin Quarter is a teashop with a different approach. Camellia Sinensis has a serene tearoom adjacent to a store selling around 180 kinds of loose-leaf tea from all over the world as well as elegant tea ware, some of it by Quebecois potters. The salesmen, who are passionate about tea, will tell you how to make each kind they sell (the correct water temperature and brewing time ). If you plan to be in Montreal long enough, you could even take a workshop in teas and tea tasting.
TO MARKET, TO MARKET No visit to Montreal would be complete without dropping by one of the city’s remarkable markets. The Atwater Market (Metro stop, Lionel-Groulx ) is one of the city’s oldest — two floors of indoor shops open year-round plus stalls on the sidewalk during the warmer months. The produce is laid out like artwork, the boxes of berries, carefully arranged by color. Blueberries and gooseberries covered with thin skins alternate with bright red strawberries and raspberries. Wax beans stand vertically in their baskets. At a florist, bouquets of dahlias burst with autumn colors. The cheese vendor, Gilles Jourdenais, in a jaunty beret, sells more than 650 kinds of cheese in his shop, Fromagerie du Marche Atwater. He inherited the store from his father, Fernand, and will pass it on to his daughter, Catherine, now 17. “You must have a passion for cheese,” he said. Apparently, it’s bred in the bone.
Some of the abundant, fresh ingredients readily available in Montreal’s markets of course end up on restaurant tables. Montrealers love to dine out. Especially on Friday nights, groups of friends flock to restaurants, where they happily spend hours eating and drinking.
Koko in the stylish Opus Hotel is a new restaurant serving superb pan-Asian cuisine to stunningly dressed young women and hip, young men. “Montrealers dress very fashionably,” said Opus’ general manager, Daniel Craig, “much more so, I’ve observed, than people in other North American cities, and they love to dress up to go out. The T-shirt-jeans-everywhere trend in Vancouver, New York and other cities just doesn’t fly here.” Centrally located Opus Hotel, formerly known as the Hotel Godin, was purchased in July 2007 by its current owners, who retained its sinuous 1914 art nouveau facade but completely revamped the rest of it. Its spacious guest rooms are painted in zippy colors like chartreuse, blue-violet and deep red, attracting a glamorous clientele.
NEW HOTEL Hotel Le Crystal is another new hotel with a more traditional look. Crystal chandeliers and copious amounts of marble set the tone. Its restaurant, La Coupole, which opened in January, serves a well-prepared breakfast, lunch and dinner with attentive service and several notable bargains. A four-course pre-show or pre-game dinner costs $ 35 and a four-course lunch is $ 25. Take some of the money you’ve saved on a meal up to the charming boutiques of rue Laurier. Here you will find everything from seductive dresses to Tilly hats for camping, and in Louise Royer’s shop, Royer Objets et Trouvailles, colorful Quebec-made artwork, jewelry, home furnishings and gifts that reflect the proprietor’s warm and sunny welcome.
Rue Laurier has elegant pastry and chocolate shops including Patisserie de Gascogne, where pastry making is a fine art, but just down the street from Royer’s shop is blue-collar rue St.-Urbain, once the center of Montreal’s Jewish Quarter, so memorably chronicled by novelist Mordecai Richler.
Most of the Jews have moved on. Their temples are now Pentecostal churches, but Fairmount Bagels on Fairmount Avenue just off St.-Urbain remains. The lines stretch out the door for the slightly sweet bagels cooked in a wood-fired oven. Montrealers will argue as to which are better — Fairmount bagels or the ones from St.-Viateur.
In Gallic Montreal, food is serious business and everyone has an opinion. Ways and means Montreal Botanical Garden: 4101 Sherbrooke St. E., Montreal, Quebec H 1 X 2 B 2; phone: (514 ) 872-1400; www. muse umsnature. ca. More than 180 acres with 22, 000 species of plants arrayed in 10 exhibition greenhouses and 30 outdoor gardens. Chinese, Japanese and First Nations Gardens are highlights. Open daily, May 15 to early September, 9 a. m.-6 p. m.; early September to Oct. 31, 9 a. m.-9 p. m.; Nov. 1-May 14, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Fees: through Oct. 31, adults, $ 16; senior citizens and students, $ 12; children 5-17, $ 8; children 2-4, $ 2. 50. Discounts for Acces Montreal cardholders. Admission fees include the Insectarium. Lower fees Nov. 1-May 14. Montreal Museum Pass, admission to 32 museums during any three days in a three-week period, $ 45; admission for three consecutive days, including public transportation, $ 50. Available at any participating museum, including the Montreal Botanical Garden.
ACCOMMODATIONS Opus, 10 Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, H 2 X 4 C 9; phone: (514 ) 843-6000 or (866 ) 744-6346; e-mail: info@opusMontreal. com; www. opushotel. com / Mon treal / english. Hotel Le Crystal, 1100 rue de la Montagne, Montreal, Quebec; phone: (514 ) 861-5550; www. hotellecrystal. com. Hotel Nelligan, 106 rue St.-Paul Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H 2 Y 1 Z 3; phone: (514 ) 788-2040; (877 ) 788-2040; www. hotelnelligan. com.
DINING Schwartz’s Hebrew Delicatessen, 3895 St. Laurent Blvd.; phone; (514 ) 842-4813; www. schwartzsdeli. com. Fairmount Bagels, 74 Fairmount West; phone: (514 ) 272-0667; www. fairmountbagel. com. La Coupole, 1175 rue de la Montagne; phone: (514 ) 373-2300; www. restaurantlacou pole. ca. FOR MORE INFORMATION Montreal: phone: (877 ) 266-5687; www. tourisme-Mon treal. org. Quebec Province: www. bonjourQuebec. com.
— Terese Loeb Kreuzer
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