Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Montreal ~ Day 3

Saturday it rained, so we made that our gallery day. First we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which I absolutely loved. We saw so many memorable pieces.

One of my favourite forms of art is installations, and there were many that were a part of the current exhibit. The one pictured above absolutely blew us away. In a darkened room 4 black canvases leaned against the wall. As you stood there, one by one they would come alive with a video recording of a someone in jail sharing his story. The slow fade in and out absolutely made it seem like a 3-dimensional drawing was coming to life in front of your eyes and the stories and how they were told were thought-provoking.

I just loved that as we walked through downtown Montreal, every time you looked north, there was Mont Royal shrouded in mist.

After stopping for lunch, we headed to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It was a bit late in the day already so we went to their regular collection, which was fascinating.

One of the unique things they had was quite a collection of decorative arts. I enjoyed exploring the really impressive collection of 20th-century design. I'm so tactile that it's always challenging for me not to touch things in a museum. This time it was hard not to sit in things!

It's too bad this picture is a bit fuzzy. It's probably my favourite from the whole trip.

We went back to our hotel to relax a little bit and put our feet up. This was the gorgeous rainy day view out our window.

We finished our night at an amazing restaurant called the Stash Cafe. This was the absolute perfect place to spend a cold, rainy night. It was cozy and the food was Polish comfort food. It tasted like a homecooked meal. I felt guilty when I tried the borscht (which was amazing!) because my mom used to make it about once every 2 years as a big treat and I wouldn't touch it! Here I sampled it (and wanted more) and homemade pierogi and an awesome cabbage stew. The service was not the best but the food was so good we'd definitely go back for more.

5 comments:

Suzie Ridler said...

That art work with the canvases on the wall sounds amazing! I love art that truly tells a story and has such depth of thought and meaning. Fantastic.

It's amazing how much art you got to see Jamie, how wonderful. You really got to throw yourself into that part of Montreal while you were there which is so inspiring.

I don't think I ever ate the borscht either and feel guilty about it too. I guess we made up for it with all the perogies!

Tammy said...

Oh your trip looks amazing! What fun!! I love all your photos!

jennifer lee said...

That art installment pieces sounds like it was really cool! Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing you soon! Arrived in Toronto earlier this evening.

Jessie said...

I think I am enjoying your trip as much as you did! The Museum of Contemporary Art sounds especially interesting and that guy playing piano in the background of the restaurant--how cozy and divine!

I don't want this trip to come to an end. You should write travel guides. I would follow you to the ends of the earth.

Anonymous said...

So glad you had a great time! Thanks for the pics - I heart Montreal!