Friday, April 7th

We started off the next day in Montreal, walking to the riverside. There was some exciting stuff down there. We checked out a craft market in an impressive building [*]. The market itself was severely underwhelming. Instead of being a market, as you'd imagine, it just turned out to be a series of stores in the converted building, more of a mall than a market.

It was quite a cold day, as you can see in the photos where I'm bundled up. But walking around the riverfront was fun, and I got some pretty good views of the city [†].

Afterwards, at my insistence, we visited Habitat 67 on a little offshoot of the docklands facing the city [‡]. Habitat 67 is an apartment complex built in the Brutalist architectural style for Expo 67, hosted in Montreal.

A Digression About Brutalism

What is Brutalism, or the Brutalist Style? It is an architectural style that embraces minimalism and focuses on the building materials and structural elements as "style" rather than hiding or ornamenting a building. It became a reaction to ornamental styles that came before it, like Art Deco and Neoclassical.

One of the purported origins of its name comes from French and the term "béton brut," meaning raw concrete. Concrete has proliferated in the style due to its affordability and simplicity compared to other building materials.

Nowadays, Brutalism is associated with social housing, urban hell, and even totalitarianism owing to its use in Soviet bloc housing. Though it initially had grand ideals. It was to drive a housing revolution and redefine modern living due to its cost. Governments also built many public buildings in this style: courthouses, city halls, libraries and universities. It was supposed to evoke solidarity with the working human, not to design a place that is so ornamental and self-serving that it makes anyone feel like they don't belong. It did descend from Modernist architecture and the works of Le Corbusier, after all. The Soviet Union wasn't the first government to build social housing in this style; that honour would go to the UK.

Social and affordable housing brings us back to Habitat 67. The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, or Expo 67, was themed as Man and his World. Moshe Safdie, the architect, had written about Habitat 67 in a thesis for McGill. The building uses prefabricated concrete forms ostensibly to reduce cost. Each apartment comprises 1 to 8 of these "modules" and includes gardens, private terraces, and multi-level environments. Safdie planned to extend the comforts and expectations of suburban living to the apart complex "of the future." Sadly, Habitat 67 wasn't fully ready when the Expo started, but it hosted some foreign dignitaries during the six-month exhibition. It remains one of the few structures still standing from the Expo.

The building has been converted to private apartments, though guided tours are available if one books in advance. Habitat 67 has become a landmark Brutalist building, inspiring many nerds to visit it while passing through Montreal. Part of the goal of the whole project, ushering in a new reality of affordable homes, did not pan out due to the popularity of the building driving the price of the units up after the Expo.

For me, it was worth the visit. I'll have to come back sometime to do the private tour. Also, I'll have to make a page on this site dedicated to Brutalism, as I have quite a few photos of buildings. The University of Guelph, where I got my degree, has some lovely specimens.

Still in Expo-land

We continued our tour of the old Expo 67 grounds and checked out a park on the tip of this dockland [§]. It was a nice big park, completely empty. I felt that not many people come here due to its location and the difficulty of finding public transportation here. But you could get excellent views of the city from across the river. And after walking around in the cold all day, we retreated to our hotel.

Saturday, April 8th

The next day, we started off with a typical French breakfast item. That being crêpes! I got savoury, and she got sweet. They were massive and delicious as well. Although, the specialty of the restaurant we picked, Juliette & Chocolat, seems to be chocolate [¶]. It's in the name. Aishwarya's "hot chocolate" was literally that. It was so thick! Seemingly 70% melted cocoa and 30% hot milk.

After this bangin' breakfast, we headed for the hills for a nice hike of Mount Royal, Montreal's namesake [#]. It was a lovely sunny day, not too cold. And we got the opposite views of the city from yesterday, the downtown framed by the river. I like cities with massive green spaces or parks in the city's heart. Mount Royal reminds me of Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago. Both are big hills with kilometres of walking and cycling paths. Having this natural resource as a quick escape from the city feels excellent. A break from the city life is not far away at all.

We took a leisurely bus back down and returned to our hotel in the Quartier Latin. Well, it was one of the hotel rooms at the back of the hotel managed through Airbnb, no reception, virtual check-in and all that jazz. Very well taken care of, though. I plan to write a "meta" page with all of the lodgings I stay in during my travels and review them. The review page can help other travellers going through the same places I have.

We didn't want to leave breakfast as the best meal today, so we hit up a Mexican place nearby with many reviews, 3 Amigos [♠]. This restaurant was doing big business, with a sprawling lower and upper level full of tables of diners. The portions were large and tasty, as well as the drinks. You can see I'm super excited by my Mojito. I've been on a personal Mojito tour lately, trying to find the establishment with the best Mojito. The Mojito here at 3 Amigos is not to be discounted.

Sunday, April 9th

Sunday comes, bringing with it a long drive back home. The journey was uneventful except for one thing, and one thing only. The Big Apple! Yes, a small roadside attraction on someone's apple orchard that they have grown into a roadside "destination" where everybody who is anybody stops for a quick break [♥]. I remember stopping here with a bus full of kids on our way to Quebec City on a middle-school field trip. It is just a giant, gaudy, paper-maché-like apple visible from the highway. You can go in, though, which we did. It's a bit of an "exit through the giftshop" situation, with the attached restaurant, cafe, pie shop, and maple syrup factory all just there to get you to buy some apple-related things. We did. We got a pie, and it was delicious.

And with that, we reached home. Overall, I had a great time for my first time in Montreal. The Subway was well planned, the culture on point, and there was still so much left to do that I'll have to come back in the future. Well worth a visit for anyone.

All photos taken by and © of Aishwarya Abhiram unless otherwise denoted with [NS].

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[*]	Bonsecours Market, 350 Rue Saint-Paul E, Montréal, QC, Canada

[†]	Vieux-Port de Montréal, 333 Rue de la Commune O, Montréal, QC, Canada

[‡]	Habitat 67, 2600 Av Pierre-Dupuy, Montréal, QC, Canada

[§]	Parc de Dieppe, 3400 Av Pierre-Dupuy, Montréal, QC, Canada

[¶]	Juliette & Chocolat, 1615 Saint Denis St, Montreal, QC, Canada

[#]	Mount Royal, Montreal, QC, Canada

[♠]	3 Amigos (Quartier Latin), 1621 Saint Denis St, Montreal, QC, Canada

[♥]	The Big Apple, 262 Orchard Rd, Colborne, ON, Canada

[NS]	(1, 2, 3, 4) Photo taken by and © of Nicholas Skoretz.