Thanks, Denise, for shedding light on the sculpture. It is called "La Foule Illuminée", or "The Illuminated Crowd" by Raymond Mason. Denise included a description, and I found a slightly different one as well, once I knew what I was looking for:
"A crowd has gathered, facing a light, an illumination brought about by a fire, an event, an ideology - or an ideal. The strong light casts shadows, and as the light moves toward the back and diminishes, the mood degenerates; rowdiness, disorder and violence occur, showing the fragile nature of man. Illumination, hope, involvement, hilarity, irritation, fear, illness, violence, murder and death - the flow of man's emotion through space."
It's an interesting concept, and next time I'm in Montreal I'll check it out with new eyes.
(In searching for more info, I found a post listing "strange statues" which included the above. Quite the range: some clever, some refreshing, some ridiculous. And I'm sure we can all disagree about which are which!)
Thanks also to Jen for confirming that EA does have offices in Montreal! The mystery is solved!
* * *
When we left our Sea Silk shawled wanderer and her camera shy guy... they were on their way to ... Old Montreal!
* * *
En route we were happy to report good cell phone reception:
'Though I think we'd be charged up the wazoo for roaming.
We knew we were in Old Montreal when everything
around us
looked less than
modern
Above is Notre Dame Cathedral, and as we came upon it, the bells were chiming and chiming. We figured out it was for a wedding, and saw no fewer than 3 brides in the next hour and a half.
I took advantage of flower boxes when taking photos to mask streets and cars, and there were lots of flowers around. Above, they also cover horse drawn carriages. The horses didn't look so happy. It was hot. Below is the building connected to Notre Dame. Back in the day that must have been a cool courtyard to wander.
I started to sneeze (I'm very allergic to horses; back when I was a kid, I'd always be miserable on class trips to the Toronto Royal Winter Fair. Took me a while to realize I was allergic to the animals, and even longer to realize there might be something I could do about it.) so we headed towards the water:
which you can't see here, but on the left you can look out and see lots of 'spensive boats.
Along the sidewalk are entertainers and caricature artists. There was a particularly talented caricaturist in the far end of the street, probably where the flock of people are. I was tempted but too chicken to get ours done. Maybe next time.
A little further down, we headed back towards the streets:
and towards the main "square" which I remembered from my 8th grade class trip:
The rest of Montreal was quiet, but Old Montreal was bustling. In the square were lots more caricaturists, folks selling jewelry, street performers:
Git your mind outta da gutter!
He was swallowing one of those 3' balloons, the kind often contorted into animals and hats. He swallowed it all the way down!
But wouldn't bring it back out.
Boo! Boo!
Sidestreets off the square look like this:
But we were tired, and I was distracted by this:
(and want to dye something those colors!) and the fountain in the top corner. We found shade and a place to sit. And watch:
Seriously, though, the street performer that wouldn't regurgitate the balloon got to me. I was ready to leave. And find a yarn shop. I knew there was one around there, I had seen it on a map. Information pointed me in the right direction, so off we went!
But first, photo op:
and more floral inspiration:
Our route included hopping on the Metro, and of course, passing more flowers:
Seriously, I don't know if the Harlot and her sock have made it to Montreal, but if not, I'm priming them for unusual fiber blogger phototaking.
Speaking of:
Mouliné! The yarn shop! Easily found, and first thing I see are these crazy mannequins! I fit right in. (Their website is in progress, but has their contact info.)
I narrowed my purchase down to a couple of cute Phildar baby magazines (wait 'til you see them!), though I was sorely tempted by some sock yarn, among other yarns. These days, I try to limit purchases to fiber, and yarn purchases to dyeables and bahgains. It's tough. If I hadn't been buying so much lately, I woulda broken down.
Svetlana and Scott run the shop and they're very nice and quite knowledgeable. There was a gorgeous scarf on the table that Svetlana designed combining Noro Kochoran and 3 different ribbon yarns, the colors and textures combined very nicely.
Scott recognized the Sea Silk in my shawl (they're getting Sea Silk soon) and we ended up talking for a while, about knitting, blogs, spinning, fleece processing. Svetlana talked about designing for knitting magazines, too.
But, I had to get Scott (my Scott) out of that store. Poor guy, sitting and waiting patiently. Not so fun for him.
On the way back, we passed these crazy runners, dressed in red, sometimes in drag:
There were dozens of them. What the hell? Anyone know what they're doing?
We had an amazing "bistro style salad" at Bistro L'Aromate, and a fabulous wine; the rest of dinner was pretty good, too. We'll definitely go back.
Afterwards we strolled around Rue Ste Catherine, listened to a lovely non-traditional quartet playing classical music, sat down to coffee and saw these ladies stopping a firetruck:
and playing a ukelele:
Crazy Montrealers.
Rue Ste Catherine got rowdier as the night went on but we were pooped from all the walking so we chilled at the hotel. We're such fogies.
Next day, we stopped atop Mont Royal to catch the view on the way out:
Ah, Montreal. Filled with crazy people and interesting sights, commas instead of periods and 10% cream. Thanks for the good times.