Marvellous Museums in Montréal

Today we visited 3 museums! When we went to get our morning coffee the street was being transformed ready for the Canadian Grand Prix. Luckily we leave tomorrow when it actually starts.

We went first to the McCord Museum of Canadian History. Outside they have an Urban forest!

They have very informative exhibitions exploring the heritage of the First Peoples of Canada.

We heard that the mothers carried their child on their back till they were 2 years old. Imagine doing that with Aneirin!

There were many beautiful baskets woven from various woods.

We found out about the Haida who lived on islands off the northwest coast of Canada.

They carved beautiful objects out of argillite a mudstone rock which is quite hard.

These are a hat and basket woven from woods and decorated with traditional designs.

The third exhibition was by Hannah Claus, a multidisciplinary artist of Mohawk and English ancestry. She was their artist-in-residence.

This sculpture is outside the McGill University and I liked it. See the distorted apple on the computer.

The second museum is connected to the Chapel Notre-Dame-De-Bon-Secours. When we visited the information centre, at the beginning of our stay in Montreal, the woman indicated that this was the Chapel for the Seaman that Leonard Cohen refers to in his song “Suzanne”. You can see some of the ships and boats suspended from the ceiling.

The museum next door is dedicated to telling the life of Marguerite Bourgeoys who came out from France right at the beginning of the settlement of Montreal and built the first chapel. They had about 30 little dioramas showing her life from birth to death.

Next we went below where 3 different archaeological digs between 1990 and 2014 had discovered much about the previous chapels and earlier use of the land. Finally we climbed up a narrow staircase to the Belvedere to see the sights.

Views over the St Laurence river.

Our last stop was the Musee d’Archeologie et d’Histoire-Pointe-a-Calliere. It traces the history of Montréal and below the museum they have an archaeological crypt showing the city’s ancient sewage and river system and the foundations of its first buildings and public square.

We did have some interesting luck in Montréal. Yesterday I found a banana just lying on the footpath so I picked it up. Today Don got given a free ice cream in a shop where we went to get coffee.