Day 29: Ottawa to Montreal

We suffered our first big loss today, depending on how you define 'big.' Our entry into the heart of downtown Montreal went very smoothly and we were parked in front of the hotel before we knew what happened. Dan secured and loaded a cart. Here's where the problem started. He tried to carry too much stuff at one time, and it was not securely balanced. Then he encountered a tiny elevator with a narrow door. If you have enough detachment, it's like a scene in a comedy, his trying to jam his way into the elevator. Something hit the door and a bunch of stuff fell off the cart, including an open box of groceries and sundries. During the confusion that ensued while we reloaded the cart, someone slipped off with Dan's briefcase. At least, that's the way we have explained it to ourselves, because when he got  the cranky and heavy cart out of the elevator, a similar accident happened, and as soon as we got everything reloaded, Dan noticed his briefcase was missing.

From a sentimental point of view, this was a devastating loss for Dan because it contained his journal since about March of this year, including this trip. He has kept this journal consistently for untold years and it serves as a sort of meditative process. The briefcase also had the postcards he has been collecting during this trip, art post cards. It also made him feel disoriented because the briefcase held his handwritten notes on our hotel reservations. I could help him with that because I had copied all that to documents online.

From a security point of view, I felt very guilty that I wasn't more aware of the people around me; I felt stupid to have been tricked like that. It was such an unexpected event that it makes me feel insecure, not to say paranoid.

On the other hand, our location is something like Times Square. High end shopping. Lap dancing. 5-star restaurants. Parking lots. Construction. Throngs. It's a good place to review certain security precautions, like not overloading the cart and being hyper alert to the environment. Like zipping your zippers and standing up straight.

So we got lunch at an English pub—my salad had a tasty French touch—then got a taxi for the Basilica de Notre Dame. We bought tickets for a 'spectacle' at 6:30 inside the church. We killed time by exploring the area, which is old town Montreal, very touristy. I had a latte; Dan took photos.

The Notre-Dame Basilica

The 'spectacle' at the celebrated basilica was not very well done. A sort of movie about the history of the church played on screens around the church with erratic colored lights playing on sail-like sheets hanging from the balconies. I liked the part where they lighted certain features of the church and talked about their significance. Afterwards we had ten or fifteen minutes to take pictures, but the lighting was always low and dramatic.

The altarpiece was huge, multi-layered, rows of statues set within elaborately carved niches, everything sparkling gold. Wreathing around the columns and other woodwork was an extraordinary amount of fine decorative painting, like striping on a Fifties auto. The lofty vaulted ceiling was midnight blue and adorned with myriad gold leaf stars, quite a unique feature. There were a few rows of stained glass windows with the usual Bible stories, and some unremarkable paintings of the signs of the cross. There were a few good paintings depicting scenes from local religious history. The architecture and the decorative scheme were perfect realizations of ideal forms.

Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal

Magnificent Altarpiece

Pier Cloutier, 1945-1986
Saint Marie-Rose

Behind the altarpiece of the main basilica we found the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. The lighting was beautiful and  made the architecture and the decorative scheme easy to appreciate. The altarpiece had an extraordinary, modern, stylized sculpture.

Altarpiece of Chapel of The Blessed Sacrament
Sculptor: Charles Daudelin

Entrance to chapel is bracketed by twin staircases to the choir loft

After we left the church, we hung about the square in front, called the Places des Armes, for awhile to enjoy the late afternoon sun break, and to listen to a violinist and a guitarist play very soothing romantic music.

Back at the hotel, we explored the area a bit, but ended up having a light meal at the cafe in our hotel. Actually, I had a superlative spinach salad. Two fine salads in one day. Must be French cooking. Yum.

Then we started worrying about what else was in the brief case. Could there have been anything that would facilitate identify theft? This caused both of us to check our online credit union accounts. The credit union decided to upgrade its security and this put us into a complicated process. I finally got online, but Dan's account is still screwed up. We went to bed promising each other that the next day would go better.