I had proposed going there because the island was the site of Expo '67, a World Fair that I attended as a young adult and enjoyed very much. My research had shown that all the pavilions were long gone, and the area had been re-developed as a huge park with many attractions, except for a remnant of the spectacular American Pavilion. It was designed by maverick architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, using a form he invented - the geodesic dome. As I recall, visitors rode in a train of small cars, on a spiraling track inside the gigantic dome, viewing and listening to large displays about the culture of the United States. Pavilions were not intended to be permanent and the large framework was covered with an acrylic outer wrapper that was vulnerable to fire. In 1976 during repair work, the acrylic wrapper caught fire and completely burned away in half an hour. After the fire, the steel lattice structure still had a magnetic attraction for visitors, so it had been repurposed as a spectacular framework for a bio-diversity museum.
Knowing what a big place the island was, my plan was to take the car, but when Dan found out there was a Metro stop on the island, there was no persuading him to give up his parking place. This meant that just getting out there, which required a couple of transfers, was stressful and tiring.
The park is a pretty place but large. The walk to the dome was about twenty minutes. It was a sunny, breeze-less day and very hot. We photographed the framework and some of the wild plants around it, but we are not especially interested in biodiversity, however important it may be, so we skipped the museum.
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| Framework of geodesic dome Architect: Buckminster Fuller |
After I took my photos, I was ready to go. I was already tired. Dan had a difficult program to walk across the island to photograph a sculpture by Alexander Calder, and he wanted to see the view of the city from there. That plan had no appeal for me.
I was considering what to do when we encountered a seemingly endless hoard of people dressed in jogging clothes and powdered from head to toe in pigment of various colors. They were returning from a so-called Color Run. The first few groups of people were novel, but after seeing hundreds if not thousands of filthy people, I began to feel like I was in a pit of snakes or a hill of ants. When Dan stopped to use the restroom, I said something incoherent and ran for the subway.
At the station and on the train I encountered many more filthy people. I couldn't keep far enough away. I shuddered with revulsion.
I managed the Metro okay by myself, and managed to set aside my guilt about leaving Dan to worry about me; I was pretty sure that my behavior had been clear enough and he would go on to pursue his program.
When I emerged from the Metro into the breezy, familiar avenues of the busy inner city, I started to relax. I know the layout in this area, and soon ran into a bookstore with a Starbucks. A caramel frappuccino did wonders for my spirits. I went back to the hotel, took a bath, put all my clothes in the laundry bag, and had a long nap.
Dan came in a little after 5 p.m. with an incredible tale of exploration. It was pretty clear he would never find me, and he felt fairly sure I could get back on the Metro, so he didn't waste much energy on anger or anxiety. Despite the heat and glare, he had marched down a broad path to the St. Lawrence River, where he found a monumental stabile by Alexander Calder that had been designed to go with the USA pavilion at Expo '67. He photographed this and the view of Montreal with the river in the foreground.
Then he took the Metro back to Place des Arts, which had also been part of the plan. This plaza is surrounded by performance halls and art galleries and restaurants and such. He had a nice meal and listened to some free musical performances in the place. He was going to walk back here, but some bad directions sent him into Chinatown, which, he reported, was not much by San Francisco standards, but swarming with tourists. Everywhere you go, Montreal is swarming with tourists and recreating residents on a warm week-end in August; moreover this is Gay Pride week-end. Somehow or another Dan made it back to the Museum of Fine Arts in time to look at the Inuit art and check out the bookstore (no purchase).
In the evening we returned to a French restaurant that we had spotted previously called Le Pois Penché. It turned out to be far more upscale then we had anticipated. Dan launched into a tirade of complaints about the price of everything, so we ended up leaving. I wasn't committed to a big deal at the moment. We grabbed a light meal at our hotel restaurant. It was calm, that was the main thing. Later we walked around a different block and finally found a bunch of smaller, less pretentious restaurants that looked appealing, but it's time to move on now.
