m-log Montreal

What does this building, the right one, remind you of?!

... New York?

The Art Deco building in the old part of Montreal resembles the Empire State Building. The Aldred Building, was finished in 1931, same year as the Empire State.

Since 22 March big student tuition marches have caught attention in Montreal. Our French neighbor commented on it "Hasard ou coïncidence? 5% de Français à Montréal... Les rois de la grève ne commenceraient-ils pas à déteindre sur leurs cousins?" Don't the French Montrealers, French being the kings of riots and strikes, start to influence their cousins? (It was already a feeling that some more was to come.)

The demonstrations have been going on for weeks. Until yesterday they were all peaceful.

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The winter coats were abandoned some weeks ago. It's beautiful springtime. So let's talk about Fashion! Karina Pare from the fashion blog Makr & Muse answered m-log Montreal's curious fashion questions. Thanks Karina! After the jump you will find the interview.

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Two Montreal sights you don't get around when visiting Montreal were still missing here! But now I'm finally catching up. There was a good reason for waiting, though. I saved these sights to see them together with my Cousin, her little 3-year-old son, and my Auntie.

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Sure, you are not allowed to bring dogs to supermarkets or indoor markets. Buy it. But have you ever seen dog parking spaces? Right in front of Jean Talon market are four parking stands in a row for dogs. Quite a funny sight.

We went to Jean Talon market this Saturday. Montreal has a totally different look and feel now that it's spring and the sun paints everything much more colorful. We had about 18°C yesterday, beautiful spring weather. Whereas in winter, all the Jean Talon fruit and vegetable stands are indoor, now more farmers will sell their things also outside. And as there is still a lot of space outside you can imagine that it will be even fuller outside in the next months.

After a short snack at a Mexican place we bought artichokes, salad, fresh lobsters, lemongrass and ginger to season the lobster water - for a yummy dinner with our friends. OMG I will miss that!

I'm taking part in a photo contest for a new Canada header on the FB site of Faszination Kanada. If you would be so kind to support me, I'd be very happy! Find the link for voting here.

The picture shows Indian summer 2011 in the Laurentides around Mont Tremblant.

Thank you!

Sorel is a Canadian brand, mainly known for outdoor winter boots. I like looking for Canadian brands. Like Roots, Lululemon or Matt & Nat. High quality, timeless and straight design and a twist of today's fashion is what these have in common. As I chose a pair of Timberlands for my winterboots instead of Sorel I thought there wouldn't be any near chance to get a pair of this Canadian brand. But I found a perfect everyday office pair of Sorel and am very happy with the color (not black but something between black, blue, grey with light metallic touch). Just as simple with a light modern and sportive/casual touch as I like my office clothes to be. On the picture they look more clunky as they actually are. I think they'll go well with slim dark trousers and blouses and my grey blazers.

Toronto is said to be the cultural, entertainment and financial capital of Canada. The downtown skyscraper atmosphere, very clean and busy, dominates the city's charisma. We definitely enjoyed that because we don't have that kind of atmosphere in Hamburg at all. Everything is big and breathtakingly perfect.

Thanks to our neighbor Laura who is from Toronto we also discovered another side from the downtown city face - a part of the town which is much more individual, maybe more like the Schanzenviertel in Hamburg or spots like parts of Kreuzberg or Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin. It is called Baldwin Street. For a tourist visit you can perfectly combine a Brunch or Lunch with a visit of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

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CN Tower in Toronto, finished in June 1976, used to be the world's tallest free-standing building - until it was dethroned by Burj Khalifa (Dubai, 2009 - 829m!) and Canton Tower (Guangzhou, 2010 - 600m). Toronto's communications and observation tower, however, is 553m high. And gives a stunning sight of the city! As we hoped for a beautiful pic, we chose to go up at night. Opening hours are until 22.30h on Fridays and Saturdays. By express elevators that lift you up to the height of 346m - high enough - in less than a minute you can reach the observation platform.

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This matches the last m-log blog post: Voilà, here's the Parliament of Canada which we just went to see, having a beautiful round trip.

As you can tell, the London Houses of Parliament with Big Ben influenced the style!

On Parliament Hill, the Centennial Flame was lit in 1967 for Canada's 100th birthday.