"The Planet" alza's Profile

A view of Civita di Bagnoregio from the long foot-bridge.

"Il paese che muore" (the dying city), Civita is a nostalgic old commune in the province of Viterbo (north of Rome.)

Before La Popessa

Walking from Métro Place d'Armes to the Basilique Notre-Dame and Old Montreal.
A cool, pleasant day, the humidity finally gone.

At the blue columns on the right, there's La Popessa, a formula eatery, "Universal Pasta, Fast Cuisine & Healthy Meals", cafeteria style. I saw weekend dads with kids walking up to it & inside, popular with the young crowd. On Saint-Antoine West, corner Saint-Urbain.

La Popessa in tarot refers to the High Priestess. The card may have been inspired by the legendary Pope Joan, a woman-pope thought to have reigned between 1086 & 1108. -- John Anglicus, born at Mainz, was Pope John VIII for a while. John was a woman... as a young girl, she went to Athens disguised as a man & learned so much that once in Rome, no one could equal her. She gained a great reputation & was made Pope. But she became pregnant & had a child during a procession from
St Peter's to the Lateran, in a lane once named Via Sacra, now known as the "shunned street" between the Colisseum and St Clement's church.
"The Lord Pope always turns aside from the street [...] because of abhorrence of the event. (Martin of Opava, Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum).

This June, I walked along Via Sacra, that "Via evitata", from the Coliseum to St.Clement's, and then on to the Lateran! Some say Popessa Giovanna was lapidated by an angry mob when they saw the baby appear... I thought the street was quiet and inviting, I had an expresso, dolce farniente! now I'm not so sure...

Sister Pascalina (Lehnert), who was the confidant of Pope Pius XII, is also known as La Popessa, as it's one way that some call a woman who has influence over a pope.

Food for thought while you're eating your fettucine alfredo alla Popessa on rue
Saint Antoine in Montréal.

Hommage to Frère André, rue Saint-Vincent

This man founded the St.Joseph Oratory in Montreal on the sheer strength of his faith and character. He was an orphan at 12 years old, poor and uneducated but he had a gift: he could cure people and give them confidence. To the dismay of his superiors at the College where he was doorman, massive crowds started coming to him to implore his help and for a cure to their ills.

It's on the Mont-Royal, near his College on Côte-des-Neiges Road, that his dream church was built. He was canonised on October 18, 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. This plain old man who came to be loved by all of Québec was my great-grandfather's cousin.

Maison La Sauvegarde

This house was built in 1800 on land granted in 1658 to Lambert Closse, an important Montreal settler, by Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve.
It was restored and converted into an art centre in 1965 by the Safeguard Life Assurance Co. and is now known as Maison La Sauvegarde.

It was a nightclub for a while, as the sign shows. Now the old house is empty and looking for a tenant.

By the way, Chomedey de Maisonneuve was the founder of Montréal, along with Jeanne Mance.

Do not pass, take a pic

I went from my place in Mont Royal to nearby Outremont on Saturday, to buy new wine glasses. And once there, I enjoyed rue Bernard to the fullest, as usual.
This street would seem "gentrified" to outsiders who didn't have this kind of brilliant street back home all their lives... but here, rue Bernard has always had flair and we knew to go there for authenticity long ago.

This is true of most everything in Québec, especially Québec City and Montréal, but also in many towns and villages up North in the Laurentians, and in the Eastern Townships. We've been going to old cafés serving café au lait, expresso, cappuccino, real croissants, chocolatines and you name it since birth.

A few years ago I was visiting my hometown, Québec City, and went to my favourite café in Old Québec to read my morning paper with a good café au lait.
A large American man with a Texas accent came in and took pains to order what he called a "lahttéééé" -- it took a while and a few repetitions and hand signals... I just followed the scene from my table...

He gets his lahttéééé and cries like our Mrs. Norris in Mansfield Park "Oh nooo! this ain't no lahttéééé! what IS this? doesn't anyone here know what a lahttéééé ACTUALLY is?! oh my god! I can't believe this!"
Before he shed tears, I got up and went to ask if he wanted anyone to shoot him out of his trouble. He repeated his complaint. I read the chalk board of specialties, saw everything I'm used to in the wide world of coffees but not the typical Starbucks menu... asked the gal in French if they made latte (lahttéééé), she didn't know what that was... and to be frank, neither did I, although I'd heard all about it since joining VT, where Starbucks was often discussed in detail...

I told the guy that café au lait was the closest thing to lahtéééés that we knew in Old Québec's cafés but that he would surely find a Starbucks somewhere between there and Ottawa. I hope he found his latte...

This pic was taken from behind an iron gate closing off some street works on
rue Bernard.

Sainte Madeleine

Eglise Sainte Madeleine on Avenue Outremont, corner rue Marsolais. I'd never seen this church, its spire attracted me as I walked towards rue Bernard. I reached it from the back & saw a sign on a solid door "Donations in kind can be left from 09:00 to 11:00 hrs, Monday to Friday. Please respect these hours and don't leave anything at any other time." :) There's a time for everything!

I walked all around it. On one side there was a small repair truck from Hydro Québec, the power company & men working on wires. I could see the lights flickering through the stain-glass windows, as the men pulled wires inside.
In front, teenagers were sitting on the stairs to the main door and looked like they were conspiring. In a corner, under a gable, two youths were smoking silently.
I saw the large panel from afar, where the hours for the mass are usually given under the church name. So I approached... the panel was covered in part glass, part plywood, it was empty inside except for white plastic letters & numbers that said "love 666"...
Maybe it's the church for Halloween Nights in the 'hood.

I saw on the map that it's known as Sainte Madeleine Church. I think they ran out of money.

on the Wiseman Street side

why not? let there be light!

Le Théâtre Outremont

This is the old Théâtre Outremont, a landmark. All around, on both sides, cafés, glaciers (ice cream), design stores, Bacchus wine glasses, cheesemakers, tea importers, specialty supermarket, health food, innovative house deco stuff, luxury flowerist, smoked meat deli of course, and a small bagel maker.

oh and many restaurants and food counters, French, Italian, Thai, Japanese, Seafood, etc.