mélange

It's raining again — encore une fois!! — in Newport this morning, so why not ponder our weekend in Montréal un peu plus?? The stone streets, gray stone buildings, the view from atop Mont Royal ... all so cool, colorful (despite grayness), cozy even, quintessential. Foreign yet familiar ... as I've said umpteen times. In the Vieux Port, especially — despite having come from Newport (get it??) — we felt right at home, chez nous, if simultaneously elsewhere (oui, c'est ça), even though Montréal is much bigger than we knew or expected at 1.9 million residents (nearly twice the population of the entire state of RI), making it the sixth most populous city within Canada and the U.S. combined.

Oh, and the second largest French-speaking city in the world.

We had such fun with the language ... made every attempt to speak ... and to listen, of course, especially to the IMAX movie we opted to see en français. We saw two movies, actually (and strongly recommend Moi, Van Gogh). Visited two museums — deux musées. Strolled through McGill and past the Hudson Bay Company (a.k.a. The Bay/La Baie), a department store maintenant, en essence (but don't you remember it from history books??). Did a good job — ou assez bien, je suppose — reading menus and signs.

Still, people greeted us with "Bonjour Hi" — I guess that says it all. Clearly, we were doing a hack-job trying to parle français. Even the street musician who serenaded us as we slurped our soupe à l'oignon (et une bière) at a sidewalk café saw/heard right through us as he played Michelle Ma Belle, such a conveniently bi-lingual chanson. He ended his act (guitar case open) with: "Merci very much thank you beaucoup." Seriously. Some things require no translation ...

Okay, enough. Somehow, all this/that just reminded me of a sign I've seen on walks in Newport — back to Newport — nailed to a fence on Old Beach (Vieille Plage??) Road ...

And, with that, perhaps I'll get back on-track here ... although, in all honesty, we're headed from Newport to New York tomorrow ... all in the name of "spring break" ...