We had another great day wandering around Montreal. It was Basilica day. We toured Notre-Dame and St. Patrick’s.

We walked on different streets to get to Notre-Dame Basilica and passed through the Chinese Quarter.

This area looked a bit like a campus but I could not see a name for it.

It would be interesting to know story behind all the figures on this bas relief.

Place d’Armes square from the top of the steps at Notre Dame Basilica.

Before the days of sound systems, the priest would climb to the top of the stairs and deliver his sermon. He could be heard throughout the church.

The organ was made by the Montreal firm of Casavant Frères. It was completed in 1891. Today it has 7,000 pipes. The longest is 9.75 meters (32 feet) and the shortest is 6.35 mm (one quarter inch).

Gorgeous work on the ceilings.

And beautiful doors.

This sculpture of Marguerite Bourgeoys was made by Sylvia Daoust. It did not say in what year. She was the founder of the congretation of Notre-Dame. It is carved from wood.

Around the base of the statue on Maisonneuve, the founder of Montreal that I posted a photo of yesterday, are sculptures of four other prominent persons/peoples in the history of the city.

Jeanne Mance was a pioneer of New France and one of the founders of Montreal. She established the first hospital in 1645 and was the first secular nurse in Canada.

Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil et de Châteauguay was a prominent figure in the early days of Montreal. He was a French officer and merchant and also served as interpreter for indigenous languages.

Lambert Closse became a public notary, as well as Sergeant Major of the garrison of  Ville-Marie. He is most known for fighting the Iroquois and exhibiting combat tactics that allowed him to win many of his battles. He met his wife, Elisabeth Moyen, while rescuing her from the Iroquois in 1657. Lambert Closse died in combat in 1662.

The French defeated the Iroquois in 1644.

The 1866 headquarters of the Molson Bank, begun by William Molson, son of the founder of the Molson dynasty. It was the first building in Montreal to be built in the Second Empire style. The bank had 125 branches across the country by 1925, the year it was absorbed by the Bank of Montreal. 

After a delicious cinnamon pastry for lunch we walked up a few blocks and visited St. Patrick’s Basilica which was built by the Irish Catholics. It was very dark inside, even with lights on. Everything was brown, or shades of brown. Even with a very high ISO setting on the camera the photos are dark. I had to do a bit of filtering and editing to make them somewhat clear.

I think all the gilt squares in the stipes on the high, high walls were handpainted. Notice how the rows are uneven.

A large convention center (the one in yesterday’s blog with all the different coloured panels) is just down the street from our hotel. This weekend Otakuthon is going on. It is Comicron for Animé. With COVID they have not met for three years and there are probably 5,000-6,000 people in attendance. Many of them are dressed like their favourite animé character and we saw a lot of them as we walked around.

This gal was not the only one having professional photos taken. We saw several photographers getting shots in various places.

These two gals were leaving a park as we approached and John asked if he could take their photo. They were more than pleased to pose for us. They said they made parts of their outfits and bought other parts online.

Tomorrow we leave Montreal. John has done his best to find some quieter roads, but pretty much all the roads heading west out of Montreal are freeways to Ottawa/Hull and Toronto.