Ron and Sally Jo Blog

We took a day tour to Montreal.  We began at  St Joseph’s Oratory one of the world’s largest basilicas and an important shrine.  In 1904, Saint Andre Bessette began the construction of St. Joseph’s, a small chapel on the slopes of Mont Royal.  The small chapel was soon too small and a larger church was built in 1917.  The Basilica was soon begun and completed in 1967.  Many miracles have been attributed to St Andre.  In the Basilica there is a wall covered with thousands of crutches from those who were allegedly healed.  We were impressed with how simple the Basilica was in comparison to many other cathedrals which we have seen.

We drove up Mont-Royal, the highest point on the island of Montreal.  We stopped only briefly because of the cold and wind!  (No photos!)  We took an hour cruise on the St Lawrence River, giving us a good view of the city skyline, Expo 1967 buildings, Olympic Park (1976), and other sites.  One interesting site was Habitat67 — designed by an architectural student and built as lodging for Expo 1967.  It is composed of “box-like” structures where no windows of any apartment look into another apartment.

We went to the Botanical Gardens where we spent most of our time in the Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden, and admiring the in-process exhibits which opens June 22.  See Mosaicultures Internationales Montreal “Mosaïcultures Internationales® is … an exhibition of horticultural art and a chance for the representatives from parks, gardens and green spaces around the world to exchange ideas. All works presented must represent something of the participant’s culture …[and comply] with the principles of sustainable development.”

In the evening we attended a “Sound and Light” show at the Notre-Dame Basilica which highlighted the history of Montreal.  This church is intertwined with Montreal’s history and the first church built in 1659.  Afterwards we had time to explore the Basilica briefly.  The present building was begun in 1841.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 6th, 2013 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Quebec. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.