Contrary to what most tourist brochures will tell you, the “Paris of North America” actually has very little in common with the real Paris. Montreal looks absolutely nothing like the French capital and the culture is totally different. But, every so often, it’s possible to find in this distinctly New World city a glimpse of something distinctly Parisian. Consider the laneway just north of St. Louis Square: with horse stables on one side and a tall, narrow house providing a nice visual terminus, it wouldn’t be out of place in one of the old villages in Paris’ suburbs, or in one of the outer arrondissements near the Périphérique.
Of course, it wouldn’t look out of place in central London, either. There are plenty of old mews that look just like this.
Incidentally, this laneway, already filled with greenery, will be transformed into a so-called “country lane” with an environmentally-friendly road surface. It’s part of a $145,000 initiative by the Plateau Mont-Royal borough and the Nature Valley granola bar company. This week’s edition of Hour has a brief article explaining the project, although it’s somewhat short of specifics.
I’m a bit sceptical of something that aims to turn a distinctly urban alley into a “country lane,” but I’m glad that laneways are once again being seen as bona fide public spaces. “Lanes are a part of our history and heritage,” Plateau mayor Helen Fotopulos told Hour. “Growing up, the lanes were where boys played hockey and women hung the clotheslines. The clotheslines are coming back, and so are the lanes.”
