The Sunday Building Project – Now going transient!

Not once have I ever heard a person – native Montrealer or otherwise – bemoan this city in the summer.

In sentiments parallel to the unfurling greenery, blooming flowers, and scrubbed sidewalks, ‘les Montréalais’  burst forth into the warmth and sunshine with a joy that can only be rivaled by the misery invoked in severe restrictions of winter. It is undeniable that the flow and consequential ebb of our particular climate cultivates a true appreciation for the seasons proper.

Summer is also a more social season. In winter the picnickers and street strollers leisure and frolic in much fewer numbers. Summer in Montreal is about idling away the afternoons in the sun-drenched parks, fueled by amenities from depanneurs, cycling along the Lachine Canal, dodging ice-cream-coned rollerbladers, and seeking the best and freshest (or the mediocre and discarded) local produce at farmer’s markets which double in size for the season.

A neighbour once advised me to pencil in all looming festivals, and I would never be at a loss for something to do every day. Even though there is live music to be found in numerous venues nightly throughout the year, summer hails the the onslaught of both long-standing and newer events of all variety – comedy, music, dance, and artifice.

But despite all this, is is not just as irritating to wade through crowds of tourists as it is through freshly fallen blankets of snow? Is it not calming to have a narrower selection of events to frequent (although we are still awash with winter-specialized events like dance festivities and carnivals)? Biking’s great, but who isn’t tired of getting cut-off by hapless Bixi riders? And for whatever reason, the city’s making excuses year-round to chuck dazzling explosives into the old port’s skyline.

So, not that these are sufficient or not for the bane of one’s existence, but I thought that I’d jump to the defense of Montreal’s sister seasons. I leave summer to the dogs. Sure, it’s great, where isn’t it? I postulate that the rest of us who stay throughout the ‘less-desirable’ hibernal months must be really crazy about this city. Love ain’t easy.

Just a heads up – next Sunday Building Project coming to you from Austin, TX.