Following the minor splash made by a recent article in Mirror, Montreal’s fledgling Psychogeography Society turned its gaze — and its feet — east. On a gray day that bore a hint of the chillier winter still to come, a few brave souls headed into Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, starting at Papineau metro. The choice seemed an obvious one: like many Anglos, I have too few reasons to explore the city’s more easternly side.
We started by heading past Ste. Catherine to the river, where the Jacques Cartier Bridge looms over a few neglected residential streets and a now-abandoned pumping station. Of all the south shore spans, the Cartier — with its arched pillars with their massive footprints — is my favorite. The Cartier Bridge seems also to punctuate a boundaries between the bicycle paths that traverse downtown and those that head east; navigating the Notre-Dame bike path after the bridge suddenly feels more like an off-road adventure than a reasonable commute. But I digress… this was a walking trip after all.
Strolling aimlessly, we wound our way east slowly, following our whims and curiosities to see where they would lead us. For that reason, I can’t say for sure where this is, but after following the central artery of an alley for several blocks (somewhere east of Frontenac, north of de Maisonneuve) we were directed to this interesting branch by an acquaintance, who was as surprised to find a half dozen walkers in her back alley as I was to see her there with her two young children. Apparently, a neighbour is responsible for this little pocket of green that includes ferns, lilac bushes and even medicinal plants like echinacea.
Other highlights on the walk included a run-in with fame. Thinking there might be free food at the Bain Mathieu (2915 Ontario), a decommissioned public pool that now hosts various exhibitions, we found ourselves in line behind Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Québécois. The exhibition the in question is called 1001 Visages, an international celebration of caricature art and I wondered what it would be like to visit a art show that featured caricatures of oneself.
Every walk with our intrepid clan of walkers seems to lead to unexpected and novel discoveries. Where will our next organized walk take place? Do you have any ideas? Care to join us? I’ll post an announcement for our next walk here on Spacing Montreal.
3 comments
Sorry I missed it. I had a similarly unexpected run-in with Gilles Duceppe on St. Jean Baptiste Day in 2004. His eyes really are eerily blue…
I hate to nitpick, though, but it sounds like your walk took you through Ste. Marie, not Hochelaga. Ste. Marie is the neighbourhood between Papineau and the railroad tracks, Hochelaga is the neighbourhood east of the tracks.
The fact that the walk didn’t start in Hochelaga was discussed on the Facebook event wall (I hate calling it that) so we kind of made it a goal to cross the tracks and get into Hochelaga proper (which we ultimately did and enjoyed a real 99 cent pizza on promenade Ontario).
We were trying to remember what the name of Ste-Marie was during the walk but couldn’t. Thanks for clearing that up!
Do try to push east though, to Maisonneuve – there are some lovely public buildings, churches, streets and houses, especially in the southeastern part of the neighbourhood. In a wealthier city, that area would have been gentrified a long time ago.