Bob of Montreal
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Even more spring
Spring hit a stride this past week in Montreal, and it's a wonderful thing. I was pretty sure it was spring when the temperature finally tipped up 75, but it definitely happened when I noticed that that hill -- excuse, mountain -- across the street from me was a wide emerald plane (excuse, mountain). A walk on Friday evening down St. Laurent found the place mobbed -- the whole sweaty street -- as restaurants and cafes filled to overflowing. Restaurants I had dismissed as cramped and dismal dives exploded onto the Main with enormous patios that previously I thought was simply abandoned public space, now teeming with people.
And quite suddenly, the clothes changed. Gone, the 5 winter layers, culminating in wool scarves capping every neckless profile, and suddenly here were legs and arms -- the miniskirts and crepe tops I remember from Los Angeles. The path across the way up the hill (excuse, mount) has joggers every minute, bicyclists every two.
