By Shari Blaukopf, Montreal, Canada
Although spring is definitely here, the early mornings are a little cool and I’m still sketching in my car. That means that the views I have when I go into Old Montreal are just the tops of buildings. But what buildings they are. Each one an important piece of Montreal history.
The green spire is atop one of the oldest churches in the city — Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours. Every port city has a sailor’s church, and this one is ours. It’s not as grand as nearby Notre Dame Basilica with it’s soaring gothic interior. It’s more of a quiet beauty that merits some investigation to discover hidden treasures like the carved replicas of ships that hang from the vault of the chapel. Move a block away and you see the silver dome of Marché Bonsecours. Now the building is filled with small shops but at one time it was an actual public market, an exhibition hall and even our city hall.
A few streets over on Place d’Armes is one of my favourites — the Aldred Building, a gem of Art Deco architecture. I was parked quite far away in Chinatown so couldn’t see much of the detailing in the limestone, but it still has a very distinctive silhouette in the skyline.
