Hello everyone. (Everyone meaning, the two or three people that run across this blog…plus our beloved family)

As Jen and I start making plans toward our ultimate goals, we’re taking an initial step with a new form of online expression for us.

Starting hopefully sometime soon, maybe, we hope…perhaps in the not too distant future, we will be launching a new blog!

www.freshmontrealonline.com!

Fresh Montreal is our brainchild to combine our passions into a creative, unique, and hopefully fun-to-read source for food + fashion information specifically concerning Montreal.

Jen will be focusing on the fashion side and I, the food side, with some cross contamination undoubtedly occurring from time to time!

Jen will be doing her best Lois Lane impersonation and focus on the local design scene which we are fortunate enough to live smack-dab in the middle of. She will document new boutiques, local trends, upcoming designers, as well as exploring the underbelly of the local fashion scene (no, she won’t be exposing sweatshops…if there even are any…) but rather the friperies(that’s a used clothes store for you Americans), thrift stores, and garage sales that make wandering the streets of Montreal in the summer time an endless adventure. I’m sure she will also be documenting her quest through fashion school that will be beginning next fall.

I will be throwing my diet out the window and diving into the local culinary scene. I will sacrifice my svelte figure to report on the best sources of nourishment in the city, with an emphasis on the unexpected. Everyone knows about Au Pied de Cochon (you are an evil man Mr. Picard!) but how many know about the wonderful Haitian comfort food available at Ange & Ricky in Villeray?? I will focus on more great little restaurants like this, as well as getting to know the people behind the scenes. I will also feature recipes, some that I develop on my own (try at your own risk!), and others that have been passed down to us from our parents, grandparents, etc…

We will post more details here as the site gets closer to launching.

And here’s to hoping we’re a bit more punctual with our next endeavor than we have been with this one!

The ones marked with a flower/asterisk are blogs I’ve been following for awhile, and the others are new finds. Enjoy!

1. the coveted
2. refinery29
3. clutch22
4. kingdom of style
5. independent fashion bloggers
6. slice of style
7. painfully hip
8. style bubble
9. fabsugar
10. the bag blog
11. fashionista
12. threadbanger
13. fashion toast
14. fashionologie
15. stil in berlin
16. denimology
17. racked
18. notcouture
19. couturecult
20. the sartorialist
21. sweet sassafras
22. outsapop
23. fashion chalet
24. be blog de betty
25. sea of shoes
26. stockholm street style
27. swell vintage
28. the fashion economist
29. clothespin
30. fashionplate
31. modish
32. guise
33. budget fashionista
34. shophound
35. knickers
36. wardrobe re-fashion
37. what i wore
38. bumblesea
39. fashion minute
    
40. seamsters

Exterior of St. Michael & St. Anthony church in Mile End. Photo credit: photohp on Flickr (links to photo credits at the bottom of entry)

We’re back! I’ve got a bunch of blog entries floating in my mind (and pictures for them floating–so to speak–in the memory card of my cell phone), so expect more entries soon! We apologize for the delay in entries again, but I really want to get back on track with posting. Thanks to everyone who still stops by to see us!

We are getting ready to move again, so I thought I’d do a post about something in Mile End, where we’re moving. We’re very sad to leave our amazing apartment in Villeray, and our amazing landlord, Thomas, who is, without a doubt, the best landlord in Montreal, and possibly the world. Anyway, we needed to downsize so that we can save more money for me to go back to school to study fashion design. We found a great little apartment in Mile End, which we’re very excited about. The location is amazing, especially since we had our hearts set on Mile End.

We spend a lot of time in Mile End, and I’m sure we’ll have more posts about the neighborhood in the future. This past weekend, we finally ventured inside the amazing Byzantine style church, St. Michel and St. Anthony (originally St. Michael, but nearby St. Anthony parish merged with it in 1964). Since its construction in 1914, it’s been a Mile End architectural treasure and landmark.

The architect responsible was Aristide Beaugrand-Champagne, who was inspired by the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The dome was the largest in Montreal until St. Joseph’s Oratory was built, but the church still remains a landmark. The pièce de résistance, however, is inside. It was “decorated” (that word somehow seems inadequate, though) by Guido Nincheri, dubbed by one source the “Michelangelo of Montreal”. Nincheri, a Florentine-born Montreal painter, painted other famous churches in the city.

Did I mention that they offer services in English and Polish? And Pope John Paul II visited the church in 1969, when he was a cardinal. Okay, I’ll stop boring you with facts and move on to the pictures!

St. Michael dome, interior. Photo credit: angrysong on Flickr

View of Mile End and St. Michael. Photo credit: DubyDub2009 on Flickr

St. Michael Rose Windows. Photo credit: angrysong on Flickr

Photo credits:
dubydub09: http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbexplo/
angrysong: http://www.flickr.com/photos/angrysong/
photohp: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54652095@N00/

Jon sent me this article, and I couldn’t resist posting it, particularly since I’ve been meaning to post for forever it seems. I’m constantly being inspired to write entries, but it’s the writing them and posting them part that seems to be the trouble.

Anyway, Jon and I are looking into options to have a subscription list so that our regular readers can be notified when new entries are posted, so you don’t have to constantly keep checking back. We’ll let you know the developments as they happen.

So, without further ado, I’ll let the Montreal Gazette tell the rest of the story; it’s definitely a must-read.

More to come.

Side note: I’m working on writing quicker, more concise entries instead of the mammoth epic entries I like to write–because I think it will help me post more often if I make it less of a daunting and time-consuming undertaking. That’s all for now!

So, what’s new? Well, in early November I had a bad fall while running Beau with Jon. I sprained my ankle and was rather banged up for a bit (black eye and the works), but I’m doing much better now. Luckily, it happened several weeks before the snow fell, so I am in a good stage of healing now that snow is on the ground. I have spikes that flip down on my crutches, so that I don’t fall on the snow and ice, and spikes for my shoes as well. Overall, I’m doing well and should be off the crutches within a couple weeks I think.

We’re preparing for Christmas and our return to Columbus, Ohio in just a week and a day (yikes!), which I’m sure will turn into more of a scramble as we get closer to time. Why the holidays always must begin with such a flurry of stress and activity, I’m not sure, but I know that once the holidays actually arrive it will be wonderful to relax with our families and friends.

So, I will be doing the next few entries, and will try to keep the blog updated more regularly, and then in January once I’m more healed, you’ll hear from Jon again. So, onward to the entry!

In Montreal in winter time, you are very likely to see plenty of bikes peeking out from a blanket of snow, a reminder of the wonderful summer heat that surrounded us only a few months earlier. Not enough snow has fallen yet to really bury any bikes in snow drifts, but they are definitely topped with a few inches of snow.

Thanks to flickr user oui-ennui

I love the bikes in the snow; they’re so photographic and it’s tempting not to just tote my camera about and take pictures of them. Not sure why I would need an album filled with dramatic pictures of snow-buried bikes, but I still get the urge to take a picture of them when I see them. The picture above is definitely not from this year, but I’m sure we’ll see plenty upon the arrival of January and February.

Thanks to Flickr user lui

More rare to see, but even more impressive, are the bikes that are NOT covered in snow, but in use by some brave bicyclist who refuses to relinquish use of a perfectly good bicycle for half of the year. We both admire and marvel at these creatures that certainly must have far better survival skills and hardiness than Jon or myself. I think the numbers of bicyclists dwindle as the weather gets colder and colder into January and then bitter February, but even in their rarity, it an amazing sight to behold.

Summer is festival season in Montreal, as many of you many know, and so we’ve been trying to hit as many as we can. I mentioned a couple entries ago that Jon’s sister, Ashley, fresh from high school graduation, has come to stay with us for a few months. She’ll be taking classes in Ohio for a couple years before transferring up here to get a degree in photography. While she’s here, Jon has set her up internships with photographers so she can get her feet wet while learning the city.

Yesterday, she watched the set-up of the International Jazz Festival while shadowing a photographer from the Montréal Gazette. It’s huge (the largest jazz festival in the world),  attended by 2 million people each year according to Wikipedia. I also learned from the Wikipedia entry that there are more than 500 concerts typically offered, with 350 of those outside and free to the public. The festival started June 30 and ends July 12.

The festival opened with the legendary Stevie Wonder on June 30, which we definitely had to check out. He was actually one of the outdoor, free-to-the-public concerts. Can you believe it?

Stevie Wonder (photo thanks to the Montreal Jazz Fest website, linked here.)

The concert was packed by the time we got there, so we ended up on a spill-over stage with a giant screen showing the concert. It was awesome, even if we had to watch on a screen. We left mid-way through after it started to rain, but still enjoyed the show. He made a beautiful tribute to Michael Jackson, and even played a few Michael Jackson songs.

more after the jump

For more information, including maps, travel and accomodation information, concert listings, and even free desktop wallpapers, check out the official website here.

We did attend a smaller music festival last weekend in Old Port, and found that the smaller stages that were tucked away actually had the better musicians. Isn’t it funny how that works? We were also highly entertained (at least I was) by a street magician whose act I still can’t figure out.

We’ve also seen two movies being filmed, both of which we think must be smaller films. One was downtown near Old Port, and they were trying to transform Montreal into New York for the movie, complete with posting a sign in a park that read “Central Park”, NYC cabs (not official ones), and cars with New York plates parallel parked along the street. The other movie was actually being shot in our neighborhood, with a very long line of trailers parallel parked down the street for a couple days. One was marked “make-up”, and others had the actor’s names on them, which was definitely exciting. No one we recognized, and we’re not all that hopeful that we’ll find out what movies were being filmed. If you know, though, please leave a comment!

Meg Couture | Cluc Couture | Ève Gravel | Grob | Judy Design | Lilidom | Station 8 | Ysol | Annie 50 | J’bouj | NKI | Mir Handbags | Mode Cherry Bobin | Valérie Dumaine | Véronique Miljkovitch | KSL | Atelier B | WillBe Design | Dita & Bella | Extenso 14 + | Ruelle | Oöm Ethikwear | Atelier Héricher | Ressac

All of the above are links to each designer or company’s website, so check them out! Click “more” for a sneak-peak of the designs.

Typically there are well over 500 concerts offered during the span of 10 days, from noon to midnight, about 350 of which are outdoors and free to the public

In other news, Beau is badly behaved as ever and we’re trying desperately to get him into obedience school. Between not getting calls returned and other complications, we think he will be able to start soon. Thank heavens!

Quebec flag, Canada flag, Montreal flag

And, last but not least, it is Canada Day again (tomorrow), and then the 4th of July a few days later. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Since many of our readers are American, and since I’ve heard jokes about how Canadians don’t know the national anthem (possibly the same way some American’s don’t), I’ve decided to post the lyrics. Here goes:

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Thanks to Canadian Heritage for the lyrics, and to Flickr user P M M for the flag photo, taken in Old Montreal.

Tomorrow, which is officially Canada Day, we’ll be taking Ashley to the Canada Day parade that we loved so much last year. We blogged about it, so check the archives for pictures.

One more note, for Pam, Mom, Dad, and all the family members who have requested–we have not forgotten to post pictures of our apartment. We’ve been working on a few final details, but do promise to get pictures up soon. We’ll try to get at least a few posted this week, and more to come.

Thanks for your patience, and stay posted!

http://spacingmontreal.ca/2009/05/19/il-est-interdit-dinterdire/

Just to show everyone that Montreal isn’t QUITE the land of rainbows and butterflies that we sometimes portray it as…I read this disturbing article on one of my favorite Montreal blogs “Spacing Montreal”.

A 38-year old law student and mother of two was briefly arrested (read, handcuffed) and fined for not using the handrail on an escalator in the Metro.

Wow.  That’s all I can say.

To the uber-strict officer’s credit, it turns out it IS technically illegal to not use the handrail, which seems like another strange matter all it’s own.  But really…?  I guess from now on I’m never going to walk around with my shoe untied, since I certainly can’t afford a 500 dollar fine!

We purchased a small herb garden and even a raspberry bush, and we got our fancy library set up and our guest room just about finished.

We’ll hopefully get some pictures up soon.

In other news Beauregard is still misbehaving, but certainly has enough good points to make it worth the trouble.

We will be heading back to Ohio in a few weeks for my younger sister’s high school graduation.

That’s all for now. If anyone is interested in understanding a bit more about why we have relocated to Montreal, I ran across this great little post this morning.

http://newurbanshapes.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/41/

Scroll down for the English version.