Montreal photos

Montreal is a great city to visit - full of charm, culture, history and great restaurants. But I won't bore you with that - that's why God gave us Frommer's. Instead, here are some photos of some other stuff we saw on a recent trip to Montreal:

How can you not love a city with 24-hour shwarma joints?

Haute cuisine:

Either French really is the language of poetry or the Jardin botanique's translator was suffering from some serious ennui:

When we visited, the Jardin was hosting a special exhibit on 1960's "Flower Power," at the heart of which was a vine-encrusted VW Beetle. For some reason, though, the loudspeakers kept playing 1970's pop, like Carly Simon's "You're So Vain."

Yes, yes, grafitti should never be condoned. Still, Montreal has some great street art:

Crossing the street in Montreal just gives you such a jaunty joie de vivre:

Special bonus for Boston visitors: You will feel right at home on the streets of Montreal. Pedestrians jaywalk with abandon and the drivers are every bit the equal of motorists in downtown Boston. Plus, the French signal for "excuse me, but why did you just cut me off like that?" is the same one-finger salute you'd use at home.

Another bonus for Boston visitors: Frappes!

Montreal does, however, have a problem with giant mutant three-eyed buildings that use their cable-like tongues to eat streetlights:

This is perhaps why some streetlights huddle for protection:

The restrooms in Montreal parks have signs warning you not to take pictures:

Anglophiles strike a blow for linguistic independence, or something, at the Atwater Metro stop:

Every Canadian's fondest dream:

Nearby

They work up a big thirst in the cornfields of Henryville, off Rte. 133 south of Montreal:

Note: Still to be downloaded from the cameras: The giant yellow and white toilet nearby that somebody has thoughtfully built for l'Homme Coke.

Even further south: You know the winters are long in Shelborne, Vermont - you can almost hear the conversation that resulted in the statute below: "Hey, Earl, what say we take all those old hydrants out back and weld 'em together?"

Still to be downloaded: The photo of the giant gold gorilla holding up an old Volkswagen on Rte. 7 in Vermont.