Boyfriend missed his exit and took a different route home, whereupon he discovered this little ruin on Gouin St., up in Ahuntsic.
So on the weekend, he surprised me with a little impromptu sightseeing jaunt down Gouin.
Gouin runs along the top edge of the island of Montreal; many of the lots on the north side of the street are waterfront properties, and the lots on the south side* have commanding views. Consequently, quite a few of the houses along Gouin are very old, very stately & very expensive.
Boyfriend had told me he was taking me somewhere interesting, but he didn't specify any further; and I thought he'd meant to show me all these upscale homes. So we had fun pointing out this, that & the other house, saying what we liked & didn't like, garnering architectural ideas, guesstimating property values.
And then he pulled in by the Loisirs (L'École?) Sophie~Barat, and there it was.
Some reconstruction company had clearly made a go at it; whether the renovation had been abandoned or intended only as stopgap structural stabilization, it was impossible to tell. Some bits were obviously done to keep people out, people who just as obviously wanted to get in.
We snagged a few photos & promised ourselves we'd come back with more memory, more daylight, fully charged digitals, mechanical cameras, tripods, etc.
Continued on Gouin until it became a one~way~the~wrong~way street; so we stopped to get a bite to eat. And, quite by accident, we discovered this little jewel of a spot. Touristy~ish, purely by virtue of being a site of historical interest; but not at all tourist trap.
Most visitors usually go to downtown Montreal and the Vieux~Port where the main tourist attractions are within reasonable proximity of each other, and visitors can get the most bang out of their buck; they might even venture as far up the island to Mont~Royal and the Oratory, or even as far afield as the Casino. But here, at the "top" of the island, the visitors at the Site des Moulins seemed to be native Quebecers who had come not for the thrill of being in a foreign country but for learning a little more about their own history.
There were quite a few locals enjoying the spot as well, which is a good indication that the rest of the park {Parc~nature de l'Île~de~la Visitation} is worth exploring.
You see, most other historical sites are usually subject to strict physical & narrative controls & protocols; and I inevitably feel like I'm a part of that unpredictable, living element which they're trying to keep at bay, which leaves me with the impression that I'm fundamentally unwelcome. And I get the sense of being dismembered from history rather than being a member of it.
But this historical site seems integrated into the social sphere of the neighborhood; while it's certainly no longer used the way it once was, it's still lived in. And that helps puts things in historical perspective for me ~ I can see that era as contiguous with my era, as opposed to seeing it preserved in a sort of chronological vacuum under a bell jar.
I think that's why I'm so delighted that we discovered it. Well, that, and it provides one with the opportunity for a lovely romantic {yet inexpensive} light dinner in a casual {yet cultured} atmosphere, with optional {photographic} promenade. Just in time for the Autumn colours, too.
Wonder what it will be like in the winter?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
* Including Bordeaux prison {picture courtesy of this lovely historical album from the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec}.
Posted by edgar at September 25, 2003 09:13 AM