Washington Post scrutinizes Montreal
Floating to the top of my searches this week has been a suite of pieces about Montreal from the Washington Post. Odd that they illustrate “Ste-Catherine Street” with a photo of the bland Jeanne-Mance side of the MAC. There’s also a peculiar notion that Papineau is the “north end” of the Plateau; I can’t even tell where the tennis court photo that adorns the section on the Plateau was taken, but I wouldn’t call it a typical Plateau scene. The section on Petite-Patrie mentions Jean-Talon market in the intro but doesn’t show it, and somehow detours into Jarry Park.
But I’m irritated most by the Old Port section, adorned with a photo of Notre-Dame. Yes, I know that in recent years there’s been a trend to call all of Old Montreal “The Old Port” (and I’m not sure this isn’t being pushed by local marketing, either) but it’s not accurate. Anyone here knows the Old Port is rue de la Commune and everything between that and the river itself, the rest being Old Montreal. And no, the writer does not visit Notre-Dame.
Be warned, if you try to look at all these pieces without a WaPo subscription, eventually you will hit a firewall paywall.
Spi 14:50 on 2019-11-17 Permalink
Those are the tennis courts are at parc jeanne-mance, it’s taken from the southern portion at marie-anne looking north.
david100 17:02 on 2019-11-17 Permalink
That Old Port thing drives me nuts and it happens in both English and French.
Kate 18:33 on 2019-11-17 Permalink
Spi: thanks. Of course it is – I never think of them as seen from the south side.
Chris 10:42 on 2019-11-18 Permalink
Since we’re being pedantic about neighbourhood names, can I be pedantic about vocabulary? 🙂 The word you want is “paywall”, not “firewall”.
qatzelok 11:52 on 2019-11-18 Permalink
I agree with you, Kate, that the Washington Post article basically un-sells Montreal as a tourist destination with its bland pictures of empty spaces with no visual markers present.
Bill Binns 12:49 on 2019-11-18 Permalink
Papineau is pretty clearly “the north end of the plateau” to anyone looking at a map who has not been informed that Montreal uses a different compass then the rest of the planet. We can’t expect outsiders to figure out a system where major streets that run south to north are called “east” in the north and “west” in the south and “Montreal North” is due west of Montreal.