Spent a few days in Quebec for work. Quebec looks a lot like Montreal, except it’s a lot cleaner. And prettier. Even the so-so areas are better looking than the so-so areas of Montreal.
First of all I get out of the bus station at La Gare du Palais and the taxi spots me and drives towards me and helps me with my bags. The taxi was SPOTLESS, there’s something new. And for those who don’t know I’m French and the taxi driver was actually French, a real Québecois, another thing I’ve never seen in Montreal. I usually have to struggle to understand the French or quickly switch to English. But it gets better. The driver sees my Cirque du Soleil pass and we start talking about theatre and the guy knows all about Robert Lepage, has seen everything he’s ever done. This was the most cultured taxi driver I’ve ever met in my life. Not the cynical angry bitter driver I’m used to meeting in Montreal. And when I didn’t know which door at the Colisé Pepsi to get into, he took the meter off and starting riding around so we could find the right door, he even walked out and knocked on doors for me, how cool is that?
Then I get to work and 10 hours later I take a shuttle to the Hotel. The Shuttle Bus driver is another cool dude, I mean people are actually nice here, not the default nobody-give-a-shit-about-no-one mentality often found in Montreal.
But it was the evening and I ask the driver where everyone is. All the cool restaurants are closed. The streets are empty. He tells me it’s because it’s -40 outside. “What’s your point?” I ask him. In Montreal, its -40, 5 inches per hour of snow is dropping, 90mph wind gusts and downtown will still be rockin’ with people. There’s the big difference. There’s no action in Quebec, it’s supposed to be partying for the whole year celebrating the 400th anniversary and no one was out, nothing was opened, it was dead.
After my work is done setting up the network, I head back to the bus station to head home and grab a sub at Subways. Even the girl making my sandwich was super nice and friendly. Contrarily to most Montréal Subways where I have to wait for the jackass to get off his fucking cell phone before I can get any kind of service and I use that word loosely.
And once on the bus, of course, since we were heading back home, to Montreal, I had some nobody-give-a-shit-about-no-one Montrealers on board, with hot-dogs, French-fries and 16 inch pizza boxes that stank up the whole bus for most of the 3 hour ride, not to mention they had their fucking laptops open, not that this is a problem, but if you are gonna watch movies on your laptops, plug in your goddamn earphones you inconsiderate self-centered nobody-give-a-shit-about-no-one bastards.
Later in the ride, as I’m reading my new book, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever by Christopher Hitchens, I’m suddenly propelled forward with great force, face first into the seat in front of me. I look in front of me and I see a car has just brutally cut in front of us and the first thing that pops into my mind is we must be pretty close to Montreal, like Longueil and indeed we were. What does that tell you?
I’m not even gonna go into the taxi ride home. Oy! I love Montreal.
Never really pondered on the so drastic diff between Qc and MTL… but some stuff yea, you’re right!
This sh*t reeks of racism: “the taxi driver was actually French, a real Québecois”, why are only the French real, “The taxi was SPOTLESS, there’s something new”, Oh yes the dirty, “cynical” immigrants, and “the most cultured taxi driver”, cultured is not knowledge of your culture, it’s knowing about other cultures.
We are all immigrants, the English, French and Spanish stole this land, none of you have a right to call it yours. How dare you.
No, man, I’m saying it’s near impossible to get a French speaking taxi driver in Montreal and a clean taxi to boot, the two aren’t necessarily connected, you are the one who implied the connection. That’s not racism, that’s just a fucking fact. Just like I find it very strange that in book stores, the person working in the French section, barely speaks French, whats up with that? If you are gonna handle French books, shouldn’t you be able to read them? Shouldn’t you be able to give service and assistance and good advice on the books on the shelves?
why are only the French real Quebecois
It’s a figure of speech. Despite all political arguments of other people living here being Quebecois, other people except French speaking Quebecois, don’t consider themselves Quebecois. Privately they often consider their ethnicity (like Italian or Haitian as examples) first and then Canadian, but never Quebecois, we are dirt to them, even in our own province we are second class citizens, so your argument doesn’t hold ground.
We are all immigrants, the English, French and Spanish stole this land, none of you have a right to call it yours. How dare you.
I didn’t steal this land. My English counterparts didn’t steal this land and neither did our Spanish counterparts. But we are here and we ain’t going no where so deal with it. What’s happened in the past, the past 500 years, isn’t my doing or my counterparts doing, but our coexisting cultures aren’t about to pack up and leave. We’re here, so again, deal with it. Human Species is a migrant species, should we all (Natives included) move back to Africa to restore the equilibrium?
Your argument is futile. You see what you want to see. You believe what you want to believe.
@Christelle: I found it a dramatic shift. But Montreal is still my town
I much prefer Quebec to Montreal. I’ve been there about 25 times, and I loved the people, the places, the culture. People are less stressed out, therefor, they’re more respectful, polite and nice to others. It makes a huge difference to me.
@P’tit Rien: Indeed. But ZZZ
DAVE ID
“You see what you want to see. You believe what you want to believe.” This I will agree with. I have never been in a cab I considered dirty or messy, and I have never had a driver who could not speak French.
Quebec is not a melting pot because the Québecois never called themselves Canadians, they wanted to retain their French identity, and I’m happy they did. They set the example for all Québec immigrants, unlike Ontario, where children of immigrants barely speak their native language.
“I didn’t steal this land. ” No, you didn’t but stop thinking it belongs to you and that you have moral right to control it.
Good post, David. I’m originally from Montreal but live in Toronto now, here this week visiting my family and friends. I just got popped with a $200 fine from a nasty police officer who caught me driving down a bus-only lane at midnight, with no other cars in sight. I had never seen this lane before and explained this to the officer. He handed me the ticket and said, “Have a nice stay in Montreal.” What a jerk.
The roads in this city have more crevasses than the Grand Canyon and the city is filthy and crumbling. Certainly not what it used to be.
How disappointing.
I agree that Quebec City is beautiful and the people warm and friendly.