My Neighborhood: Le Plateau, Montréal
By Ernest McLeod
10 February 2008
Since becoming a part-time Montréal resident several years ago, I began wandering my neighborhood there, Le Plateau Mont-Royal. Though the neighborhood is only a short metro ride from downtown, it has an entirely different feel. Not a skyscraper in sight. Rather, it's a funky mix of commercial and residential, with both hip urban and, surprisingly, rural village vibes. In the depths of winter, when people are more apt to hibernate, the residential streets are subdued under layers of snow and ice. In the celebratory summer season, the neighborhood buzzes with street festivals and Portuguese church bazaars. Even then, however, the signature back alleyways, or "ruelles" in French, provide a quiet respite from the summer throngs. The ruelles of my neighborhood are more like village lanes than urban passageways: children play there, mattresses and furniture are haphazardly abandoned, creating unexpected still lifes, laundry is hung like neighborhood flags from balcony clotheslines, holes in fences provide glimpses of back gardens and terraces, where people relax over wine and dinner on hot summer evenings. In the autumn, leaves drift down on the streets, providing golden carpets underfoot. In the winter, new snow highlights patchworks of color in the collage of wood, brick, iron, and metal that is obscured by foliage in other seasons. I never tire of these streets and alleyways, or of the ever-changing photographic opportunities they provide. My neighborhood has neither particularly remarkable architecture nor lavish mansions. It is humble, a bit gritty, plastered with graffiti both eloquent and profane, a place to discover small details rather than grand vistas. Because my neighborhood is so diverse, it's a challenge to capture its essence in a few shots. It is eclectic rather than cohesive, yet it has a distinctive spirit that lets you know you couldn't be anywhere else. It's perhaps easier to feel the spirit of the neighborhood than it is to visually encapsulate it, but I will keep trying. And I suspect I'll keep discovering new layers no matter how long I live here.
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