18/07/2024 – Back Home 3

16th July – It’s hard to describe the Museum of Civilisation. It’s an exhibition space for randomly interesting, engagingly interactive presentations, great for kids, honest fun for grown-ups. “The Gladiators of the Colosseum” was super-informative, including archaeological items, modern reconstructions, moving images and soundscapes, even 4 “street fighter” stations where you could challenge your friend to a bout in the arena as one of five different gladiator personas.

“Gladiators” of a different kind were the stars of “Wrestling in Quebec”, which started with a mockup of a country fair, complete with strongmen and barbells and ended up in a miniature holographic installation of Maddison Square Gardens. In between, we had rooms of action figures and other merch, old-style arcade games and a lineup of famous Canadian wrestlers from André the Giant to the Rock. It was a lot of fun.

The Gladiator theme might just stretch to the History of Quebecois Rap exhibition. We gave its period/genre-themed cubicles a quick glance, but moved swiftly on, pausing only for Carey to strike a pose under its chunky chain logo.

We found another, different, Irish pub for lunch today. Guinness “en fût”, served with pizza, nachos or mac-‘n-cheese with a chaser of Scotch, Bourbon, Whiskey or bière… Multiculturalism in action!

There was one low point, though. The Monsieur Rose climbing a tree by the Wolf-Montcalm monument has sprung a leak. His normally plump and perky folds are shriveled. Sometimes, even Mr Pink gets deflated…

July 17th – Someone pumped up saggy Mr Pink overnight, so all is right with the world!

We did “old people holiday things” today. We sipped iced coffee in the sun on the Dufferin boardwalk, watching (excellent) street acrobats perform. We popped into churches. We pottered through the quaint heritage area, admiring the installations, planters. We explored the statue gallery in the Fine Art Museum grounds. We spent time on the Plains of Abraham, which is now a splendid public park and picnic area, hunting down the plaques spread around the field. They definitely give a strong sense of the strategic importance of the site and the definitiveness of the outcome.

Though the British took the town and built the usual formal gardens, promenades, etc., the culture seems untouched. Even more interesting, the Quebecois flag with its fleurs-de-lis flies everywhere beside the flag of St Pierre & Miquelon. This reflects other allegiences: to roots in Brittany, Normandy, the Basque country. The Basque separatist movement waged a guerilla war in the late 20th Century for independence. Normandy was a pay-off to Vikings threatening Paris. It bounced between England and France for centuries, unhappy under both. Brittany threw the French out and kept them out, only becoming part of France on the marriage of Anne to successive Valois kings. They resisted assimilation for almost 2 centuries. Even today, these regions are rightly proud of their identities and resist being designated “French”. All that history seems moot on the flagpoles of Quebec. Identity is a slippery and contextual thing.