Is it Possible to Love a Street? 

If so, I do, and that street is Avenue Cartier.
It's where I am going to live and die when I become old.
Right now it's about a 17 minute walk from my front door, 
turn left and continue (basically) straight, out the fabled city gates,
past the provincial government offices, through the excitement of hip-hop Grande Allee, 
up and over a slight rise, and then down a few more blocks, to Avenue Cartier.


The street has everything that is needed to sustain life:
liveliness, small shops: cheese, wine, boulangeries,  fruit,  fish, meat, ice cream,
music, books, tabacs, 2 pretty wonderful small grocery stores, one big grocery,
lots of bars and restaurants serving fast or slow food, a very comfortable 75-person theatre (Cinema Cartier) that I O-So hope never closes, that presents all day and week long an amazing array of intelligent foreign films and documentaries. There are hair salons, a wonderful kitchen and housewares shop, laundries, coffee houses. . .  I could go on and on.
And all this in just 5-6 blocks.


Above the shops and restaurants are apartments and condos,
nothing fancy, reasonably priced, so the neighborhood attracts an interesting
mix of young and old,  families and singles, nothing stuffy here, 
nor tatty for that matter.


The whole scene is close to coming-and-going public transportation, 
there's a taxi stand, and if you walk on a couple more blocks,
you arrive at the petite but otherwise world class Musée de Beaux Arts.
Also right there is the Montcalm entrance to the Plaines d'Abraham,
that large and lush and magnificent public park that goes on
for-ever high above the banks of the Saint Lawrence, vast rolling lawns
and bike paths, walking paths, picnic groves.


My passion for Avenue Cartier never wavers.
Oh, one more thing, when the weather is fine, there is no better thing
than to sit outside, in the sun,  at one of the many cafés that line the street, sip
a little something, and watch the wonderful world go by. There is immense joy
in this whether it is spring, summer, autumn. Each season here has it's miracles.