The Canadian Grand Prix, Mural fest, sunshine, warm weather and little cloud cover, Saturday was a day Montrealers were waiting for. Festival season kicked into full gear, everyone was out enjoying life, enjoying the nice cars for the F1 and enjoying new murals going up in the city.

Grand Prix Festivities

As always, the Grand Prix festivities in downtown Montreal showcase sports cars, music, food and drinks on select streets such as Peel and Crescent. While walking around, we enjoyed the nice cars, beer samples, veggie burger samples and also people watched as well. We also met a few tourists who are here for the first time and are loving all the festivals going on and also love how beautiful the city is, even with all the construction. Here are a few pics of the cars that were on display at the festivals downtown, some on Peel and some on Crescent. Unfortunately, we didn’t see too many nice cars downtown today, as most passed by on Friday.

I also had to put in a picture of the new Four Seasons hotel & high-end condos. The project came out a lot better than I expected, and I do love the charcoal/black coloured glass as well.

The city blooms

After what seemed to be a winter that would never end, Montrealers enjoyed a sunny and warm Saturday, and we deserved it. The beautiful weather, the trees finally blooming along with the vegetation just shows how beautiful the city is.

A mural that was made in mid-April to early May by Antoine Tava displayed on the Brit & Chips restaurant on Maisonneuve. It adds a much-needed pop of colour to this sector and of course, another mural that displays the creativity and passion for art that Montreal has.

Leonard Cohen watching Montreal from above.

Dorchester Square’s new fountain, part of a $9.2-million dollar renovation. In addition to this exquisite new fountain, the park now has two pedestrian bridges that go over ramps that lead to underground parking. The renovations started in 2016 and re-opened a few days ago.

Another reason why downtown Montreal is a step above other major cities downtowns in North America. Not only do we have beautiful urban green spaces, but they add beauty, character and increase the quality of life for everyone. This picture was taken from one of the two pedestrian bridges.

Another view of the new 11-metre tall fountain.

We also enjoyed the sun on this green space located in the Place des Festivals in the Eastern part of downtown. While we were doing so, they were setting up stages for Les FrancoFolies de Montréal, which is a music festival showcasing the best French artists from around the world and attracting roughly half a million visitors a year. The festival takes place from June 14th to June 22nd.

The day also consisted of checking out some of the construction projects of nearby condo buildings downtown. We did not get all the projects since it would have been out of our way from the main festivals, but another update will follow. In addition to that, we also checked out Mural fest! The worlds largest outdoor urban art festival is back on St. Laurent and adding more murals to the city. An update will come shortly on the artwork in progress so far!