Montreal 2025
Boing 777 300 ER Air Canada.
Chapelle Notre-Dame-Bonsecours 1657.
“And the sun pours down like honey on our Lady of the Harbor”
“And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water and he spent a
long time watching from his lonely wooden tower”
(Suzanne, Songs of Leonard Cohen 1966).
28 Rue Vallières, offerings at the door.
"Leonard bought a cheap little cottage near the Parc du Portugal, off the Main, a neighborhood mostly populated by Portuguese and Greek immigrant families" (I’m Your Man, The Life of Leonard Cohen, Sylvie Simmons 2012).
"In the fall of 1972, Leonard returned to Montreal, bought a house in Saint-Dominique and a duplex on Vallières Street in the heart of the Greek Quarter" (Leonard Cohen, La biografia, Alberto Manzano 2010).
Parc du Portugal, Hallelujah!
"Then I crossed the street to Bagel Etc (Boulevard St-Laurent 4320), the place where Leonard Cohen would have an allongé every morning, a long espresso that he would drink sitting at the bar, on his favorite bench, while typing on his inseparable laptop. Simon Rosson, the owner, told me which bench was and served me, at the place occupied by the poet, an allongé. From the restaurant window you can see Cohen's house, about 25 meters away. Simon told me that some mornings, very early, Cohen, Lenny as he calls him, would nervously poke his head out to see if the restaurant had opened; then Simon, who was already there setting up the business, would signal through the window for the poet to take his place at the bar before the restaurant opened" (El fantasma de Leonard Cohen, Jordi Soler 2019).
"Then I went to Quincaillerie Azores (Boulevard St-Laurent, 4299), a hardware store where Cohen bought a little something every week, from a faucet gasket to a Portuguese clay pot" (El fantasma de Leonard Cohen, Jordi Soler 2019).
"Leonard Cohen's life in Montreal was centered around his home, he did everything on foot and was always impeccably dressed, except for his slippers. Very famous Canadian slippers called Foamtreads slippers. When someone recognized him in the two or three places he visited, always around his house, he would warn: "yes it's me, but don't say anything because I'm wearing slippers". I went to another of his favorite stores, J. Schreter (Boulevard St-Laurent, 4358) and bought a pair of Foamtreads slippers" (El fantasma de Leonard Cohen, Jordi Soler 2019, I don't consider these stories published by Jordi Soler as biographical, but I like them).
"Around halfway up, the driver took a side road and stopped outside a house at the end of the street, 599 Belmont Avenue. It was large, solid and formal-looking, English in style, its dark brick softened by a white-framed veranda at the front and at the back by Murray Hill Park, fourteen acres of lawns, trees and flower beds, with a sweeping view of the St. Lawrence River to one side and, on the other, downtown Montreal. The chauffeur stepped out of the car and opened the rear door, and Leonard was carried up the white front steps and into his family home" (I’m Your Man, The Life of Leonard Cohen, Sylvie Simmons 2012).
"Breavman and Krantz knew what they wanted to hear. Westmount is a collection of large stone houses and lush trees arranged on the top of the mountain especially to humiliate the underprivileged" (Leonard Cohen, The Favourite Game, 1963).
1420 Crescent St, Mural Leonard Cohen Tower of Songs, Hommage à Leonard Cohen, 2017 by Gene Pendon and Miles MacGregor.
Cementeri Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, grave of Leonard Cohen 1934 2016, offerings, "com un ocell".
Basilique Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Chapelle de l’Immaculée Conception, crypt.
"CATHERINE TEKAKWITHA, who are you? Are you (1656-1680)? Is that enough? Are you the Iroquois Virgin? Are you the Lily of the Shores of the Mohawk River? Can I love you in my own way?" (Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers, 1966).