Day 23 Quebec

A good night’s sleep with Lachie waking at 5:40, a “little bit” early, but better than 2 am. Heather and John didn’t need to get up quite that early. I fed Lachie his first breakfast, then as usual he worked his way through several more. Tim drove his parents to the station to catch the train to Montreal. We watched the usual standoff between the parking infringement tow truck and the cars that needed to be off the clearway by 8.

Today the tow man was too busy chatting to his friend to notice one car was 5 minutes over. We have seen him drag them away at 2 minutes before. When Tim returned he took Lachie to day care. I walked to the Metro store for milk. The wind outside was strong and very cold, but the snow was almost melted.

I slowly defrosted and did a few jobs before setting off for the Musee National des Beaux Arts du Quebec at 11. It is only a short walk up the road and is a complex comprising of three separate buildings: displaying Historic, Modern and Contemporary Art- connected by an underground tunnel.

(Riopelle passageway) After checking in my outerwear and buying my ticket, I decided to go to the most distant point first and to start at the top floor of each building- Historic Art first.

That building was built in 1933 as the original Quebec Art Museum and the design details in the building reflected that period of architecture. I was surprised to find only three of Krieghoff’s paintings because he was from Quebec. While the entire historic collection was small, there were some nice pieces.They also housed some modern installations in this building.

From here I went to the next building: the Modern Art, housed in a much older building, which was the Quebec jail for 100 years. They had one collection in the original watchtower and you could still see some of the prisoner cells a few floors down. They were very austere. This building again housed had some spectacular pieces and some installations I didn’t like at all. One of my favourites was set out as a meeting and the rows of chairs were transformed into tortuous chairs. Reflecting the torture you feel at a long meeting? I had quite a laugh at that one. When I reached the ground floor I stopped at the café for a hot drink, before continuing on back into the Contemporary Art collection.

This building’s architecture was spectacular. Built in 1991. I saw some gorgeous Inuit works on the top floor. Just going up the stairs was like going through a work of art. Again some good collections and some not so. But again personal taste. There was a special exhibition of the French artist Bonnard. His famous black dogs was there, as were other paintings and drawings. I took photos of a few pictures and only realised half way round that there were some works with a “no camera” sign. Downloading I found I had accidentally taken one.

I retrieved my coat, rugged up and walked out into a cold late afternoon. A short walk home to a warm apartment, where I downloaded my photos. Sarah, Tim and Amelia went to get Lachie and played with him when they returned. I re-made the bunks beds and then it was time to get the dinner, do the dishes and sit down to type my diary.