25 April 2012 The City of Montreal

The IPY Conference is being hosted by the city of Montreal, Canada. Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec and the second largest city in all of Canada. It has a population of over 3.8 million people throughout the metropolitan area and is located on an island next to the St. Lawrence River. It happens to be the second largest French-speaking city in the world! The original name for the city was Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, but was later named after the Mount Royal hill located in the middle of the city.

The St. Lawrence Iroquois natives originally settled the area more than 3,000 years ago. In 1535 the French explorers arrived in the area and found more than one thousand natives living on the island. Seventy years later, when the French returned the natives had disappeared for what is still uncertain reasons. Today Montreal is a mix of old and new, French and Canadian. McGill University celebrated its 190 years of education in 2011. There are many researchers at the conference from McGill who are adding to the knowledge on climate change.

This morning I took my first run through the city and ended up spending most of my 10 miles in Mount Royal Park. The park is one of the largest green spaces in the city and was designed and opened in 1876 by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York City’s Central Park. There is a cross that stands at the top of the hill which was first put up in 1643 by the founder of the city. Today the cross stands 103 feet high and has lights installed that show different colors for holidays and to mark special events. It was a beautiful run this morning up the trail and through the trees leading to the cross. There were many people out, since it wasn’t raining, and lots of dogs having a good time. I was even greeted by the police who were mounted on horseback during their patrols in the park.