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Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 11:14 am
by James29
I will probably be in Montreal this summer for a week. If it coincides with any sort of get together I'd likely be able to go. I don't know Montreal at all and would love to find some good bookstores for French material.

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:18 pm
by sctroyenne
James29 wrote:I will probably be in Montreal this summer for a week. If it coincides with any sort of get together I'd likely be able to go. I don't know Montreal at all and would love to find some good bookstores for French material.


Lots of bookstores which by default will be stocked with books in French. A couple major chain stores: Renaud-Bray, Archambault (also a music store), and Indigo in one of the malls downtown.

There are also independent and used bookstores. Books won't be dirt cheap but the selections are usually of good quality. There's a great cluster of them on Avenue du Mont-Royal mostly east of Rue Saint-Denis (Montreal east - otherwise known as basically north) and a few other ones on Rue Ste Catherine just about a block off of Saint-Denis. Also near there at Berri-UQAM metro there's a great international news stand and the Grande Bibliothèque (BaNQ) which can be fun for browsing. If I'm not mistaken, during the summer I believe there are bouquinistes in the little street behind the Grande Bibliothèque as well. For really cheap books, check out the thrift store chain Fripe-Prix Renaissance (also good for other thrift store shopping of course). There are also quite a few "micro-bibliothèques"/take a book leave a book boxes on various streets and alleyways (Montreal neighborhoods have a great network of alleyways including a Ruelle Verte initiative to spruce them up and make them nice, attractive places). I can keep an eye on good locations for those if there's interest. Some independent cafes have take a book leave a book collections as well and sometimes people just dump huge collections of books and videotapes on the sidewalk (check out the @fucknomtl Instagram to get an idea of the stuff people throw out onto the streets) - if you'll be around July 1st that's moving day so there's bound to be a ton of stuff dumped on the street.

The universities also should have bookstores - official ones and coop ones. The Francophone universities are UQAM which is very central in the Latin Quarter (Berri-UQAM metro) and Université de Montréal which is less so (but near L'Oratoire Saint Joseph). The other major universities, McGill and Concordia, are anglophone but they might have book selections in French.

There are also some specialty bookstores: BDs (especially in and beyond the Latin Quarter on Saint-Denis as well as an iconic one Drawn & Quarterly in the Mile End), travel, cooking (at Marché Jean-Talon, the largest open air market in North America), Spanish, Italian, anarchist, feminist, and what could be of special interest, foreign lanaguges: Michel Fortin on Saint-Denis (3714 Saint-Denis between St Louis Square/Rue Cherrier and Avenue des Pins).

Here's a map with a bunch of places marked: https://www.google.com/maps/placelists/list/1RHNlUbWvf9hUnOc7uIO9V4EWXPA?hl=en

*edit* Oh and one place I forgot! If you happen to visit Quebec City while here (a few hours away, accessible by train or by bus with Orléans Express or by covoiturage, worth an overnight trip) a major destination for literature fans is the Maison de la littérature.

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:50 pm
by Xenops
First of all, thank you sctroyenne for your wonderful recommendations. :D You are quite ahead of me in regards to planning. My life took an unexpected turn, so I've been busy trying to figure it out again, and haven't thought ahead as far as August or November.

James29 wrote:I will probably be in Montreal this summer for a week. If it coincides with any sort of get together I'd likely be able to go. I don't know Montreal at all and would love to find some good bookstores for French material.



That would be sweet! :mrgreen: There is the Langfest that is in Montreal in August: https://montreal.langfest.org Ani was thinking of November, as that's when she comes to this corner of the world. When were you thinking of going to Quebec?

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:20 pm
by James29
Xenops wrote:First of all, thank you sctroyenne for your wonderful recommendations. :D You are quite ahead of me in regards to planning. My life took an unexpected turn, so I've been busy trying to figure it out again, and haven't thought ahead as far as August or November.

James29 wrote:I will probably be in Montreal this summer for a week. If it coincides with any sort of get together I'd likely be able to go. I don't know Montreal at all and would love to find some good bookstores for French material.



That would be sweet! :mrgreen: There is the Langfest that is in Montreal in August: https://montreal.langfest.org Ani was thinking of November, as that's when she comes to this corner of the world. When were you thinking of going to Quebec?


Great recommendations above on bookstores in Montreal! It looks like my Montreal trip will likely be in July. I've been to Quebec City and echo the recommendation that it worth the trip... Quebec City is amazing. I have not been there for about 20 years but back then I'd say it was almost entirely French speaking.

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 4:52 pm
by sctroyenne
James29 wrote:Great recommendations above on bookstores in Montreal! It looks like my Montreal trip will likely be in July. I've been to Quebec City and echo the recommendation that it worth the trip... Quebec City is amazing. I have not been there for about 20 years but back then I'd say it was almost entirely French speaking.


July will be great! At the beginning of July there'll be the Jazz Fest - tons of free outdoor concerts in the Quartier des Spectacles plus really big names at the paid indoor concerts. At the end of July there's the comdey festival Juste Pour Rire/Just for Laughs. It'll be interesting to see how it is this year given all the upheaval it went through but if it's like how it usually is there'll be tons of free shows (music and comedy) plus tons of activities in the Quartier des Spectacles. You'll be able to see comedy in French and if you're a fan of anglophone comedians chances are some of your favorites will be there as well. There'll be tons of other stuff going on in the city as well (all kinds of special stuff set up in parks, along the water, the Fireworks festival on Wednesdays and Saturdays, etc). In one of my posts above I have a link to my little guide that has some of the summer events and special places to check out.

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:27 pm
by emk
sctroyenne wrote:There are also some specialty bookstores: BDs (especially in and beyond the Latin Quarter on Saint-Denis as well as an iconic one Drawn & Quarterly in the Mile End), travel, cooking (at Marché Jean-Talon, the largest open air market in North America), Spanish, Italian, anarchist, feminist, and what could be of special interest, foreign lanaguges: Michel Fortin on Saint-Denis (3714 Saint-Denis between St Louis Square/Rue Cherrier and Avenue des Pins).

Here's a map with a bunch of places marked: https://www.google.com/maps/placelists/list/1RHNlUbWvf9hUnOc7uIO9V4EWXPA?hl=en

Yeah, sctroyenne and I have visited Rue Saint-Denis a couple of times to go book shopping, and it's a pretty rich area: Two specialty BD shops (I usually visit Planète BD), Michel Fortin for language courses, an enormous multi-story Renaud-Bray bookstore, and a couple used bookstores. There are nice restaurants and coffee shops all up and down the area. A+++, highly recommended. Would blow my entire book budget there again. :-)

For sheer cost-efficiency, it's cheaper to place large orders on Amazon.fr (or search the US Kindle store, which is finally getting a decent number of contemporary French books). But if you want to browse actual books, then it's hard to beat walking around Montréal on a sunny afternoon.

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 4:44 am
by Ani
I just made my flights if anyone wants to start talking about a get together this fall.

I'll be in East/South Florida from October 9 - roughly Nov 15, at which point I'll be in NJ from ~15th until the weekend after Thanksgiving. Then I go back to FL until Christmas.

Do we want to try for Montreal beforeThanksgiving? Do we want to meet in Boston this time? How about a pool party in Florida? :)

Edit: I'm tagging a few of you just in case you missed the post.
Xenops wrote:..

Systematiker wrote:..

ironmike wrote:..

emk wrote:..

Iguanamon wrote:..

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 7:04 pm
by iguanamon
The easiest for me, obviously, would be Florida. I can get to Miami easily and fairly cheap. Montreal? Call me a wimp, but I've been in the tropics too long to go to Quebec in late autumn/early winter weather. Plenty of opportunity to practice languages in South Florida- Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, French. If enough people commit, I could come up for a weekend.

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 9:50 pm
by IronMike
Boston? Did someone say Boston?

Re: LLorg East Coast 2017

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 9:52 pm
by zenmonkey
might be time to change the year in the OP?