Luzia and Émilie-Gamelin Place

It was a desolate scene, the inviting circus tent advertising the Cirque du Soleil show called Luzia. We saw that one when it first came out about a decade ago... they tend to recycle the shows that are popular every so often for a new generation. This was my favorite of the different shows we saw, it has a Mexican 'day of the dead' kind of theme with bright colours, great music and sparkling costumes. The stunts were spectacular too.  

Luzia tent, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2025 

 

On the way back I stopped at Émilie-Gamelin Place, a park and community area just next to the Berri UQAM station downtown. They have large structures pouring water down into a shallow collecting area for people to cool off or have a shower, there are a lot of homeless people that hang out here. Two ladies were going around handing out sandwiches to them. This scene is looking back down to Berri through the shady trees. People are allowed to sleep and rest out here in the cool, you have to remember too that not everyone in Montreal, including us, has air conditioning, so getting the cool shade of trees is kind of nice. We did finally cave in and get an air cooling unit, not quite an air conditioner though it just blows cold misty air. 

 Berri trees shadows, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, June 2025