Montréal, je t’aime

This is the 15th post on Ici et here. Montreal has long been famous for its small, specialty food shops. Whether the cafe on the corner, the gourmet cheese place, or the hole in the wall sandwich place that serves up the bomb, these gems have helped the city form its identity. But, some worry, they’re disappearing or gravely threatened by mega-chains based in other places? In this post, actress Rachelle Lefevre – an ex Montrealer now living in LA – discusses her perception of the changing retail food landscape and reveals her fears about her hometown’s future.

About the author:

Actress Rachelle Lefevre grew up in Montreal. She currently appears as Clara opposite Paul Giamatti in the multi-nominated film Barney’s Version and alongside Kevin Spacey and Barry Pepper in the Golden-Globe nominated “Casino Jack.” The self professed “foodie” is best known for her role in the Twilight films and is currently starring on the new Shonda Rhimes drama “Off the Map.” This is her first ever blog entry.

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Growing up in Montreal I always had a kind of affection for our “rivalry” with Toronto, so much so that when people ask me if I’m from Toronto (the city they all think is the capital) I practically scoff when I reply, “No. MONTREAL.” Well, a couple months ago someone had the audacity to ask me why I stressed it so much, asking, “Really, is there such a big difference?” Ah, non-Canadians. Only then I got to thinking, “What IS the difference?” “It just is…” doesn’t seem to cut it. Truly, what should I answer?

The fullness of the answer didn’t come to me until Christmas when I headed off to spend twelve glorious days in Paris with friends. By the time I arrived at my hotel it was about 9pm and I asked the concierge where I might buy some cigarettes (I’m proud to say I have since quit). This lead to the most fascinating exchange between the concierge and the bellman who both bemoaned that shops in Paris closed early and each shop specialized in only certain items and that if I wanted to buy cigarettes I’d have to find an open “Tabac,” literally a tobacco shop. No 24hr depaneure around the corner here. They continued to mutter for a while and the last thing I made out was the bellman mumbling under his breath that if you wanted milk at this hour you had to own a cow.

What later struck me about their whole disgruntled (albeit charming) exchange was how much I, as a non-Parisian, LOVE how the shops specialized, ADORE the lack of ubiquitous chain supermarkets and RAVE about the carefully edited selection in each shop. Were these two men really complaining about something as unromantic as convenience in the face of the glorious superiority of product that results from the abundance of specialty shops in Paris???

One of the reasons I chose Paris for my European vacation was because it always feels so similar to Montreal, so familiar. As much as I have always found the French/English political divide in our city disheartening I have never let it detract from my gratitude at being raised in a city so wonderfully French, so full of joie-de-vivre, so in love with food and wine and culture, so expressive and romantic. It is with deep sadness that I write this now but truth be told I have, in recent years, felt some part of that slipping away.

I left Montreal six years ago to live in Los Angeles in order to pursue my acting career and I return to Montreal a couple times a year to visit friends and family. Each time I recognize the city I grew up in a little less. Gone is the mom and pop bookstore where I used to peruse for hours, the locally owned coffee shop where I was happy to wait a few minutes for my café au lait or even, unthinkably, sit down quietly to drink it. No more is the cheese shop that sold ONLY cheese and would let me taste fifteen cheeses before I bought two. Each time I return to Montreal to find another one of these precious markers of our city gone. They are replaced instead by some corporate owned behemoth, the stores we now frequent in a mad rush to get it all in one place. Those great big stores of convenience: supplying all, specializing in nothing. I can’t believe I’m going to say it but here it is: we are starting to look like Toronto.

As a person who now lives abroad I realize it is a little hypocritical to seemingly ask the people who remain in Montreal to alter their way of life to preserve “my” Montreal, the one that reminds me of Paris. Truth is though, that’s not what I’m doing. What I’m doing, I hope, is offering a memory that might invite change. In order to keep more of our delightful specialty shops – food and others – from disappearing we have to be willing to make a couple extra stops, to spend a couple extra dollars, to wait a few minutes more. What one gets in return though, I believe, far outweighs any imagined inconvenience. It is about rushing less and appreciating more.

While I was in Paris I bought my baguette at the boulangerie, my pate and meat at the charcuterie, my wine at a cave a vin, my coffee at a local café called Café Charlotte (where, yes, I sat down for 10 blissful minutes to drink it) and made my only clothing purchase at a charming, small boutique where the music was perfectly chosen to compliment the mood of the designs. For a moment I thought I was in Montreal.