By Dorothy Nixon

Montreal Maples

Montreal family dwellings are famous for two things: those highly impractical outdoor winding staircases usually found in East End (how impractical for a winter city) and the maples gracing their front lawn patches, often found in the West End. On my street, Coolbrook , a huge Maple was planted every 10 feet or so. These maples were the only foliage on the street, no one put out flower boxes (save for the Italian man a few doors down and one house near Queen Mary Road which was abloom all spring and summer.) The Maples proved a problem. Their roots are invasive. But in summer they provided a pretty canopy over our one way street. During the ice storm of 1998, many of these monstrous Maple Trees were damaged.

These streets are so singular looking, the other day I was watching the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth and guessed, correctly, that the opening scenes at Brendan Fraser's home were on an NDG street.