Our onetime almost-annual vacations to Montreal usually took place in October, and so our trips to the various open-air markets there were filled with the bounty of autumn harvests. One of our favorite small, neighborhood markets not far from our Le Simone B&B is the Marché St-Jacques at the corner of Rue Ontario and Rue Amherst. Each year that we’ve visited, they’ve held a contest: Guess the weight of a huge pumpkin and win a $50 (Canadian) gift certificate. For one year’s contest that we still recall fondly, the sign maker must have been a poet, for his French text (“Oh, belle citrouille...”) took on the metaphoric magic of direct-address personification: “Oh, beautiful pumpkin, how much do you weigh?” Just one of the many unexpected and charming touches to grace this lovely market in this lovely city.
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