Nous sommes allés à la bibliothèque

Librairie or ​bibliothèque?

In French, "librairie" means bookstore and "bibliothèque" means library. Whether you know a bit of French or not, you figure that out pretty quickly once you've wandered into one of them thinking it was the other.

We took yesterday's wet weather as an opportunity to visit a couple of the local bibliothèques. Since a steep decline in the church-going population that started about fifty years ago, numerous churches have been converted for other purposes; library is one of the most popular. Our first stop was Maison de la littérature, just a few blocks from our flat. We've walked past it a dozen times, seeing from the outside a brightly illuminated white interior, and I was anxious to see the inside. It did not disappoint -- it was bright and spare and modern.

Our second stop was at ​Bibliothèque Saint-Jean-Baptiste, on Rue Saint John. Unlike the first one, this library looked like someone had walked in yesterday, removed the pews, added books, and reopened the same day. The stained glass windows, altar and statuary remain in place.

Panorama

A panorama of the library, taken from the former choir loft.

Tidbit

Thank goodness for the Eric Canal.

In 1790, the populations of Québec City and Manhattan were roughly the same: 20,000, give or take. People were not flocking to Manhattan either, since the area had been a Loyalist stronghold during the American Revolution.

Québec City was poised to become the major shipping port on the Eastern seaboard, since it provided a natural route from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1825, however, the Erie Canal opened, creating a new route, one that turned Manhattan into a viable port for that same traffic. By 1850, the population of Manhattan had swelled to 500,000 and we all know what happened after that.

Québec City, by contrast, didn't hit the half-million mark until 2011, and is most assuredly the better for it.