Saturday 27 June 2009

Saturday Photo: St. Viateur Fountain Then and Now

What a difference a few months makes! The picture on the right was taken last March as winter was winding down, while the one ot the left was taken last week.






The fountain in Parc Saint-Viateur was inspired by the lovely waterworks found in parks around Paris. Outremont, the neighborhood where we live, is a sister-city to Vezinet, a similarly green and pleasant suburb of Paris. The cherub-bedecked fountain, however, was commissioned early in the 20th century, and pre-dates that association. At that time the park was a marsh where a stream running down from Mount Royal pooled, and the local notables decided something more elegant was necessary, something more in keeping with the houses they planned to build around the square. But more about that some other time...

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