The Montreal Salon des vins is on this weekend – in fact it starts tonight at the Palais des congrès.

is wonderful this morning. Straight ahead is the lower campus field and the Roddick Gates, where horse-driven sleighs used to gather in winter (in the 20s and before, at least). To the left (if you were facing in through the gates) is the big Library facility. The round building in the top right-hand quadrant of the photo is the Medical School.

of the insanity of the Montreal real estate market. The house I rented for 4 years in the mid-to-late-90s is for sale now – listed at $269K!

In Montreal, if you’re lucky and do your research, you can still get a hell of a lot of house for that kind of money. This particular house, however, is a real dump and unless a lot more work was done than can be seen from the photos published in MLS, it is worth not even half what they’re asking for it. Moreover, I know for a fact that it was sold to the current owner just 18 months ago for $110K.The place was very economical as a $700/month rental that you could share with three roommates. That’s a far cry from what they’re asking now though.

Incidentally, this is where my first mirror photo was snapped, a couple of months before I moved out.

how cold it is today in Montreal.

DESERT, presented by Champ Libre, for the 6e Manifestation Internationale Vidéo et Art Électronique, to be held in late September 2004. There’s a call for submissions as well – the deadline’s March 1.