On days like today – when it is (once again) a balmy -15 outside, with a cold that makes the hair on the inside of your nose freeze and no mittens or gloves are thick enough or warm enough to keep the cold out – I keep thinking that riding off into the sunset might be a really nice idea. Actually, I think most Montrealers feel that way at this time of year…. Someplace where you could hear music like this and the beach would look like… this!

A handsome horse, an obliging companion (or is it a handsome companion and an obliging horse? I never remember…), a beach, some music… yup, gotta say, it sounds pretty nice right around now. For me, the next best thing to being there (as the old ads used to say), is being surrounded by images of places that are warm and snowless.

 

A gentleman came into the gallery this week, looking for a poster with which he could surprise his wife.Specifically, he was looking for a poster of Deauville, in France. Although I generally think that we have something for just about everyone,on occasion, we get stumped (last time it was someone looking for a tango poster,time before that I think it was a vintage poster of red peppers. 0 for 2…) And while we don’t currently have any Deauville posters, we do have a bunch of posters for Trouville, which is, I am told in Normandy.

I thought of Trouville a couple of weeks ago when Kristina and I were in New York: a gentleman at the Sachs auction said he had looked at my site and noticed that my poster for the Queen of the Beach was well priced. “Queen of the Beach?? Which poster is that?? OH! Trouville – La Reine des Plages!” (For French posters I always think of them in French…)

When people ask how Montrealers handle the cold, long winter, I usually reply that there are few other places where I would like to live. Yes, January and February can be brutal, but those of us who live here know that come April, we’ll all be looking for our favorite terrace (outdoor cafés and restaurants know that even if the bears are still hibernating, Montrealers will be ready to eat outside, even if we need to wear our coats and gloves)… and when that happens, picnic tables can’t be far behind!