Rain, Rain Go Away!

It was a non-stop rain day yesterday; luckily my jeans have dried out and are now ready for round two as yes, it is still raining. I'm actually starting to resent this rain, it makes everything so dreary and depressing. Walking around the city everything is grey, damp and the clouds add this sense of foreboding especially when you find yourself in a strange part of the city where the only sounds are sirens!
Fortunately I chose yesterday to go and have a little wander around the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts which not only had a China exhibition (with items from the famous Terracotta Army) but a Napoleon one as well. Now anyone who knows me knows by strange love of Napoleon, not of his campaigns but of him personally, so I found myself in my element as the exhibition was primarily his personal effects including, a rather creepy, death mask. Unfortunately it was not quite as large as any French collection but big enough to keep me occupied. It was then onto the Terracotta Army which I have always wanted to see, it was in the UK for a bit but I refused to pay the high price they were charging (12CAN$ seemed a good price) and so was quite delighted when I saw it had come to Montreal. It didn't take too long to get around and despite being somewhat busy was easy to take my time and study pieces and have a little watch of the videos etc It was impressive but I can imagine not nearly as impressive as seeing the whole thing laid before you as it was meant to be in China. There was something lacking about seeing the individual statues instead of the whole formation and made me want to go out and see the whole thing even more!
The Museum also holds a permanent collection of contemporary art - Monet, Degas, Renoir which I love and then the Picasso's and the Joan Miro's which I still do not understand! To me a painting has to evoke something and Picasso and Miro merely evoke irritation in that I fail to see skill or recognise talent - don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I could do better and I know that i sound like someone from the Stone Age with opinions on art but I am an impressionist fan, not a surrealist one. As for the statement "the world is blue like an orange" really? Really, we're going to go down that road? I feel some artists just do things to see how far the boundaries of art can be pushed; it is not for the love of the art but for the attention, the controversy and that to me is a waste of time, and with some people, talent. In the end though, it is all in the eye of the beholder and I am no more qualified to pass judgment than the next Joe on the street!
After my half day in the gallery I went for a little wander about the city, just to have to discover what is around where I am staying and quite a bit actually, few shops, cafe's, restaurants, bars so enough to keep me fairly occupied really. When I came back to the hostel a few new people were moving in so we got chatting and then decided to take another exploratory walk around, this time all the way down to the East of the city, almost to the sea but not quite. It was good to see other parts, to get a little bit lost and discover new places.