Les Conteurs, Plateau-Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec

Les Conteurs, a mural by Richard Morin, was completed in 2011 and is another example of the MU project. It was part of the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of L'École nationale de théâtre of Canada. It was MU's most ambitious undertaking.

Octave Crémazie, Plateau-Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec

The statue of the poet Octave Crémazie (1826–79) impressively stands at the entrance to the square Saint-Louis, where it was originally unveiled in 1906 at the instigation of Louis Fréchette.

Portuguese writers in the Plateau-Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec

In 2009 twelve public benches were installed in the quartier portugais on the boulevard Saint-Laurent to acknowledge the fifty years of the presence of the Portuguese community in Montréal.

Each bench is inscribed with a quotation by a Portuguese writer and is decorated with ceramic tiles (or azulejos) by four Montréal artists of Portuguese origin.

Unfortunately, several of the benches have suffered from graffiti attacks. Below I show all of the benches, although I only mention the writers to whom the benches are dedicated and don't give the quotations.

Logically, the starting point for the benches is parc du Portugal, a small park where there are many tiles, such as in the example of this fountain. From here southwards the benches feature on both sides of the boulevard Saint-Laurent, although the sequence below is in no particular order.

Miguel Torga.

Natália Correia.

José Saramago.

Eça de Queirós.

Luis de Camões.

Père António Vieira.

Dom Dinan.

Fernando Pessoa.

Gil Vicente.

Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage.

Antero de Quental.

António Lobo Antunes.

Michel Tremblay in Plateau-Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec

A notice under the mural states:

'2013 and 2014 marked the 45th anniversary of the first showing of Les Belles-soeurs (1968) and the 30th of Albertine, en cinq temps (1984); the 40th anniversary of C'ta ton tour Laura Cadieux, Hosanna and La duchesse de Langeais ([all in] 1973); and above all, the 35th anniversary of the beginning of Les Chroniques du Plateau-Mont-Royal with the publication of La Grosse Dame d'à côté est enceinte in 1978. So it's impossible to let this occasion go by without paying homage to Michel Tremblay in one of the series of murals produced by MU* which pay homage to the cultural builders of Montréal.

Directly inspired by the author's body of work, Rafael Sottolichio's mural at once celebrates Michel Tremblay's invaluable contribution to the literature of Québec and the typical world of Montréal on which he sheds light: the inescapable Plateau.'  (My translation.)

*A non–profit-making organisation whose aim is to promote and support public art within the metropolitan area of Montréal.

Félix Leclerc in Plateau-Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec

Debout is a monument to Félix Leclerc (1914–88) which was installed in Parc La Fontaine in 1990 after a huge campaign by the Mouvement national des Québécois in association with the sculptor Roger Langevin. In front of the statue is a flower bed with a metal ring around the edge bearing a few of Leclerc's words:

'NOUS SOMMES DES QUÉBÉCOIS ISSUS DE LA VIEILLE FRANCE MAÎTRES CHEZ NOUS ET LOIN DES ROIS APRÈS TROIS SIÈCLES DE PATIENCE NOUS SOMMES QUÉBÉCOIS DEPUIS ET POUR DES SIÈCLES...'

An interpretation panel states that Leclerc is considered to be the father of the chanson québécoise, and mentions his 'Moi mes souliers', 'Le p'tit bonheur' and 'L'Hymne au printemps' as celebrating the imagination of childhood, nature, the countryside, love and the world of humble people remaining close to their pioneering origins. It quotes a few words of his which display his love for his country:

'In certain countries there are vines, in others silk; here we have words. We make songs as others make guns, we could make a country with words.'

Émile Nelligan in Plateau-Mont-Royal and Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal, Québec

Émile Nelligan (1879–1941) has understandably been compared to Rimbaud – a poet of clear brilliance in his teens and then... And then, for Nelligan at least, it was internment for life as a mentally ill person.

A number of writers, including Nelligan, were associated with Plateau Mont-Royal, especially with the area around Square Mont-Louis. Here there is a monument to Louis Crémazie (incidentally an influence on Nelligan) and a bust of Nelligan himself.

Émile Nelligan was buried in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in the Côte-des-Neiges area of Montréal.