← PreviousChristmas Day on the High Line26 December
Among New York's must-sees is, of course, Wall Street, the heart of global finance. The streets of this neighbourhood aren't necessarily spectacular, and since it's late December it's reasonable to think this is the quietest time of year. We take a few photos at iconic spots before heading to a gigantic store, Century 21. Offering all kinds of clothes over five floors, it's a paradise for bargain hunters and lovers of designer clothes at slashed prices. Its only drawback is a big one: it's far too popular, and the narrow aisles soon look like the Paris ring road, which can put off the less patient. Stéphane buys a pair of shoes and a perfume before settling into the room where customers can wait for partners who take too long over their shopping. Cassandre finishes her purchases and we leave this sweatbox to eat a burger at a trendy fast-food place: Shake Shack. Exclusively New York, this chain, created in 2004, has over time become not only a source of pride for New Yorkers but also an obligatory stop for tourists in search of culinary discoveries.
Once again the place is full and ready to burst. You have to queue to order and then wait again to sit down. But unlike civilised places where a queue would be formed for people to wait in, here you have to compete in cunning. Having understood that we'd struggle to find a seat, we decide to wait next to a table until the diners finish their meals. Fortunately that happens quite quickly, but we notice a few tense moments around us, with people disagreeing about who arrived first. We leave the place with full stomachs but not particularly impressed.
To work off the excess calories, we walk to the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Opened in May 1883, it has since become one of the symbols of the city, often visible in wide shots of films set in the Big Apple. Once again there's an incredible crowd, and the footpath is tiny! Cars share six lanes while walkers and cyclists get the equivalent of a narrow alley. It's already very hard to move, so if you add to the equation all the vain people looking for their photo from the best angle, you'll understand that we don't move very fast. You can feel the cyclists' annoyance when they have to shout to get the selfie-takers out of the bike lane, which is clearly marked. The weather is fine, the sun warms our well-wrapped bodies, and we calmly finish the crossing to land in Brooklyn. There, instead of turning back and diving into the stream of tourists again, we head for DeKalb Avenue station to cross the neighbouring Manhattan Bridge by subway and get a fine view of the Brooklyn Bridge. Bingo: the R line crosses the bridge and lets us enjoy the panorama in a different light.
We then make a little detour to New York's unmissable central station: Grand Central. Located in the centre of Manhattan, in Midtown, it's the largest station in the world by number of platforms: 44, serving 67 tracks on two levels. Hit by competition from planes, run down and squatted by dealers, Grand Central almost disappeared in the 1970s; it was the support of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis that saved it from destruction and allowed it to be renovated and converted into a commuter station. In the main hall hangs a huge American flag. An odd detail for a station: there isn't a single bench. The ceiling of the main hall, 38 metres high, is covered with paintings of 2,500 stars, constellations created by the Frenchman Paul César Helleu. As we're close by, we decide to visit the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue before heading back to Astoria.
After playing tourists and walking the dogs, we want to discover the life of the neighbourhood, so we go to eat at a souvlaki restaurant we'd spotted (Astoria is home to a large Greek community). The meal is very good, but we don't linger because we want to go somewhere a little special. Ten minutes away by car, we head back to Brooklyn for a drink in one of the most beautiful rooftops in the city: the Westlight. On the 22nd floor of the William Vale hotel tower, this very classy bar offers a 360-degree view over Manhattan and Brooklyn. The lighting is soft and the volume pleasant without being intrusive. We savour a glass of wine in very comfortable armchairs, contemplating the night-time silhouette of Manhattan and its illuminated buildings. The Empire State Building sparkles with a hypnotic play of colours, and we find ourselves unable to take our eyes off the horizon, even in the middle of a conversation. We go out onto the terrace so that no glass separates us from this cinematic vision and take a few photos before getting back in the car.
27 December
Driving in New York isn't as hard as you might think. The roads are straight, very wide and very often one-way. Parking, on the other hand, is another matter. Being fluent in English is of no use here, as you'd almost need to learn another language to decipher the multitude of signs adorning every street. After walking our dogs one last time and cleaning the apartment, we judge that it would be easier to park in Manhattan before heading back to Montreal. By parking on the Upper East Side near Central Park, we save travel time, and it makes it easier for our friends Yacine and Farah, who are also in New York and plan to make the return trip with us, to join us. Reality soon catches up with us. You should know that in New York most streets are cleaned every day, one side then the other depending on the day, so it's almost impossible to stay parked on the same side for more than 48 hours. Add to that all the fire hydrants you can't park in front of, car park and hotel entrances, roadworks and delivery zones, and you'll quickly understand the hell that looking for a space can become in some neighbourhoods, like the one we're in. However much we drive around in circles, the lack of spaces pushes us inexorably towards Harlem, and it takes a stroke of luck for us to leave the car not far from the Jewish Museum.
A few minutes' walk away, we discover Central Park. A cousin of Montreal's Mount Royal park, this 341-hectare park is probably the most famous in the world. Opened in 1876, it's a place full of history but also the lungs of one of the most urban cities in the world. Central Park is a true oasis of greenery in the middle of Manhattan's forest of skyscrapers, even though it lies in the north of the island, where the buildings are a little lower. It contains several artificial lakes, footpaths, two ice rinks, a wildlife protection area and vast lawns. A 9.7-kilometre road, relatively little used by drivers, circles the park. It can be used by pedestrians, runners, cyclists and rollerbladers, especially at weekends and on weekdays after 7 pm, when cars are banned altogether. The park is huge and it takes us no less than two hours to go round it properly and see all its points of interest.
We then head up to southern Harlem for lunch before setting off again. Harlem has played a major role throughout New York's history. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Harlem Renaissance made it the main centre of African-American culture; later, the neighbourhood became one of the centres of the civil rights struggle, Harlem having long been, and still being, a place where African Americans are concentrated. You notice it as you go further north in Manhattan: the buildings are older and shabbier, the streets dirtier and the population more mixed. Considered a high-crime ghetto only a few years ago, Harlem is today becoming a dynamic and attractive neighbourhood. We barely have time to discover more, because once our stomachs are full of a good Senegalese meal, it's already time to head back to Montreal. We meet our friends Yacine and Farah at the car and at 3 pm we set off.
The journey goes faster than on the way there, as we talk the whole way. Five and a half hours later we arrive “already” at Canadian customs, and here again it's all done in two minutes. After dropping off and saying goodbye to our friends, who are going back to France for good, we finally get home, exhausted but very happy with these few days in New York. The city being so easy to reach, we plan to go back in a few months when the temperatures are more pleasant.
29 December
Our friend Marc from Réunion is going home today for the holidays, and for the occasion he delivers us a very special parcel: his rabbit! Having found nobody who could look after it for the whole of his three-week holiday, we had offered to keep it at our place. So Marc turns up with his little Loko and all his gear. Pets are officially forbidden in our building, but nobody will notice a rabbit! No, you haven't misread: having a pet in Montreal is extremely complicated, especially dogs. Landlords have the right, save for exceptions, to refuse animals in the lease for reasons of hygiene (bedbugs), noise (barking for hours, for example), smells or respect for the premises. In short, a whole host of reasons that mean that, as a tenant, finding a place that accepts cats and dogs can quickly become an obstacle course (to our great sadness). So we're delighted when this little ball of fur with long ears arrives at our place! Once the litter tray and bowls are set up, we're ready to fully take on our role as keepers. We chat a little before Marc finally takes his leave to catch his plane. We end our Sunday evening as three, with “our” little rabbit, who has made his home on the living-room rug (which will turn out to be his favourite spot in the apartment).
31 December
Here we are, it's the last day of 2019. This year will once again have been a slightly unusual one, spread over several continents: a month in Guadeloupe, three months in Colombia, five months in France and the last three months in Canada. Could we have trouble settling down somewhere? Not at all, come on. We'd have preferred to spend New Year's Eve with our loved ones in France, but the price of plane tickets quickly put us off. So we'll spend 31 December 2019 in Canada. For the occasion we're invited to the home of Patrick and Marie-Claude, a Québécois couple who hosted us through Airbnb when we arrived and with whom we've kept in touch, along with some of their friends. We're asked to arrive at 6:30 pm. For us, 6:30 pm is normally when we're only just starting to get ready, but we're not going to be fussy French people. After picking up our rental car, we take the (snowy) road to Farnham, our destination. We thought it would take more than an hour because of the heavy snow that had fallen all day, but we get there in barely three quarters of an hour.
It's 6:40 pm and naturally we assume we must be the first to arrive. Not at all. Everyone is already there and barely 20 minutes later, just time to get acquainted over a glass of mulled wine, we sit down to eat! It's strange to think that it's 6:50 pm on New Year's Eve and we're already ready to eat! The first dishes arrive (a ceviche, a salad, chips with guacamole…) and so we start eating, with restraint of course, in anticipation of the main course that must surely be waiting behind. There will be no main course. What we took for appetisers turns out to be our only food of the evening. So there we are an hour later, at 7:30 pm, with our New Year's Eve dinner over. It's not really our idea of a New Year's Eve party but fine, we're guests so we go along with our hosts. Without wasting a minute, we all go down to the basement to carry on the evening with music, pool, karaoke and drinks. Knowing we finished eating before 8 pm, we still have many hours ahead of us before bringing out the champagne to celebrate the new year (whereas usually the evening starts so late that we don't even realise it's already midnight).
After several bottles downed, several games of pool and hours of karaoke singing out of tune, it's midnight, and here we stick to the rule: the champagne and glasses come out. The evening carries on for a few more hours in joy and good spirits! Happy 2020 to all!