Mount Royal Lookout
September 4, 2005 | 1:35 p.m.

I had just spent the afternoon looking for my great-great-grandfather's grave in Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges. Since I was already halfway up Mount Royal, and had my camera in hand, I wandered up chemin Olmsted, one of the carriage paths Frederick Law Olmsted laid out in the park, to the Kondiaronk Belvedere which undoubtedly offers the best vistas of the city.

The place was packed that warm Saturday before Labour Day -- kids bounding across the plaza while their parents screamed for them to "viens ici!," lots of tourists snapping shots of themselves with the skyline as backdrop, and lots of runners catching their breath after making the 5-kilometre run up the slope of the mountain.