Happy Labor Day.

So today was a bank holiday in Canada, and we headed uptown to Cote-Des-Neiges [or, Cote Day Nayyyyyyshe as the Quebecois/Emma pronounce it] to check out St. Joseph's Oratory. From the outside, it is a spectacular building and seeing it in the morning sunshine was beautiful.

In celebration of the fact it was Labor Day, please see a statue of Labor in the grounds in front of the Oratory:

Ok I'll admit I did feel a bit guilty taking this picture then racing up the 300 steps to the top, but I'd never seen anything like it [not going on many pilgrimages myself]. The most devoted visitors kneel on every step up to the Oratory and say a prayer on each one. They get a special lane:

At the top of the steps, there was a pleasant view of part of Montreal:

Inside the Oratory, one of the things I liked the most were the reliefs of scenes from Jesus' life. The shapes were cool and I liked whatever material they'd used on it:

We strolled in the gardens, which are lined with huge, beautiful statues of Jesus' last days. I thought the second one was particularly amazing:

The end point of our garden stroll was this fountain with a delightful gold lamb in it:

On our way back down, I voiced my distress at a numerous family enjoying a particularly frivolous family photo ON the statue of Jesus being crucified. They might as well go all-out and sunbathe on the statue of the resurrection. Or am I being a terrible prude?
xx