With each new birthday, astute ‘Livre des Visages’ observers note my age. As of February 2015 j’ai quatre-vingt-seize ans! (Do the math anglos: 4 X 20 + 16 = 96 years old).  There is a story of how this came to be:

When I signed up for L-d-V (Book of Faces) there was a slider for age or year of birth.  Sliders make me want to push the limits.  The limit at the time I signed up was 1919 so that is why I am 96 on L-d-V as of 2015.

With each additional year, I feel like I should fill out my timeline as there is presently a big gap between my L-d-V birthday and my real-time birthday that should really be documented. I’ll find pictures that are year appropriate.  Project duly noted.

The monument pictured to the right is in honour of Georges-Etienne Cartier, well enough known in Québec but in the ROC he enters history as John A. Macdonald’s ally.  Without M. G-E Cartier, Canada would .not exist in the form we know it.  The monument is in Jeanne-Mance park (or is that part of Parc Mont-Royal?).  When I begin skiing, bicycling, running or walking up Olmstead Way into Parc Mont-Royal I pass before (or behind) this monument.  Let’s say the angel guards the entrance to Olmstead Way.  It happens that this monument was erected in 1919, my L-d-V birth year.  It was recently restored at the cost of millions, which is quite understandable for a 96 year old.  There is a fantastic view of the monument when you are coming up the bike path in Jeanne-Mance park from Rachel.  This photo gives angel-appropriate back-lighting to the monument.  It is a stunning monument from any angle at any time of day.