Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time), by using the blue link-up button below.
Montreal Mural Fest 2018 (Oh yeah, and a few doors too)
I’ll be the first to point out that I’m kinda cheating at my own game this week because there are not that many doors in this post.
We took some time last Friday afternoon to head down to the sixth annual edition of the Montreal Mural Festival and I got so carried away with the artwork that I forgot to get enough good pics of doors 😀
Each year about a 3 km stretch of St-Laurent is closed to traffic for the 10 days of the festival. Heading north from the edge of downtown towards Plateau Mont Royal is where the bulk of the murals can be found.
Overall it’s a part of town that contains an interesting mix of shops, restaurants, and apartments. This thrift shop/gift shop/head shop is certainly one example of that.
It’s also nice to see that some folks above the shop have a twisted sense of humor.
For anyone planning to visit there’s an interactive map on the festival website showing exactly where everything is. Building owners who commit one of their walls to the festival sign an agreement not to paint over the art for at least one year. And many of the top ones are left for much longer, only painted over when they start to peel.

A little context: this one is directly across the street from an apartment high-rise with lots and lots of windows
The bulk of it can be seen on foot in one 3-4 hour walk, but each year new buildings take part so with more to see it’s getting harder to get to it all in one visit.
We took advantage of a free guided tour offered by one of the events sponsors. Well it wasn’t totally free; we had to provide the pedal power for our bicycle bus 😉
Our guide did a good job of explaining the different techniques used by the renowned artists who come from all over the planet each year for this event.
Personally I blame this distraction for my not paying enough attention to doors, and believe me on the residential streets in this part of town there are some beautiful doors.
Some major renos going on here but put a nice piece of stained glass in this one and you’ve got a winner.
I’ve been posting my mural shots on Instagram all week so if you follow me there some of these might look familiar.
It’s not all art and beauty though. Like any big city there are some eyesores that need to be dealt with.
And some run of the mill industrial blandness too.
We finished up and went for a bite just as the light was fading.
The Montreal Mural festival runs for ten days covering two weekends in mid June. And even if you don’t make it for the actual festival the murals can be enjoyed all year long.
Thanks for looking 🙂
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I love mural trails!! Thanks for taking us on the tour Norm! 🙂
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Fabulous selection of doors and street art. It’s a mystery to me how the street artists can paint such awesome murals on such a large scale. Pure magic.
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Love your art murals and doors collection; which reminds me I still have to follow up on partial post of the Hawaii Pow Wow art murals and doors.
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Fantastic murals Norm. What a city you live in.
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Thanks for those amazing photos, Norm. I feel as if I had been there myself, looking at them. What a great day you must have had at that festival.
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Beautiful murals. It’s ok to be sidetracked once in awhile.
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Sidetracked, yes! That is the perfect way to describe it 🙂
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Marvelous collection here, Norm. Thanks so much for sharing the murals. Those rehab doors are great, and I appreciate the side shot most of all. LOVE the shot of the sun setting 🙂 If I may say, your word choices and descriptors in this piece are every bit as good as the photos.
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Thank you for the very kind words Joey. I’m glad you enjoyed this 🙂
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Definitely no need to apologise for taking the spotlight off doors a bit this week. The ones you’ve included are more than worthy (I especially like the one on the building being renovated!)
I was also particularly captivated by the mural with what appears to be a jester (?) but I cannot decipher what the words say. Is it French?
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If I remember correctly our guide said the artist was South-American Spanish.
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Hmm I’ll have to show it to my South American friends and see if they can read it. It’s an excellent mural nonetheless!
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Apparently it roughly translates to “if you thirst for gold, you’ll have no water”. Very profound 🤔
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Amazing.
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Thank you Jim 🙂
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Super murals, and hey what? Doors fit in walls, right?
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Absolutely right 😉
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I love the idea of a Murals festival. I wonder if there is such a thing here in LA… I love the murals and you got some very interesting doors there so that’s not cheating. I enjoyed the post very much. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you Angela 🙂
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I thoroughly enjoyed this, Norm.
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I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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🙂
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Oh yes, be it just a few doors or a lot of doors, these are great! A 3 or 4-hour walks? Is this your normal walking day? Which reminds me – greet Joanne for me tomorrow and have a great time! So good that you are meeting her!
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Thanks Manja. As long as it’s not too hot and I’ve had a good night’s rest I can walk for hours, with occasional rest breaks.
Joanne says hi right back. We had a fun day on the trail with perfect weather.
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I saw your photo. 😮 You are wicked pros! Not gonna have any of that over here! 😉
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This is street art at its best! Montreal really does some cool things that are a bit unusual and this is a great example of it. I still love the first photo with the giant roses. Like you, I may not ‘get’ it, but it is visually stunning.
… and the bike bus is worth 10 door photos 🙂
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Oh that bike bus was lots of fun. It doesn’t go very fast but everyone was slowing down to wave and smile, or some to just stop and stare. We had such a blast!
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I would have been one of those people staring, waving, and taking photos 🙂
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Some of these murals are soo huge! The street with the brown and orange pillars at the doors – so much character -would not mind living there (if it was not so much North with long winters!)
Can imagine that the murals are a distraction to capture the doors – smile -interesting post!
Jesh StG posting from my other blog this week.
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Thanks Jesh. I’m sure you’d get used to the cold, you just have to dress for it 😉
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We saw so many beautiful murals when we visited Montreal a couple of years ago. I wish we had been there during the event but the good news is that, with murals, they are up year-round and available for everyone to see for free. I’m pretty sure Norm will let you slide on the Thursday Doors rules just this time 😉.
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Thank you. The murals do make this part of town even more fun to visit 🙂
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Love the doors and the street art!
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Thank you, glad you liked it 🙂
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That bicycle bus looks like fun!
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It was 😀
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Great photos of street art and doors. I agree that they’re not all beautiful, but they’re all interesting and alive. I actually like the colourful one with the bikes. I’m sure my grandchildren would love it!
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Thank you Luccia. The murals do make this a fun part of town for an afternoon walk.
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Hi Norm,
I added your challenge my list of photo challenges. Please check out the information to make sure I got it correctly. https://ceenphotography.com/for-the-love-of-challenges/photo-challenges/ Thanks.
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That is awesome Cee – thank you so much! I’ve been meaning to send you my info…but.
Well, I owe you one. Thank you so much 🙂
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Someone yesterday asked if you were still doing the challenge … because it wasn’t listed. And so I listed it quick. 😀 😀
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I’m with Dan — that Hotel door — and the hotel, itself, wins me over!
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Thank you Marian. That one is a beauty 🙂
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Very nice post! You have doors here with lots of character, I like them. But the murals are incredible! =)
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Thanks Brenda. This Mural festival has done a great job of making our beautiful city even prettier 🙂
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You really found some great murals!
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It’s amazing how many there are in this one part of the city, and as I mentioned many of them change each year so there’s always something new to discover.
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I love it!
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I was in Montreal’s Mile End Le Plateau area last year and saw many of the murals.
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Yeah it’s a pretty cool trendy part of town 🙂
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I was in Montreal last July for the Comedy Festival and walking around we found all these great murals. I didn’t know they were there because of the mural festival. Looking forward to finding more this July 🙂
Great shots, Norm. I agree with Judy, that first one needs some eye time 🙂
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Thanks. It is a cool part of town to just walk around and explore. You’ll see a fair number of new mural this year if you go.
And if you’re at all interested in getting together for a bite or a coffee while you’re in just let me know. If the timing works it would be nice to meet you in person 🙂
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Nice idea, Norm. We’ll probably be in for a weekend during the comedy festival. I’ll check in with you when we know our dates . If You’re available that would be great.
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These murals are amazing, she says stating the obvious. Thanks for sharing them here and on IG. While the fancy wood door photos are nice, I like the one photo of the three doors. That takes some doing!
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Thanks Ally It was a fun afternoon.
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Definitely enough doors to keep you honest, Norm, and where else would we see these types of murals if you didn’t showcase them. I think I would bring a chair and just spend the afternoon looking at the first one. That is truly an amazing piece of art. Thank you for sharing them with us.
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Thank you Judy. I feel my rules are kinda lax for others so once in a while I can cheat a bit too 😉
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This is a great festival, I love murals too.
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Thank you Kelly 🙂
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This is one of my favorite Montreal festivals. I missed it this year as I was on holiday, so it’s nice to enjoy it on your post. But I still need to wander up there for a look even if it’s too late for that festival vibe!
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Well you find lots of nice new ones to see on your next visit to the area.
Thanks Susi 🙂
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The doors have some strong competition here. Thanks for the tour of some impressive street art with a few intriguing doors thrown in. The solid, classical porches over open steel steps (picture 8) look like a curious local twist on a familiar style.
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Thanks Judith. I’m glad you enjoyed this 🙂
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Thursday Murals, very nice!
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Thank you. I’m glad you liked them 🙂
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The murals are stunning, Norm. I can see why you would be distracted. Besides, I think the “Hotel” door is enough to carry the day for Thursday Doors – that’s a great door! I love the idea of a peddle-powered bus, that’s really cool.
As for the murals, I think I like the kid with the slingshot the best, but they are all amazing. Maybe next year, those bland buildings will get facelift.
Thanks for sharing this!
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Thanks Dan. Yes that bike-bus was really cool – it didn’t go fast but it was lots of fun
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Doors and street art…does it get any better than this?
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No Sir it does not 😉
I had a feeling that you would enjoy this post.
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Amazing street art 😍😍
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I agree 100% – thanks Sarah 🙂
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