In the same vein as my previous post, before I ended up in Westmount Thursday before last I made a quick trip to Mile End. Not that I had the time--my train had arrived late thanks to debris on the tracks outside of Coteau, and I was due to meet a friend for brunch in the lower Plateau at 10--but I hadn't been to Cafe in Gamba in a few visits. Chief among my weaknesses might be an excessive fondness for high-end espresso, so I sought out a bus that would take me up Parc to Gamba's little spot north of Fairmount. As I've done a few times before, I missed the stop and ended up much further up Parc, around St-Viateur. Oh well, I can walk, even when it's -15 C. And walk I did, making excellent time as a consequence of wanting to get out of the cold as soon as possible.

Before I started to hoof it south (Montreal south, that is), however, I stopped to take the picture above. I like how the small restaurant Aux Lilas seems like it has been hastily stuck to the front corner of the older brick building behind it. It almost looks like a toy, bright lavender and tiny as it is.