Celebrated cartoonist Stephan Pastis swoons over Montréal

When cartoonist Stephan Pastis visited Montréal last autumn, he fell hard. We’re not taking about an accidental tumble during a rookie’s attempt to play hockey, or even a sudden slip on an icy sidewalk. We’re talking about good old fashion love.

The Montréal Gazette reported that the creator of Pearls Before Swine — which reaches an estimated 17.6 million readers a day — spent a few days exploring some of the best that the city has to offer: eating smoked meat, visiting indie bookshops, walking to the top of Mont Royal and even taking in a Hab’s game (Montréal’s hockey team).

It seems that Pastis knew he might love Montréal, but a visit sealed the deal.

“When I researched Montréal, it just seemed like one of the coolest cities I could visit,” states Pastis in an interview with 375 Montréal. “It’s funny. When you tell people you’re going to Montréal, everybody has the same reaction back where I live. They go, “Ooooh!’”

Maybe he’ll even return for the 375th anniversary celebrations of Montréal, set to take over the city in 2017. Heck, he still has much of the city to discover — and he knows it.

“There are so many great, diverse neighborhoods that you could spend a whole day, if not a week in.”

For the time being, it looks as though Pastis will maintain a long-distance love affair with Montréal. But sometimes the best love affairs take time.

Je vous aime, M. Pastis!