Why "Epiphanies in the Rue Sansregret"?

No big mystery or deep-seated symbolism. Since I launched this blogspot in late 2009 I have been asked several times the origins and significance of the title - Epiphanies in the Rue Sansregret. In addition to Looking Toward Portugal, my general commentary blogspot launched a year earlier, I wanted to also host a site that would be confined to the posting of literary-based commentary while also sharing some of my own modest literary offerings . . . poetry, flash fiction and the like. Like I said . . . no big mystery.

During the winter of 2009-2010, during my annual visit to my favorite lodge in northern New Hampshire not far from the Canadian frontier, I chanced to make one of my occasional forays through Québec’s Eastern Townships to Montréal just a couple hours away. It was snowing quite hard when I arrived in the borough of Hochelaga Maisonneuve in the city’s east end. Considered to be Montréal’s version of Brooklyn, HoMA, as it is affectionately called, is erected on the presumed site of the village where, in 1535, the French explorer Jacques Cartier first made contact with the indigenous Iroquoian people living along the banks of what is now the St. Lawrence River. It was for a long time a down and out working class area famous for its street and biker gangs and the violence that accompanied them. Add to this chronic poverty as many of the local factories closed down. There was a brief and welcomed renaissance when the 1976 Summer Olympics took place nearby. And today the area is experiencing another reawakening although, in my mind, it is still an underrated and overlooked neighborhood where some of its original grittiness remains as a reminder of what once was.

These days there are a great many good Hochelagais places - old, new and retro - to eat and drink in HoMa, including one of my all time favorite sushi joints in the rue Ontario Est. That is where I chose to have lunch on this particular trip into the city. Street parking was at a premium due to the recent heavy snowfall yet I managed to find a spot on a back street just a few blocks from the restaurant. From there I had to navigate the deep snow banks and icy sidewalks. But I made it in one piece, and as always, it was a fantastic meal. I decided to take a short detour back to my car to walk it off.

Strolling down rue Joliette I came across a sign that immediately caught my attention; affixed to the brick wall of one of the row house, it pointed to rue Sansregret. How could I not venture forth to see a street promising "no regrets." The housing stock in Hochelaga was mostly constructed between 1880 and 1920; rows of brick and stone duplexes and triplexes. Interspersed behind them is a network of ruelles [alleys]. These thoroughfares first appeared in Montréal around 1845 when large rural properties were subdivided into smaller lots. Some are simply narrow unimproved footpaths while others are as wide as streets with names and their own addresses. Although officially defined as "a narrow street; especially a thoroughfare through the middle of a block giving access to the rear of lots or buildings," a "ruelle" originally referred to the small space between a bed and the adjacent wall, or, in more general terms, a literary coterie as well as the room where it met.

I took a short detour along rue Sansregret which extends for a single block and provides access to several garages and

the rear entries to residences along rue Joliette and rue de Chambly. It was on this detour, along this short stretch of Montréal alley, I found myself suddenly thinking of literary salons and the idea for this current blog came to mind. It would take a few more months before I was ready to launch, but when I did, I could think of no better title than this one.

I will further explore Québec’s Eastern Townships in my next posting. Stay tuned.