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Discover Uville, A Unique Hotel-Museum In Old Montreal

By: Nov. 12, 2019
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Discover Uville, A Unique Hotel-Museum In Old Montreal  Image

You long to discover or rediscover Montreal while experiencing an exceptional hotel and dining experience? Hotel Uville brings the 60s and 70s back to life with its décor, archive photographs, NFB film collection, music and artifacts; a testimony to the vibrant and transformative era of the metropolis. Here is an incredible opportunity to immerse yourself in the unique history of a pivotal era, in a prime location facing Place d'Youville in Old Montreal. Are you ready for an unforgettable journey?

The whole world fell in love with Montreal during Expo 67. The six months of festivities and four years of design for this event have forever changed our city and its citizens. Of course, Expo 67 was the apogee of this period but these two decades also spawned new ideas and a contagious energy, confirming that everything was possible. Uville Hotel creatively revisits these remarkable years, and shares this vibrant past to help inspire us today. During your stay, discover the people and events that have shaped Montreal and left a footprint in our collective DNA.

The exclusive and original stories of Uville Hotel's 33 rooms are anchored in a retro atmosphere and begin on the page that corresponds to your room number. A special encounter with Montreal awaits through personalized texts and photos on the walls, as well as a selection of films offered on the hotel TV app.

From the 4th to the 1st floor of the hotel, Montreal's character emerges and transforms itself.

The 4th floor places Montreal in the 1960s. Who is Montreal? Who's in charge? What about the two solitudes that ignore each other? The 2nd and 3rd floors introduce you to Montreal at its most exciting and chaotic period as it prepares to host Expo 67 which will quickly accelerate the city's growth. The 1st floor places you in the 1970s and introduces some of the characteristics of the city that are still visible today: the legacy of these transformative years! Add to this very unique scripted experience, a comfortable bed, a few surprises, and all the modern conveniences of luxury hotels. The first rooms with a view on the autumn colors are already available today.

Hôtel Uville presents 400 archive photographs and 100 period objects. Cinema also occupies a prominent place with about 140 original films, 116 of them from the NFB, that can be viewed on site, in French and English. There is something for everyone: experimental films with the music of Leonard Cohen and Robert Charlebois, documentaries about our culture, little gems of silent films that show Montreal during this period, humorous short films drawing parallels between Anglophones and Francophones... Some pieces of anthologies rub shoulders with unknown artworks, all with the goal of exposing the richness of the cultural products of the 60's and 70's in the manner of a true treasure chest thoroughly researched, explained and presented.

Given the abundance of findings, one would need to stay a few weeks at Uville Hotel in order to digest everything, take a history course and have the pleasure of discovering the 60s and 70s!

The hotel's scenarist and creative director, Karine Lanoie-Brien, wanted first and foremost to tell a story, that of Montreal, as the city and its citizens experienced unparalleled growth and transformation. According to her, it is often in moments of quiet upheaval that our identity and character traits are revealed.

Isn't it these invisible features that allow us to develop a deep and lasting love for a city? Montreal is recognized and loved for its character and for still trying to define its character. Montreal in its soul-searching is beautiful, alive and creative. According to Lanoie-Brien, spending time at Uville Hotel is to seize a chance to develop an intimate relationship with our city and receive the best of what Montrealers have to share.

Meanwhile, author and historian Roger La Roche could not ignore his experience when rewriting the history of the 60s and 70s. His challenge, which was to narrate a specific period in history and to reinterpret certain postulates and half-truths. Thus, his recent writings allow the discovery of new territories while appreciating the landscapes of the past. Hotel Uville's 33 stories is in fact one single great story, that of a city and its citizens. This is quite an exercise in memory and research, coupled with an effort in honesty and rigor. Laroche's texts about the hotel and its rooms are above all the vision of a person in love with a city that has overcome its growing pains over the years and now displays the culture and the resilience of its citizens.

NFB's accepted to associate themselves with Hotel Uville in order to provide access, in a unique way, to films and movies that present a different perspective of an important phase of Montreal: the 60s and 70s. These films immerse us in the effervescent culture of this era, et tell some of the most significant stories of these unforgettable decades: Expo 67, the francophone place in society, the anglophone culture from Leonard Cohen to Mordecai Richler, the presence of Aboriginal people, jazz, humor, night life and hockey are just of few of the themes proposed by NFB.

Unique and special projects like this one require delicate and sustained attention. Uville Hotel was born thanks to the work of passionate people. Sincere thanks go to those who have helped us create this project and have fallen in love with it. As the collaboration of numerous talented and audacious people were the cornerstone of the 4 years of preparation of Expo 67, the creation of Uville Hotel-Museum was also the result of these elements along with non-conventional and creative thinking by passionate people across Quebec.

To book your stay now or get more information about Uville Hotel, go to uvillehotelmontreal.com.



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