#brumedansmeslunettes

La brume dans mes Lunettes

Location:  378 Rue Saint-Zotique E

Metro station: Beaubien

Hello friends ♡ It’s certainly been a while since I’ve written on this blog… I apologize for that - I’ve been caught up with school and midterms, but I tried my best to update my Instagram at least (IG: legendoftamar). 

I come back to talk about one of my all time favorite coffee shops in Montreal. I’ve been saving this one because it’s not only one of the best I’ve gone to, but it also holds a special place in my heart. 

Let’s take ourselves back about a few months ago. On a cold November morning. Fall had just given in to an overwhelming snow storm, introducing winter to Montreal. When the first snowfall hits Montreal, a lot changes in the city. People get angrier, drivers forget how to drive, students arrive to school an hour into their lecture, the bus system gets suspended; basically, everyone loses their mind. Including me. 

I woke up that morning in a bad mood. I was in a bad mood not because of the snow. I was in a bad mood every morning. To understand why, we have to take ourselves back to many other moments of my life and frankly we don’t have time to relive so much of the past. Long story short, I have anxiety. And at that point of my life, it was taking over. I couldn’t deal with it and I didn’t want to deal with it and instead I woke up every morning in a miserable mood. I put on my makeup and put on my smile and went on with my day. But this morning, something in me changed. Maybe it was the snow that made me go insane. 

I was determined to go to a cafe before school. To leave the stress behind for a few hours. To runaway to a place I felt comfortable and at ease. I decided to take an earlier bus to the metro and make it to a cafe I had been wanting to go for so long. And where does the insanity come into play? The coffee shop was a good 10 minute walk away from the metro station. A 10 minute walk in a snow storm. In Montreal. Not Vancouver - where their snowstorm is basically 3 snowflakes per hour. It was pouring and the wind was insane but I still did it. The snow made me lose my rational thinking, but sometimes it’s good to be illogical and just go for it. I was the only one walking on the streets. My motivation impressed me. However, I should mention that I also forgot to save the route to the shop since I didn’t have cellphone data. I walked up and down streets like a lost little pigeon.. in a  middle of a snowstorm… but I found the place eventually. You couldn’t imagine my happiness when I saw “La Brume” through my snow-covered glasses.

As I was going in, I thought how lucky I was going to be to have the whole place to myself since no one else is as crazy as me to go out on a day like this. But when I opened the door, I realized the cafe was packed. To almost its limit. I could hear laughter, coffee brewing, milk being steamed, keyboard typing. I could smell freshly made pastries and fresh coffee. And the coffee shop scene I was witnessing - of baristas running around, students working and friends talking - was beautiful. Coming in from an almost deserted winter storm, where only the snowflakes dared to dance in the wind, I was greeted with warmth and people. The barista spotted me in the crowd of people and said hello from behind his counter. Sitting down in a little corner on the bar by the window, I looked around and all I could feel was happiness. Coffee lovers’ passion for coffee and company is contagious. I caught myself smiling and it wasn’t part of the make up this time. This was better than having the place to myself. 

This shop really does live up to its name. “La Brume dans mes Lunettes” means “fog in my glasses” in French. All their windows were fogged up, which gave the shop a gorgeous feel and isolated the cafe from the cold scene of the winter storm. My actual glasses did fog up also when I came in, so bonus points for that! I also realized the cafe had a little corner for an individual seating by two windows which was probably their best seat. Maybe I’ll get it next time. The walls were covered with interest art and decorations. Their main aesthetic was wooden. It was an overall beautiful cafe.

I spent an hour pretending to read my Differential Equations notes, but really all I was doing was taking pictures of my latte. But it made me happy. And sometimes, that’s all that matters. Sometimes you have to treat yourself to a beautiful moment - outside of school, outside of routine, or just outside, in a snowstorm.. It’s important to take some time to regenerate. If you’ve been going through a tough time - may it be for a few years or a few days - and you suddenly get the urge to spoil yourself by running away from reality for a little bit, do it. If you’ve been working hard to try to figure out life and doing your best to be your best, then you deserve having moments that make you happy. Getting out of your usual cycle can make you see life in a different way and put a lot in perspective. In my case, it allowed me to stop. Take a breath. Freeze in the cold. Rethink. Regenerate. And decide. Decide that I wanted to be happy. Decide that I wanted to stop being a slave to my anxiety and start learning to deal with it.