(Note: Move Day is actually July 1, so this posting is out of order, but it seemed to make more sense here as I begin to tell about starting our lives here in Montreal.)
I've lived in about a dozen different states in the U.S. and a few different countries, but Montreal is the only place I've lived that had one day of the year designated as "Move Day" when the vast majority of the leases turn over. This is no small thing in a city with a population of 1.65 million people, where reportedly 74% of the residents rent.
The history of Move Day is pretty interesting. It dates back to the 18th century when the French colonial government made it illegal for tenant farmers to be evicted from land in the middle of winter. The date for leases to end was moved to the end of the school year by the Canadian government in the '70's to accommodate the tens of thousands of students. Though not legally required now, most annual leases begin on July 1. It helps that Move Day is also a national holiday, Canada Day, which marks the birth of Canada (i.e., the Canadian Federation) through the North America Act on July 1, 1867.
According to statistics from the electric company for the province of Quebec, Hydro-Quebec, in 2010, on July 1, 2010, 750,000 moved across the province of Quebec and 250,000 moved in Montreal alone. Here's a news story about that if you're interested in reading more:
Having heard about moving day and hoping there would be much furniture up for grabs that day, we drove up on June 30 to scan the streets. (We were determined not to incur the expense of bringing a whole moving van of furniture here just for the year.) We got very lucky on Moving Day!
From a chaise lounge chair for our new terrace,
To a bureau for our guest room,
A desk and chair for Cameron's room (on the right)
A bureau for our room,
And best of all, a couch and lovely wooden comfy chair for our living room
We were glad to have a CRV since trucks and moving vans are double or triple the normal rate on Move Day. Many people seem to move close to their old apartment, so it was common to see people walking down the street in small groups carrying lamps or other small furniture items.
We learned one has to move fast about collecting abandoned furniture on Move Day because by the evening of July 1, large city trucks had hauled away everything from beds to refrigerators that had been left on the sidewalks.
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