The off-the-beaten-path faces and places of the total eclipse in Montreal

While Montreal's downtown may have been in the path of totality of Monday's eclipse, it certainly wasn't destination No. 1 for many viewers. 

Shortly after noon, streets near the city's bridges began to fill with cars leaving the island for the viewing experience. 

Hundreds of thousands headed off-island — where they could see the eclipse outside of a busy city, free of skyscrapers and noise from construction crews — or to nearby landmarks, such as Sainte-Hélène Island on the St. Lawrence River, where activities had been planned for months.

Enya Astelle and her friend Josiane Neault danced to songs emanating from the car next to theirs on Ste-Catherine Street East, as they sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The two were heading back to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, about 40 kilometres away, after having travelled into town to pay a fine.

"We're going to watch from the hot tub! My mom's freaking out. It's a really big deal for her. It should be fun," said Astelle. 

But a city's a city and the work never stops, so CBC decided to chat with the stragglers, the workers, the urban dwellers — who stayed in town, stepped outside and were delighted by what they saw, or didn't give a hoot at all. 

"For me, it's like you would say in English: 'No big deal!'" said Claudette Desmarais, who was running some errands downtown.

Sequins sparkled on the white ball cap atop her head, but Desmarais said she wasn't a fan of the moon and the stars, or anything that people made too much of a big deal about, really. 

Kamel Bousba and his two children, Yasmine and Massine, stood in line at a bus stop on St-Hubert Street, waiting to catch a ride to the science centre in the Old Port. For them, this was a big deal. 

"It's rare to see the eclipse. My history teacher says it only happens about once every 100 years," said Massine. "We learned that there's only a 0.05 per cent chance of seeing an eclipse in your life," his sister said. 

Bousba said he'd been lucky enough to see a total eclipse once before, when he still lived in Algeria in 2004. 

"My kids haven't stopped asking questions about it. At the time, people were scared. But it was amazing. It's really beautiful. It's like the time changes, and becomes darker and darker and then bright as day again," said Bousba.

Up the street, traffic signaller Carole Therrien sat on a little bench outside the construction site she was working for. 

"I don't have any eclipse glasses or anything so I won't be able to see it, but I didn't really try anyway," said Therrien, who would be working throughout the celestial event.