The Saguenay Apartments

The Sanueney is a highrise with 21 floors on Sherbrooke close to San Laurent. We lived on the 16^th floor in a corner apartment and had a pretty grand view of the river, but also of Mont Royal. If I wanted a 360 view I could go up on the rooftop. We lived in a 4 ½, which in American translates to a 2 bedroom, or in Swedish description to a 3 room apartment. If anyone knows what the 4 ½ stands for, please let me know!
The Sanueney is manned by a blonde lady named Sonia, who was probably a beauty in her days. She spoke in a raspy voice, not surprising given the amount of cigarettes she smoked outside her office. My boyfriend was terrified of her. When he moved in she told him to pay a hefty deposit (not legal in Montréal), to pay an entire years rent in advance. He told her the deposit was illegal and that he didn’t have the money for the whole year, and instead ended up with a rent that was a couple of hundred dollars over the norm. But we didn’t know that, we had just moved there from San Francisco. Bugger! She continued to abuse us by entering and showing the apartment without forwarning, and then also lenghening our contract three months instead of two, which was what we asked for. Beware of Sonia!
The apartment had a lot of light, and had no mice which I heard is common in Montréal. It could take a while to get the elevator down during «rush hour» which was around 5pm. The laundry room usually had a washer and dryer over for me so not to much waiting for somebody to finish.
The building seems to have a big population of senior citizens. The foul smell of their culinary enterprises would enter our apartment through the vents most days.
We had cats, so that is allowed!