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In this feature, you can find special stuff related with Charlemagne, and how this town honors Celine Dion. Charlemagne is an off-island suburb of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the north shore of the Rivière des Prairies, 24 kilometres (15 mi) northeast of Montreal´s downtown core. As of 2006, the population was 5,594.
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THE MONUMENT
In June 2000 was built a monument in honor of Celine Dion. The monument was located in the entrance to the town of Charlemagne, Quebec. It consisted of a big globe as the "world", with a big white logo of Celine (the one used in the 90´s). Unfortunately, in April 2012 the monument was removed from its original place. When the monument was removed, the General Manager of Charlemagne, Bernard Boudreau said "We will pay tribute to Celine Dion, in another form, but the location and shape are not yet determined. It´s likely that this tribute will be located not too far from where the ball was". The disappearance of the monument was explained by the fact that the street where it was placed, would renovated.
...> The Monument
The monument, wich was situated at the entrance of the city of Charlemagne, was created by Normand Forget, collaborating with the town of Charlemagne, and it costed CAN $33,000. "We contacted Celine team to see if the singer can join us during the unveiling of her monument. So far nothing is sure. We´ll see on these coming days, as we want to inaugurate the monument before the falling of the first snow", said Bernard Boudreau (Charlemagne general director). The slightly lopsided globe emblazoned with Celine´s song lyrics and the "Celine" signature, greeted arrivals for the town.
After the removing of the globe monument, Canoe (Canadian portal site and website network) published the first photo from the place where the monument was placed, without it.
...> Original Monument
Originally, the globe monument (that also contained the logo "Celine" of the 90´s) was a metal structure with green vegetation and flowers on it (representing the world´s continents). After some years from its creation, the monument was totally redesigned, although continued being the world with the logo "Celine".
...> Fans On It
In 2009, in February, CBS News channel broadcasted footage from a winter fans´ trip to Charlemagne, and showed them taken photos next to the monument.
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THE BOULEVARD
The town of Charlemagne, has decided to name the end of the highway leading to them as "Céline Dion boulevard". Although it´s not officially recognized because it´s not allowed to officially name a place after a living person (except for the members of the Royal family), there are dozens of times this has been done in the past. The name will be used by everyone, just not registered in the government official records. The Mayor of Charlemagne, Normad Grenier, said "We didn´t want to wait for Celine Dion to die, she´s a world superstar who bringsthe Quebec all over the world. We appreciate her very much and we wanted to show her that in very tangible way".
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THE RESTAURANT
There´s a restaurant located in the town of Charlemagne called Restaurant Pizza Céline and of course is in honour of Celine Dion. Although, the Restaurant Pizza Céline is a private company categorized under Pizza and is not associated with Celine Dion in any way, except the name. Pizza Céline is located in a strip mall on the outskirts of the town, on the Chopin Bureau Street. Even there, there are no photos of Celine Dion inside and no pies named after her and her family. According to an article from The National Post (a Canadian English-language national newspaper), a waitress of Pizza Céline explained that they have to be careful about associating the place too closely with Ms. Dion. "There are a lot of Celines, but we couldn´t put Dion", she said of the pizzeria´s name. "They might sue us". Besides, the impression a first-time visitor gets is that most people there in Charlemagne view Celine as a source of pride, not a potential business opportunity.
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