Bienvenue aux utilisateurs francophones de ce site! To accomodate the majority of solvers, that I presume to be English speakers, I clued all the words I could in English and left only as few as possible in French. However, the theme might be very niche to anyone who doesn't live in Montreal. I hope people can nonetheless enjoy it, and that the occasional Quebec references don't make the puzzle impossible to solve. J'espère que vous aurez autant de plaisir à le résoudre que j'ai eu à le créer. Bonne réflexion!
THEME:
The circled letters are placed in the shape of Montreal's Metro (subway/underground) network as it was in 1967, shortly after its opening. Each letter represents one of the 26 original stations, and contains the initial of the station's name, again, as they were known at the time. The "I" of "Ile-Sainte-Hélène" would today be a "J" for "Jean-Drapeau". This was undoubtedly my most constrained grid to work around, as having multiple diagonals full of consonants does not really lead to great word choices. Here's a reference image for those unfamiliar with the map: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Metro_Montreal_Evolution.gif TITLE: My original French title for this puzzle was "Réseau initial" (Initial network), because the grid represents the initial network of the Metro, and it also is literally a network of initials (the first letter of each station). I went with "Montreal, 1967" as it's probably more revealing to anyone who wants to get an idea of what it's about before solving it.
THEME ANSWERS: 102A, 26D: (VERTE) and (JAUNE) are the colours of the Green and Yellow lines; I forgot to place ORANGE. 30A: (COLORS) compensates by mentioning the three colours, albeit with a questionable spelling.
91A, 11D, 23A: (MAISONNEUVE) and (BERRI) are streets that the Metro follows. BERRI is actually a doubly special answer, as, like (JEANTALON), it is itself the name of a station. The two are however placed on different stations (Bonaventure and Jarry, respectively).
89D: (REM), more than just the band, refers to the light rail system that opened in 2023. By coincidence, it should also have a total of 26 stations at its full opening in 2027, the same number as the initial Metro network.
In other news, I might upload some crosswords I made a few years ago, if I have the time.