Hot summer. Find a nice public pool, go when it is not crowded. Avoid hot afternoon sun! There is a minor charge for the large Parc Jean-Drapeau pool (and beach) and totally worth it. Easy access from the metro to this Aquatic Complex.
Bixi monthly pass this year was just $20 and even though bike availability and dock availability was not good, most of the time it was usable so worth getting it.
Also see Montreal Summer 2017
Quebec has a nice bike trail system: La Route Verte.
Montreal biking, especially in Verdun, means great views riding along the St Lawrence river.
This post is about a ride from Verdun Beach to Estacade du Pont Champlain and Chemin de la Petite Voie du Fleuve.
It crosses two bridges over the St Lawrence river.
La Route Verte 5 from Verdun Beach is the starting point for this bike ride going north and east.
Then to Route Verte 1 and Nun’s Island (Île-Des-Sœurs) bridge bikeway. This runs along side highway Rt 15.
Then cross the island bikeway to get to the 2.3 km Estacade du Pont Champlain.
That ends in Chemin de la Petite Voie du Fleuve which is a long thin strip of land in the river and has bikeable non-paved gravel bike paths. That part of the land only accessible by the bike path!
The above round-trip path is around 11km. That can be easily extended before the start or after the end to cover 30km or more.
The effort required is low – mostly flat path with elevations around bridge entry points.
From the Montreal city bridges web site: Looking for an exceptional view of the St. Lawrence River? During the day and evening, cyclists and pedestrians can take the 2-km bicycle path over the Estacade from Île des Sœurs to the seaway dike bicycle path network.
Night ride
Summer days are hot so good to ride at night. Clear moonlight and street light offer good views, but a couple of important points to note. Bugs! So many, in some parts of the ride. Should wear clear or night-lens closed eyewear to avoid bugs getting into eyes. And keep mouth closed.
And on the night of Fri Aug 5 2022, at 9pm, a long stretch of the Estacade was being used by birds! Lots of birds. Biking through them was scary – they would fly at you but go over your head.
On the Chemin de la Petite Voie du Fleuve end of the Estacade also got covered by many cobwebs! No spiders though (I think, I hope), thankfully.
Still all worth it – the views are great and the night was cool at 75F/23C. Only saw a couple of other riders and people walking at that time.
Should also try this in winter months. The trail is open April through December, so November would be a good bug-free time for night rides before it closes.
Parc René Lévesque
Another good ride on the south side from Verdun is to the Parc René Lévesque.
Two options: ride via Bd LaSalle next to the river, or the bike path along the Lachine Canal. This is around 10km one way.
7hr stopover 840am to 340pm at CDG airport. What to do in that period, can a 2 hour or so period be spent in the city?
Wanted to explore a place or two near RER B train station, someplace with a quick return to CDG airport.
Planned ahead and had only a very small light carry-on.
Photos:
Easy to see signs for RER B after baggage exit at CDG airport. Also says Paris by Train.
40 minutes to Les Halles-Chatelet, good place to explore.
Was there by 1030am. Then took metro yellow line 1, after a long corridor walk, requires exit and reentry. Ticket 1-5 zone tickete mobilis day pass until midnight best option. Went to Champs-Elysees. Nothing but big palaces and museums there. No street shops or food, so not something on top of my list.
Better to hang out around Chatelet metro. Can keep circling many small and major streets there. Easy to spend 1-3+ hours. Many eateries, big and small. And many shops. Also fantastic architecture – houses as well as big buildings and churches and small parks. And of course, the river Seine, great views from bridges.
If you like busy city streets and cityscapes, hanging around this area will be better than the main tourist spots such as Champs-Elysees or Eiffel tower.
I was first going to a large market, but the keys ones I looked at were closed when I was visiting.
Monday afternoon security was fast. Does take 30 minutes to get from RER B station to other terminals such as L, which requires taking the automated train. Look carefully before entering security that it is correct gate: K L M in terminal 2E.
Study metro map well. While Chatelet area has many metro entrances – underground entrances from street level labeled Metro or Metropolitan – they may be other metro stations such as Hotel de ville. Fine to enter there, just take train line 1 to Chatelet for RER B.
I had a small hiccup using zone 1-5 tickete mobilis. It was read correctly at CDG airport, but would not let me exit at Chatelet Les Halles! Titre illisible. I thought it meant invalid ticket and needed more zones, but no. Google translate, using pre downloaded French, said it meant unreadable title. Luckily, found a manned services booth at that large station, even with no French, I was able to explain the issue and they gave me replacement ticket. That worked fine for rest of day, multiple trips. Mobilis day pass for zones 1-5 valid until midnight cost €17.80. Chip-enabled credit card from USA was accepted at vending machines.
I was in town from 10:30am to 12:15pm. Back to CDG station by 1:05pm.
Reached gate by 1:45pm, so was pretty fast through immigration and security Monday afternoon, no lines, but heard this can be much slower at CDG, so should give it 30+ minutes more.
Tour la Nuit is the Montreal Night Bike Ride event.
It is part of the Go Bike Montréal Festival (GVO – Go Velo MTL) which ran from May 26-June 2 (2019).
Friday May 31 2019 was the Tour La Nuit biking event, a 21 km course in downtown Montreal, on regular streets which were closed to all car traffic.
It was a wonderful experience, though marred by incomplete information about the event (Velo Quebec #fail) and Bixi bike-rental app and organization foul ups.
On the plus side: when one finally gets on the bike and rides on the street, the crisp cool breeze, the wide open streets and night lights makes for an unforgettable experience. Luckily, too, there was no rain during this event while it rained on the Sunday’s full day Montreal Bike Ride event!
Along many inside neighborhood streets, such as Rue Dandurand, many sidewalk corners were filled with adults and kids cheering on the thousands of passing cyclists. The whole city likes to join in and party!
The highlight of the whole ride was the section of the ride that went inside the Olympic Stadium! They also had a number of marching band groups going full blast inside the stadium with cyclists riding around, cool stuff.
Tour La Nuit inside the Olympic Stadium Video
Photos:
As with all public Montreal events, the facilities and services were outstanding. Plenty of port-a-potties restrooms at the start, many volunteers along the way guiding the cyclists, and big blow out at the end with DJ, music, food, drink, even a ferris wheel on the park. And free chocolate milk at end of the ride! All very nice.
Registration is required and is $35 for adults.
Many kids also participate in the event, so it is a whole family event.
Riders deck out their bikes with lights and such.
Here’s the 2018 Tour La Nuit video of the previous year’s event.
Things to know: It would have good to know about the actual event. Velo Quebec organized the event but their web site was missing key information which would have made the event far more enjoyable!
First of all, they say the gates will open at 20:15 hours and last riders can leave at 21:15. And they said the ride takes about 90 minutes at average speed.
But – it is a mess at the starting line! There are thousands of cyclists, and only 5-7 cyclists go out at one time. So it took over 40 minutes of inching along Ave Parc even before we could get on our bikes to ride on. It is all festive and such, but knowing this would make the delay much more understanda
In addition to 40 minutes delay at the start, add another 30-40 minutes along the course when people had to dismount and walk their bikes due to congestion or steep inclines.
Add even more time to slow down and enjoy the Montreal night sights along the way, especially special events like biking inside the Olympic Stadium, and it takes a good 2.5 to 3 hours to complete the course, far more than the 75 minutes I thought it would take based on the FAQ at the Velo Quebec site.
Far worse mess for me was the Bixi #fail. I decided to rent a Bixi, to support more of Montreal business, but their app and organization was a major letdown. The app refused to accept the promo code for the event. I tried many things (restart app, phone) and Velo Quebec booth guys also checked the code and confirmed it was right, Bixi app continually popped up “Invalid Code” message and their customer support was totally useless. I needed a bike, so I then bought a day pass on the Bixi app. I was hoping to dock the bike and re-rent every 30-45 minutes to minimize total cost. I did make around 3 stops, but would have made 4 or 5 optimally. Bixi charges $3 for every 15 minutes over, so the charges crept up fast when every Bixi dock along the second half of the ride was full (even though the app said 1 dock free or such).
So that is the second thing to note: if using Bixi, expect things to mess up. Ride is still enjoyable 🙂
And after the ride, I contacted Bixi e-mail support detailing all the problems and they were much more helpful than their phone support. They refunded all the excess charges, so in the end, Bixi is not too bad.
Around 10 km from Montreal, in Lachine, is this huge park. Actually a couple of parks, and a couple of museums.
It is nice bike ride on bike trails along the river.
Parc Rene-Levesque is huge, and having bike to see it all is actually quite convenient. In addition to the greenery, the park has a number of large and interesting sculptures by local artists. From a large engraved stone to metal structures. And all on a thin sliver of land jutting out into the river.
To the north of that park is another similar sliver of land that has a park and houses the Lachine Canal Historic Site.
That too has some sculptures scattered around the park, and the bike trail there goes next to the old Lachine Canal, with interesting looking houses on the side.
Sunshine Village is huge! It has 3 mountains: Mount Standish, Lookout Mountain, and Goat’s Eye Mountain.
As an intermediate skier, I only skied the Green and Blue slopes.
2019-Mar was very clear so could see things clearly and see far – the mountain did not seem that big back in 2017-Feb when it was cloudy with no sunshine.
In 2019-Mar the immensity of the mountains felt awesome and a bit terrifying when riding the lifts and when standing on top of Lookout mountain. The snow goes on and on and there are no trees to break the view at the top! It looks scary and I felt a bit queasy riding up the chairlifts and standing at the top of a ski trail. And the wind was strong (they did close down the Great Divide chairlift later that day), so felt even scarier. It was also painful what with the blowing snow hitting the face like thousands of tiny pin pricks!
Even with so much wind blowing the snow around, which looked like a thin layer of fast moving cloud on the snow, the ski trail was not a solid ice block (as it would have been on East Coast US ski areas), it still had sufficient snow to ski on.
Very nice skiing and no lift lines! This is a good place to go skiing.
Skied here in 2017-February and 2019-March.
This is the 2019-March ski report.
Back in 2017-Feb Banff was very cold. -30C in the morning.
2019-Mar was much warmer. -15C one morning and then quickly warmed up to 0C.
On the slopes it warmed up to -5C by the afternoon, so very nice ski conditions (except for the very strong wind).
Even with the cold in 2017-Feb, I did ski all three mountains.
In 2019-Mar I did not go to Goat’s Eye.
Car parking is at Sunshine Base area. Then take a 20 minute 4.6km gondola ride to Sunshine Village ski area.
In the morning, best to go to the last stop on Gondola to get to the Mt Standish chairlift.
There are lockers at the base area. Use this if storing stuff that is not needed while skiing. There are racks to keep stuff at the Sunshine village base area, but this means you may have to take gondola back instead of skiing back to the base area. So only take things on gondola that you will consume or easily carry back while skiing back.
The Green trails are generally easy, though they can be steep at multiple places. There is also a narrow steep area where Creek Run meets Prune Pickers Pass, with off-limits steep slide just next to the trail.
The big problem with a bunch of Green trails here is that there is one part when the slope goes up so have to walk up a bit to get back to skiing downhill! Very tiring!
The Blue trails are better in that regard.
Avoid the Wawa chairlift unless you can ski Black marked trails because it requires climbing up from Wawa base area to the other chairlifts as well as to the lodge.
A risk on the Blues and Blacks is that moguls are not marked. And there may be bunched up snow on ungroomed Blue trails too.
Some Black trails are only slightly more harder than the Blues, as far I can tell from looking at it from the chairlifts.
Sunshine Village top of trail video:
Apart from skiing, it is well worth visiting Johnston Canyon for the Icewalk. It is icy and slippery so shoe ice cleats are highly recommended and essential if going to the upper falls area.
It is a 2-3 hour hike.
There are many hikes around Canmore area too.
Lake Louise has a free ice skating area on it, and skates can be rented at the adjacent Lake Louise hotel.
There is also hiking on and around Lake Louise.
Plenty of good food in Banff and Canmore, with many options. Lake Louise is very small so not much to do post-skiing or hiking.
When roads are cleared of snow, Sunshine Village is 35 minutes by car from Canmore and 20 minutes from Canmore. There are bus shuttles from Banff to Sunshine Village (and Norquay and Lake Louise ski mountains).
Banff National Park Pass is required and can be purchased in advance or at the toll both just before Route 1 enters Banff.
Ski rentals are good and easy even for walk-in rentals at Ultimate Sports on Banff Ave in Banff. In Canmore, reservations in advance are required at the couple of shops that I checked.
Found a great crepe place! Had a favorite in the past that closed down, now finally found a great crepe place again.
Spanel Crêperie, great crepes, breakfast and lunch. 1960 Notre-Dame St W, Montreal. A nice long walk from the metro station Lionel-Groulx. Walk on Notre-Dame to see a bunch of other great restaurants.
And many other things in Montreal, always a good time to be had! Christmas parade, old cafe, new cafe (Iranian), mini ComicCom, Ska Music Festival, street art animation. Japanese Izakaya – Imadake – Miso marinated grilled cod yummy with rice!
Many photos here, including description of each photo:
Nice, cozy cafe near Metro Papineau.
Wall decor is a tribute to the singer and actress Dalinda!
Photos:
A fall event that will light up the three Jardin botanique cultural gardens in grand style. It is a must-see event, and only from Sep 7 – Oct 31 (2018 dates). The lighted trees and sculptures are enchanting to see in the dark night.
The three spaces are:
The Chinese Garden is the most elaborate presentation. There is a good Circle of Life presentation, projected on a tree, at the First Nations Garden.
Allow 90+ minutes for entire visit.
The Gardens of Light ticket is purchased separately and allows entry only at a specific time.
That same ticket also allows access to the greenhouses in the botanical garden on that day. Touring that takes 90+ minutes and is worth visiting too. The greenhouses have plants and trees from all over the world.
So arrive a couple of hours before your Gardens of Light time and visit both the greenhouses as well the lighted cultural gardens.
Photo album:
Actually upper-upper west side, Manhattan, NYC.
I explored around Broadway from 96th to 110 St. Train #1.
Sal and Carmine: pizza slices. Spinach is very good.
Xi’an Famous Foods: Started in Flushing, Queens and now all over NYC. Cumin lamb noodles or cumin burger is addictive food.
Absolute Bagels: Some of the best bagels in NYC. 108th and Broadway.
Eat a pizza slice at Sal and Carmine, walk up 20 blocks to buy bagels for everyone, then have a beer around there before leaving the area.
