Day 2 of our 5-day road trip to Montreal, in which a dramatic event unfolds.
Date(s): 8/29/08. Album by Deborah Kosnett. Photos by Deborah Kosnett. 1 - 86 of 86 Total. 2613 Visits.
1 Starting off on our bikes, Day 2 - a threatening sky, that later cleared.
2 Street scene. Jeff, what's that building in the distance? I forget.
3 Montreal's bike lanes, complete with sharrow markings.
4 A wider view.
5 Montreal has a lot of bike commuters.
6 Jeff, on his old Lemond Wayzata.
7 Still ahead of me, he is.
8 La Maison des Cyclistes. Nice coffeeshop with a bike shop in the back (and lots of bike parking).
9 Vélo Québec.
10 Bike parking at La Maison des Cyclistes. Yeah, that's my Serotta, along with one of the last pics of the Lemond. (cue dramatic music)
11 Montréal, Ville de Cyclistes. Pop up the pic, click on "Original" size, and you can read this entire poster (if you read French).
12 Park across from La Maison des Cyclistes, with more Friday morning bike commuters.
13 Bike map.
14 The park is really lovely.
15 Another view, with more bike traffic.
16 Lake at the park.
17 I seem to really love this park.
18 Bike shop inside La Maison.
19 Inside La Maison des Cyclistes. Love these bike map lampshades.
20 Posters.
21 Jeff inside La Maison.
22 Um, more posters.
23 Street shot, outside La Maison.
24 Back on the bike path.
25 Two-way bike path traffic, inside of the parking row. I don't actually like this set-up, personally.
26 For freedom and health, leave your car behind and ride your bike.
27 On our way to Jean Talon market.
28 OK, this is, I believe, where the Expos used to train. Jeff??
29 Everywhere I go, I like to take pictures of the local housing.
30 I'm pretty good at taking pics while riding.
31 And so we arrive at Marché Jean-Talon.
32 Be prepared for a LOT of market photos. We spent about 2 hours inside, shopping, tasting produce, having tea and pastries.
33 One of the many permanent shops inside the market.
34 Lamb hearts. Or, call them by their more romantic French name: Coeur d'Agneau du Quebec. (Doesn't that sound better?)
35 A whole refrigerator case of specialty meats.
36 Fromagerie!!! I never met a cheese I didn't like.
37 One of the many prepared food stalls.
38 Decisions, decisions.
39 I took about 'leventy-seven photos of all of the colorful fruits and veggies. Could not bear to delete any of them.
40 Later summer produce is the best!
41 Strolling down the market aisles.
42 Weighing the purchase.
43 Who knew eggplants could grow so large?
44 Ah, tomatoes! (And garlic)
45 White (albino?) eggplant, and many varieties of peppers.
46 There's nothing I love more than colorful peppers.
47 Peaches, grapes, cherries and more.
48 The most wonderful looking grapes, too.
49 How often do you see purple peppers?
50 "Merci, madame."
51 Very colorful beans, those.
52 Who knew even beans could be so colorful?
53 Now we're starting to get to the flower vendors.
54 We had to have some berries, of course. I think Jeff gave me most of 'em.
55 Never have I seen a more beautiful display of dried peppers!
56 Close-up.
57 And another. Garlic, too.
58 They even make a nice decoration.
59 Even more tomatoes, in color varieties I rarely (if ever) see.
60 Cerise de Terre. I had to wiki these - they are also known as Ground Cherries, or Cape Gooseberries. I did not get a chance to try them - they are said to be good for the making of jellies and jams.
61 Gourmet fish market.
62 This display reminded me of the travelng farmers markets in Paris. One would appear about every 3 days, right outside our hotel. We had a kitchen, so we did a lot of market grazing. Alas, we had no such facilities during our Montreal stay.
63 Patisseries le Ryad. Let's have some pastries, shall we?
64 Middle Eastern pastries. We had a few each, along with tea from a nearby stall. It was during this refreshment break that we learned (via my Blackberry) of the inexplicable nomination of Sarah Palin to be McCain's VP running mate. (Thank God we were ultimately spared that possibility.)
65 Here's what we had . . . these were either apple or fig.
66 Refreshment break.
67 Ice cream? We decided to pass, in favor of grabbing lunch later.
68 But first, before leaving, I had to take another whirl through the lobster and seafood aisle.
69 Sausages . . . yum.
70 I considered buying a couple of these, but I figured they might not pass Customs.
71 Mushrooms.
72 So this is what fresh dates look like. Wonder what variety?
73 More mushrooms.
74 Finally, we exited the market, and walked round the block to our bikes.
75 Here is what we found. Our cable had been cut. Jeff's Lemond Wayzata was gone. Mercifully, my tiny Serotta (both were locked with the same cable) was still there. A lone bike thief made off with the more marketable bike, I suspect. Serotta is not a recognizable name in Canada - furthermore, my bike is so tiny, a thief (no doubt a guy) would look stupid trying to ride it. Upon discovering the theft, of course, we tried to find the market management. No one was available. We finally figured out who to call; they police took our theft report and essentially apologized to us on behalf of all of Montreal and the citizens of Quebec.
76 There was nothing for us to do, of course, but go back to the hotel. I still had my bike, but Jeff was missing his, so we returned by Metro, me rolling my bike the rest of the way. We piled into our car and drove off in search of (first) lunch, then a bike shop. No way were we going to let a bike theft spoil our Montreal weekend - furthermore, Jeff was going to buy a new bike anyway. The theft just hastened matters a bit.
77 ABC Cycles & Sports Ltee. A very nice shop.
78 Jeff found just the right bike for him - roadie bars, this time. This is a Specialized Sequoia, which is a road bike designed for those of us who are a bit older and who don't want to bend over the bike quite as far as we might have in our younger days.
79 This was the price, in Canadian $$. Very reasonable. (Yes, I bought it for him - it was only fair, given that he bought me my Serotta in 2004).
80 This is typical of bike lockup in Montreal. These posts both mark the car parking spots, and provide accommodation for bikes. This bike is sporting a heavy-duty D lock, which we should have been using. (Montreal is notorious for bike theft, as is NYC.)
81 Dinner at Leméac.
82 Yes, Jeff is smiling, as things really did turn out all right, in the end. We are still miffed, and always will be, over the bike theft, but we learned a valuable lesson about bike lock-up. For the entire rest of the trip, the bikes never left our sight.
83 View from our table.
84 The restaurant had a lovely terrace indeed.
85 Twilit walk after dinner. No, I didn't steady the camera enough.
