Montreal Bicycle Winter

I was in Montreal last week and it was brilliant to see so many bicycles on the streets. I didn't have a chance to photograph too much because of work, but here are some shots from the city's streets.

Cycle Chic Legends - Montreal

We have a lot of people who have been following this blog for a long while. When we travel about the world we get to meet many of our readers but meeting the 'veteran readers' is always an added bonus. Like Maria, in Montreal, at the launch of Montreal Cycle Chic last summer. A blog is many things but it is nothing without our readers. Hooking up with Maria in Montreal was a pleasure. Bike love to you, Maria!

Couvreselle Bicycle Seat Covers

The heart and soul of bicycle culture thrives in the creations of passionate individuals. This post is about one of them.

There I was, riding through Montreal and heading for the Tour la Nuit - the annual evening bike ride in the city. Down the separated bike lane on rue Brébeuf. I saw someone on the sidewalk and just had to turn around. That's when I met Viviane.

Outside her flat she was selling bicycle seat covers to the many cyclists heading for the Tour la Nuit, an event by Vélo Québec, with 17,000 people on bicycles! And not just any bicycle seat covers. Covers she crafts herself in a wild variety of fabrics and styles. I mean wild.


We started chatting and she had heard of Cycle Chic. She invited me inside to show me the fantastic selection of seat covers that she had made. This is really Cycle Chic con amore. As it should be. Gorgeous personalised accessories. Perfect for adding a splash of style and colour to you bicycle and even keeping your bottom warm in the winter.

Each seat cover takes her three hours to create. There is incredible attention to detail and quality. A one-woman Cycle Chic extravaganza.

Viviane has a website, in French, called www.couvreselle.ca.

After a great deal of deliberation, I settled on the one at the top. :-)

Bicycle Social Club in Montreal

Don't try telling us here at Cycle Chic that urban cycling isn't sociable. You'll never be able to convince us. Here are some shots of the Montreal Bicycle Social Club. Above, creative use of a Bixi to get a piece of flea market furniture home.











I always feel at home in Montreal. But seeing a Danish Nihola cargo bike (and doing a u-turn on Parc to go back and take a photo of these two) helps make me feel closer to Copenhagen.

BookBike

Funny how browsing a used book selection on Saint Viateur in Montreal's Mile End looks completely natural with a bicycle.

Gabrielle and Annabelle in Montreal

I met Gabrielle in Montreal. She has a cool French-language urban planning blog called Convercité which is well worth a look. Her boyfriend, Gabriel, is a journalist at La Presse in Montreal and he called me The Pope of Urban Cycling in an article about my keynote speech at La Grand Bibliotheque. Which I ended being called all week in Montreal... :-) But we all hooked up for coffee at Club Social on Saint Viateur and I was pleased to take a photo of Gabrielle. Cycle Chic Montreal, indeed.

Fortunately, Annabelle was with Gabrielle that day so it was double up.


What a town. Montreal. Quelle ville.

Montreal Cycle Chic - Cool

Sometimes you just have to take a photo.

Montreal Encore

A bit more Montreal Cycle Chic.



Here's the CEO of Canada's largest bicycle organisation, Vélo Québec, Suzanne, leading the way on an A to B journey through the city on her Opus bicycle. Don't you wish your bicycle advocate looked like this?

Montreal Bixi Goodness

The Montreal bike share programme Bixi is out in force, in association with Cycle Chic, of course. :-)

Montreal Cycle Chic J'♥ - Day Two

We'll be dishing up a steady stream of Montreal Cycle Chic over the next few days. We simply can't help ourselves.



Here's Christian, one of the photobloggers on the new Montreal Cycle Chic blog. We went for a spin around town.

Montreal Cycle Chic J'♥

So. I just returned from a cracking week in Montreal. I can see that Mary and Andreas have been taking good care of you here on Cycle Chic.

Montreal, apart from being one of the most brilliant cities on the planet, is also a hotbed of Cycle Chic. I'm going to start the Montreal Cycle Chic series with these photos that put the Share into Bike Share. A couple on the corner of Bernard and du Parc we're getting rolling on the city's Bixi bike share bike.

I was staying around the corner from here and lovin' every moment of it. The best thing about the week, from a Cycle Chic perspective, was the launch of the Montreal Cycle Chic blog at Bar Waverly last Thursday. Great party with great friends. Canada's largest cycling organisation, Vélo Québec, is behind the intiative and they have enlisted six http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifphotobloggers to document Cycle Chic in the city. It's also a sign that Cycle Chic is becoming an effective form of bicycle advocacy.

Get ready for a wild Montreal Cycle Chic ride this week.

Montreal J'♥ - and Ottawa, too

Montreal here I come.

I'll be visiting Montreal this coming week as a guest of Vélo Quebec. First thing on the agenda is my talk at Auditorium de la Grande Bibliothèque on Wednesday, June 1st where I'll present my template for how cities can promote cycling effectively, postively and with concrete results.

Here are the details, also available on Vélo Quebec's website:
Mercredi 1er juin, 10 h 30 — entrée libre
Wednesday, June 1st, 10:30 - free entry
Address: 475, boulevard de Maisonneuve Est

The rest of the week is chock full of Bike Week events, including Cycle Chic events like a photo shoot, a press conference for the launch of Montreal Cycle Chic and participating in the bike rides Le Tour la Nuit and Le Tour de l’île de Montréal.

OTTAWA
Although on Friday, June 3rd, I'll be in Ottawa to give my talk. This time the hosts are Cycling Vision in Ottawa and I'm looking forward to it, too.

Here are the details about the Ottawa leg:
Friday, June 3, Noon
Address: Cartier Place Hotel, 180 Cooper St (east of Elgin)

Looking forward to meeting readers of both Cycle Chic and Copenhagenize.com in both cities!

Canadian Cyclists

The Coles sisters on a bicycle trip from Montreal to Ottawa, 1916.

Members of the Chinook Bicycle Club, between 1894-1900

More Montreal

Like I mentioned, I was on holiday in Montreal so I wasn't out photographing people on bicycles. I did, however, have my camera with me and managed to get some shots.

More importantly, I did Montreal things. I ate fresh bagels and cream cheese at four in the morning on the way home. I ate poutine at Chez Claudette. I saw a Canadiens game at a lovely local bar where my friends hang out. I was at a bunch of house parties hanging with the locals. I spent loads of time in bookshops. Brilliant

I'm hoping to return in June.

Montreal Cycle Chic

I was in Canada for Christmas and Quebec for New Years. Montreal, to be precise. I was on holiday and tried my best to not lug a big old camera around and instead enjoy the company of my friends. I had a brilliant time.

Nevertheless, I did catch this purple goodness outside of a bar on New Year's Eve... okay, more like early New Year's Day. A have a few more shots I'll post soon.