Detroit-Montreal BikeBlog, year round cycling

February 5th, 2012: Choc Hunters

In search of chocolates around Montreal ...

We start by wandering around some of the chocolatiers on St Laurent ... Juliette et chocolat ... Marius et Fanny

... before stopping in at Suite 88 ...

... wow ...

We grabbed a box to try and some great hot chocolate (made with cream and cayenne pepper)

Then on to Chocolate de Cloe on Duluth

Wonderful range of chocolates made in the back of the store

... including the masala chocolate, fleur de sel, available as bars.

We take home a couple of samples

from Chloe

and 88

... yum ...

June 11th, 2011: Montreal Grand Prix

Hard to see much from the Cartier bridge, but you can get a small taster of the event ...

Second corner

Third corner

June 10th, 2011: Nuit blanch sur tableau noir

We just went to sample the foor from along Mont Royal: http://www.tableaunoir.com/home.php

Paella ... 6/10, soggy rice

Noodles ... yum ...

Januar 16th, 2011: Winter Sports

Temps are dropping back towards normal lows - around -10C during the day and down to -20C at night. Time for winter sports...

A couple of old shoes as goals ...

Elegance down in the old port

Winter cricket ... scots style!

And the most popular sport of all ... trying to peel your tongue off the ice ... "hep hep my thtung ith thtuck!!"

January 12th, 2011: Webcam

We have a small webcam up. It's mainly intended for anyone wanting to check the walking/biking conditions on the plateau ... here

January 11th, 2011: Biking Routes

We managed to get in some biking over the last few weeks. Less than I wanted as we're still not comfortable with the narrow streets, traffic and ice/snow. After the freeway width streets of Detroit it's proving challenging to mentally adapt to the narrow streets of Montreal in poor weather.

But in the first year of biking the island we enjoyed finding many great routes, I'm listing below the ones we did one or more times from really short 30 minute routes to some that are 4 hours+. Thay all start/end around the corner of Mont Royal and Papineau on the Plateau, as you can see from the dates, they reflect our discovery of the east side of the island...

Summer Rides ...

Short...

View Bikeride March20th in a larger map

View BikeRide March 21 in a larger map

View Up & over April 3rd in a larger map

View April18th in a larger map

Medium...

View may29 in a larger map

View jul2 in a larger map

View JUly17th in a larger map

View November7th in a larger map

Longer ...

View Jukly24th in a larger map

View august 8th in a larger map

View Sept25th in a larger map

December 28th, 2010: Christmas in Quebec

Christmas this year was up in Donnacona. Not as much snow as we hoped for but the temperatures certainly hit some lows. A few bottles of beer we kept in an unheated porch were frozen by the time we got to them.

On boxing day we went for a drive around the neighboring villages, stopping at churches, historic mills and the farm in the pictures below. Highland Farm (Ferme Highland) is easily missed on the 138 from Quebec to Trois-Rivieres. But we were out to spot it - in the warmer months it has a small store on the roadside in Grondines where they sell a wide variety of beef related foods. But not just any beef. This is beef from highland cattle. The farm is just off the road and you can watch the big horned long haired cattle as well the occasional yack.

We were hoping to get a distant view, but as we left the car the farmer was just passing by and offered very kindly to show us around. Accompanied by perhaps the most hyperactive golden retreiver on the planet (I've never seen a golden jump on top of a bale of hay in excitement) we were introduced to the highlands.