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Sunday 07/07/96
Montréal and Pisa, June 1996 (part III)
Peter Cameron2006-03-10 10:51:46
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Sunday 07/07/96, 1225
I set off on the Metro for Henri-Bourassa, to see the branch of the river separating Montréal from Laval. But when I got to Jean-Talon, I found that that branch of the Metro doesn't run on Sundays. So I switched to Plan B, and headed for Ile-des-Soeurs. It was quite a confusing walk from the Metro to the bridge, but finally I found the cycle path.
The path wound through marshy land with little creeks and lots of common wildflowers (daisies, vetch, bindweed, several umbellifers, and the blue daisy-like flower that is very common here), and rushes in every damp spot. The path led to the bridge, where I was corralled in beside the freeway traffic. Finally, on the island, golf range, indoor tennis, and lots of new housing development along with lots of highrise offices. (The map seems to show half the island undeveloped -- not for long, I'm sure!)
By this stage I needed a toilet, and was at last driven to have lunch in Dunkin' Donuts to use the toilet there. (All the other eating places appeared to be vastly expensive, though they didn't put menus up, so I couldn't tell. I was sorry to pass a tiny "restaurant canadien" in a suburban street on the way from the Metro; but it was closed then.)
Now I will try to find the other side of the island, the aim being to see a wide stretch of the St Lawrence.
1315
And I certainly got what I was looking for! The map showed a thin bridge parallel to the Champlain bridge, leading nowhere. The road to it had a "No entry to unauthorised personnel" sign on it, but hundreds of cyclists and rollerbladers ignored it and went through, so eventually I plucked up my courage and went too.
Who would believe it, a bridge two kilometers long just for cyclists and rollerbladers (and maybe walkers)? The view was mindblowing -- two kilometers is a wide river, but this is a bridge built at a narrow point; upstream, it widens out
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