La Maison des Cyclistes

I first learned of La Maison des Cyclistes in a first-year French language class ten years ago. One of our assignments required going online to search travel and tourist information to plan a vacation in a French-speaking country. I chose to plan a bicycle tour in Québec. That’s how long I’ve been harboring this fantasy trip. Naturally, my expectations were a little exaggerated.

La Maison des Cyclistes

La Maison des Cyclistes is the headquarters of VéloQuébec, an organization formed in 1995 to promote development of La Route Verte, a system of bicycle trails throughout the province of Québec. Some of the sources I found described a combination of a café, a bike repair and retail shop, offices, and a resource center for bicycle travelers, including a self-serve repair area. I was expecting a bicyclists’ bazaar, teeming with touring cyclists from many countries, speaking many languages, on their way to destinations around the world.

In reality, La Maison has a nice little coffee shop, with good pastries and sandwiches, located across from Parc Lafontaine at the three-way intersection of rue Rachel est and rue de la Roche. Inside there is a news-stand area with racks of maps, books, and magazines of interest to cyclists. In a nook across from that is a small retail space displaying tubes, patch kits, basic tools, safety accessories like lights, batteries and reflectors, and other little essentials. Beyond this area are the offices where the people of VéloQuébec plan cycling events, create maps and publications, and continue work on expanding La Route Verte.

Street view from the sidewalk tables

The two or three times I came in, before 9am, the office was still closed and the only other customers were a few morning commuters who stopped in for coffee on the way to work. But the young man at the café counter was very sweet and friendly, though shy and unsure of his English, which was much better than my French. The first morning I came in looking for – besides my morning coffee and pastry – a place where I could clean up my bicycle, because it was very dirty after a week of touring in the rain. He told me they didn’t have shop space on site, but directed me to a bike shop a few blocks down rue de la Roche. I explored a little in that direction and passed a shop cleverly and appropriately (for me) called Le Vélodidact. A sign on the door said it opened at nine, but I passed by a few times and it was always locked and dark. Finally, rather than annoy my landlady with my dirty bike, I bought some Handi-wipes and gave the chain and gears a quick wash with a little dish soap and hot tap water out on the sidewalk in front of the B&B.

Traffic Patterns

Rue Rachel est is a major cross-town arterial, running for several blocks at the edge of Parc Lafontaine, its west end finishing at Parc Jeanne Mance, just across Avenue du Parc from Parc Mont-Royal. It has two car lanes in each direction, and a two-way bicycle lane separated from the car lanes by curb-barriers. Rue de la Roche forms a three-way intersection with rue Rachel; it also has a two-way bike lane, but only a narrow one-way car lane, with parking on both sides of the street. At Parc Lafontaine, across rue Rachel from La Maison des Cyclistes, is a large Bixi bike station.

One Friday morning I spent an hour or so at a cafe table by this intersection, watching the bicycle traffic flow and examining the street configuration. I was a bit confused at first by the red car in these photos, which seemed to be stalled in the middle of the street, until I realized that the parked cars separate the bike lane from the car lane on rue de la Roche.








This is where I filmed the little video clips that won't play, but the first frames of the clips are at left. You can also see that the bike lane on rue Rachel was closed on this morning – more utility work and sidewalk improvements. Bikes were re-routed to one of the car lanes instead.

Bicycles flowed pretty smoothly through this intersection, cars deferred to cyclists without impatience, and faster and slower cyclists got along nicely. It was interesting to watch bikes coming from the left on rue Rachel: instead of making a left turn across the four-lane street to Parc Lafontaine, riders would make a little U-turn to the right across rue de la Roche and get at the end of the bike line-up to cross the intersection into the park.


In general I found that car-drivers in Montreal were more bike-friendly than back home, though there were exceptions. In Whatcom county I've learned to watch out for big 4x4 pick-up trucks and red cars – people who drive red cars seem to be risk-takers. In Montreal it was people who drive Mercedes and Jaguars that tend to cut off pedestrians and cyclists, then give us a blank stare as if they couldn't understand what we're doing in the middle of the street. Of course, Mercedes and Jaguars are a lot more common in Montreal than in Whatcom county.

Back home I've also become more or less used to being called a whore when I'm out walking. Pedestrian = streetwalker = whore. Apparently. By my second day in the city I learned that in Montreal, "pute" is the term.

Yes, all women, everywhere, in every language.

But I made up my mind not to stew over it or let inconsiderate drivers and crude, ignorant people spoil my dream vacation.