7 Sept The Blessing of the Bicycles

    Recently I was informed that on May 15, 1949, the Club des Bicyclistes de Montréal came to St Joseph's Oratory have their bicycles blessed.

 With this thought in mind, on the 7th Sept 2020, three current members of the Montreal Bicycle Club set out from the Shaika Cafe headed for the Eastern tip of the Island.

A.T. led them to the Louis Rubenstein memorial water fountain.  Seizing the moment to provide good fortune to this Fixture, he did an ad hoc blessing.

 As result, things went well up the new bike path along Christophe Columb, taking us  to the next stop, L'église de La Visitation, the oldest church on the Island of Montreal.

  This plaque on the church led to a discussion as to why St Jean is the patron saint of Quebec.  A.T. mistakenly thought that the plaque, commemorating the first mass on the island of Montreal, was related to Jacques Cartier's 1535 visit to Hochelaga.  In fact this mass occurred much later, on the 24 June 1615, presided over by Recollect Friar Joseph Le Caron.  Shortly after the mass, Le Caron traveled up the Ottawa river and became the first European to visit Lake Huron, surprizingly the first  Great Lake to be known to these early French Explorers. He also wrote the first dictionary of the Huron language.  Unfortunately, his dictionary has been lost and now the earliest remaining is Gabriel Sagard's dictionary of the Huron Tongue.

 

   The three of us then rode over to the nearby Parc-nature de l’Île-de-la Visitation.  Here, Alice Hawkins had to cut off early and turn back home.

A.T. Lane and Dorothy Cole continued east along a new bike path on Gouin Blvd which has been turned into a one way street eastwards.

  We passed by Parc Jerry Roufs. A.T. told Dorothy of a sailing regatta he had once had with him. Jerry had cycled to the race site in Dorval on St Jean Baptiste Day.  No doubt he would be happy to see the new path in front of his Parc.

The new path on Gouin extends quite far east.  Fortunately there is a strong bicycle slalom racing lobby that has managed to keep portions of the old path intact, along with the parkland.

  Interest in Baseball, on the other hand in the region seems to have declined after the departure of the Expos.

After A.T. got lost looking for the eastern tip of the island, Dorothy found a way through the railroad tracks.

At last, we found the sculptures that mark the Eastern tip of the island of Montreal.

After lunch, and a discussion of whether Jacques Cartier turned left or right at this point to reach Hochelaga, we headed west along the St Lawrence River paths.

 Watched some sporting events...

Took in some views of the river and the fish...

Eventually making our way back into the modern city of Montreal.