Where is this?
UPDATE: Ladyjaye was the first of many of you to get this right: It’s a light from La Vitrine on Ste. Catherine St., just outside Place des Arts.
Category Archives: Pop quiz
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 56
Another suggestion from a reader: Where in Montreal do a street (“rue”) and avenue of the same name intersect?
Bonus half-points if you want to throw in streets and crescents, streets and boulevards, streets and terrasses, etc., which are much more common.
Alexandra Avenue and Alexandra Street
UPDATE: I should have excluded numbered streets and avenues (too easy). The answer I (and contributor Jean Naimard) had in mind was Alexandra St. and Alexandra Ave. in Little Italy. But I’m sure you can come up with others.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 55
This week’s trivia quiz brought to you by a submission from last week’s winner.
What crazy Montreal intersection is this?
UPDATE: Mike Rivest gets the first correct answer. It’s Victoria Ave. and Jean-Talon St. (and, on the left, Paré St. and Buchan St.)
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 54
What is this?
UPDATE: Wow, this one took a full 14 hours. Jean Naimard gets it right, it’s Belvedere Rd. in Westmount. At the top is where it intersects Côte des Neiges, then winding its way up the mountain, making an odd U-turn and heading down to terminate at The Boulevard.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 53
This intersection, whose directions are only slightly off from the cardinal directions, is actually the intersection of four streets of different names.
What are the names of those four streets?
UPDATE: NDGer gets it right below: It’s this intersection in St. Leonard.
The streets are Rue Lionel-Groulx to the west, Rue Valéry to the east, Boulevard Lavoisier to the north and Boulevard Provencher to the south. All four enter the intersection after about a 45-degree turn, and street numbering changes going through the intersection as each axis completes its 90-degree rotation, to reflect the addresses’ new orientation on the grid.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 52
Where is this?
UPDATE: A few of you got this right, but Amanda was the first. It’s a park, it’s a founfain fountain, it’s Lafontaine Park. The Théâtre de verdure is on the left.
The fountain rotates through various colours and shapes, giving a nice show at night.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 51
Where is this rather desolate-looking piece of Montreal?
UPDATE (Sept. 1): Well this one took longer than most, but Michel gets it first below. It’s de Boucherville St. next to Autoroute 25 near the Lafontaine tunnel. The Port of Montreal is in the background.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 50
As we all know, because street address numbers on east-west streets begin at St. Laurent Blvd., any street that’s on both sides needs to be differentiated with “Est” or “Ouest”.
There are three four streets (by my count) on the island of Montreal that have “Ouest” versions, but no “Est”. At least, not anymore. Which are they, and what happened to the “Est” versions?
UPDATE: I’ve expanded the parameters to the island so as to include Boul. Dorchester Ouest, whiwch wasn’t on my original list. That expands the list to four, all of which have been correctly guessed below:
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 49
(Updated with more hints)
This historical figure has his name everywhere. A major thoroughfare and small street in the city (with a park by the same name nearby), a street in Pointe Claire and another in Ste. Geneviève, plus dozens of streets across Quebec. His name also used to be on something that’s been in the news lately.
Who is he?
UPDATE: Dave gets it close enough below, though St. John and St. John the Baptist are two different people. It’s the latter, St. Jean Baptiste, who is the subject of this quiz. It’s the name of a boulevard in the east end (which turns into a short street near the shore), a park, and tiny streets in Ste. Geneviève and Pointe-Claire.
It’s also, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec, the former name of Amherst St., which a city councillor has proposed be changed because Jeffery Amherst had this thing about being OK with genocide through biological warfare. Amherst and the street names are the subjects of this week’s bluffer’s guide, which points out some of the silliness of the current debate: Amherst never actually used smallpox to kill Indians, and the Jeunes Patriotes are in favour of renaming Amherst but steadfast against renaming the anti-semitic Lionel Groulx.
One factoid that was left out of the article: there are also 14 other geographic entities in Quebec that carry Amherst’s name.
Chris DeWolf also has some thoughts on this subject, and Josianne Massé points to some other reaction in the blogosphere.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 48
What is this an underexposed photo of?
(Note to Photoshop experts: there is no image to enhance here, so don’t even bother) Continue reading
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 47
Emma St. and Anita Ave.
What is this street called now?
UPDATE: OK, most of you got this one right again. It’s Place Larivière.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 46
Where was this photo taken, and what are all these buses for?
UPDATE: Once again, you kids are fast. This is University St., looking down from Pine Ave. during an Alouettes home game. The buses are shuttles between Molson Stadium and the two downtown metro lines.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 45
This week’s Montreal Geography Trivia comes from reader Luc Simard (who is therefore disqualified). Thanks Luc!
Where was this photo taken?
Bicycle path at Wilcox park in Verdun
Many of you got this one right: It’s a bike path in Verdun. The island in the distance is the western (er, southern) tip of Nuns’ Island. Note that Verdun isn’t listed as one of those communities that forms the West Island, and for good reason. It’s not even close. To get to the nearest listed West Island town (Dorval), you’d have to pass through LaSalle and Lachine.
Auto pop quiz
What’s noteworthy about this car?
UPDATE: OK, so just about all of you got this one right: It’s a cop car.
If you look closely at the car, you’ll notice very faded (but still reflective) police lettering on it. The red and blue flashing lights are in the windshield instead of on top, and the iconic blue stripe is missing. This is all in an effort to make police cars less noticeable, while still technically leaving them marked.
It’s part of a pilot project by the SPVM which aims to crack down on drivers who speed until they see a police car. Since these ones are tougher to spot, the feeling is that they’ll catch more eagle-eyed speeders that way.
And by that I mean the police will force drivers to speed and then violate their constitutional rights by pulling them over in a deceptive way and issuing huge tickets in a massive cash grab to feed their corrupt bosses and fail to go after the real criminals, etc.
Funny story: after taking these photos, I was chased into a parking lot by the officer, who asked if I wanted to take more pictures of the car. I assume he was being sarcastic, but I can’t be sure. Thinking he’d demand I erase the photos from my camera, I secretly popped out the memory card and stuffed it down my shorts. Only after the encounter did I realize my awkward stuffing manoeuvre sent it straight through the shorts and on to the pavement below. I had to spend five minutes retracing my steps to find it again.
UPDATE: The National Post wrote a story about this, using one of my photos.
Enviro pop quiz
According to a recently released data set, what Montreal agglomeration entity (Montreal borough or demerged suburb) recycles the most of its household waste? And which recycles the least?
UPDATE: According to this chart, the most recycle-friendly (on a per-capita basis) is the sparsely-populated Senneville, thanks mostly to organic waste recovery. The most unfriendly is St. Leonard.