Category Archives: Pop quiz

| Montreal, 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

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, Pop quiz

Montreal Geography Trivia No. 53

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, Pop quiz

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:

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| Montreal, My articles, Pop quiz

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.