Lately I’ve gotten cranky about my new map. I really don’t like it very well. My previous one, which I marked up au fur et à mesure over five years, was a honey, everything on it just the right size. Crystal clear.
But this new one- aargh- the streets on it are too tiny. Or maybe my eyes are too old. Whichever-- I made a return visit to Aux Quatre Points Cardinaux on Ontario, wonderful source of all things map and globe, to see if I could find a new map that has the streets blown up a bit. The store had lots of possibilities and I couldn’t make up my mind, so I ended up buying three and brought them home with me and will have to see which one suits me. The racks at the store were chock full of maps from all over the world. I guess I’m not the only Luddite around who prefers a good paper map.
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So I’m finished! Yes, completely. And it only took me since May, 2016. I have now walked the full length of every single street on my map. The last street I covered, you ask? That Oscar goes to the tiny stretch of rue Franchère below Mont-Royal that dead-ends into Parc Baldwin.
No offence meant to the residents of that block, but its total blahness is only slightly counteracted by the astronaut mural on the east side. Otherwise, as streets go, and trust me I’ve seen my fair share, it ain’t much. I’ve taken my usual anniversary picture of my map-the last. It’s a good thing as the map is starting to come apart at the seams and won’t stand for much more folding and unfolding. Yes, I'm still walking, trying to cover absolutely every street on my map. I had thought I'd be done by now, but this past icy winter really cut into my progress. I'm back into it now, though, trying to make up for lost time. Here's my map from 2019 compared to last year so you can judge my progress.
It's my anniversary! No, not with Ron, with my project. It's one year today that I've been at it, plugging away on the streets of Montreal and I'm still in love with the idea. Here is a view of how my map looks now, to give you a sense of where I've been. How many kilometres do I have left to go? Dunno. The project is more impressionistic than tech, but I figure I've got another year left to finish off every road. Ron says two. We'll see.
Four months into the project and I should take stock, but I kind of missed the boat. I should have weighed myself at the beginning and taken my measurements. I should have bought a fitbit or a pedometer. I should have bought a better map. The should-haves are racking up and all I have to show for myself is a panoramic view of my map marked with a purple sharpie. Talk about old-school. For all the above failings, I am in a position to give a roundup of my favourite streets so far:
1st place: rue de Gascon (of eggbeater statue fame) Runner Up: Old Orchard (in NDG) leafy, lovely homes, calm Miss Congeniality: Bloomfield (in Outremont) chi-chi residential, a park, a fountain and proximity to Fairmount Bagel. What kind of farshtunkeneh map doesn't have a scale, inches to miles, or if I want to speak Canadian, centimetres to kilometres. I'll tell you what kind. Mine. I'll have to get Ron, the distance whiz, to figure it all out for me.
The map! I went to Librarie Ulysse, the travel bookstore, to buy a map of the Island of Montreal. Simple, non? Not so much. The best map they had cuts off the streets around the edges of the island, like the street I live on for example. Also, it has a big inset the obliterates the whole of Verdun, so any kilometres walked there don't count. So all you people who live in Verdun, mea culpa. I won't be chronicling your corner of the island, as much as I love it.
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