montreal-night-skyline_westmountmag

Montreal captured
under the spell of COVID-19

A photo exploration of the city by bike at night

By Roger Jochym

Most of the time I am a self-isolation hermit but after sunset of a beautiful Sunday I cycled up Mount Royal from its east side along the serpentine dirt road. There was a great silence in the city. The road was completely in the dark but I had a headlamp and back red lamp attached to the bicycle frame. The few walkers I met in the dark were like spirits.

Sun Life Building - WestmountMag.ca

Sun Life Building

From the belvedere, the view of the downtown core was crystal clear. The beauty of an electrified city without the pollution of cars was extraordinary. Many of the downtown core buildings were given to rainbow colours that symbol of hope during this crisis.

gargoyle Old Montreal - WestmountMag.ca

Gargoyle – Old Montreal

On a Tuesday evening, again well after nightfall, I cycled down to Old Montreal. I encountered only a hand full of people and three other cyclists the whole time I was there, nearly an hour. One could hear their conversations almost a block away with clarity. It was eerily beautiful. There was no extraneous noise, not even an airplane overhead or boat on the river. There was a sense of timelessness.

All images were taken with a Canon Power Shot Elph 190 IS attached to a tripod with long shutter speeds.

Marché Bonsecours - Westmountmag.ca

Marché Bonsecours

Notre-Dame Cathedral - WestmountMag.ca

Notre-Dame Cathedral

Bank of Montreal - Place d’Armes - WestmountMag.ca

Bank of Montreal – Place d’Armes

ferris wheel Old Port - WestmountMag.ca

Ferris wheel – Old Port

Images: Roger JochymBouton S'inscrire à l'infolettre – WestmountMag.caRead other articles by Roger Jochym


Roger Jochym WestmountMag.ca

Roger Jochym is a 25+ year resident of Westmount. He is the founder of the Ry Arp Studio, a firm dedicated to generating 21st-century planning ideas that are engaged in regaining the city for the human scale, interlacing it with nature, and invigorating it by culture, the arts, and sciences. His background is that of architecture from McGill and many built projects, notably the trans-border and international wings of Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport.


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