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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Photos du Jour : Bird’s eye view

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the mountain and the city

I flew out of the city last Wednesday towards the North-East, heading to Quebec City and ultimately Schefferville/Kawawachikamach. But ten minutes into the flight, the pilot’s voice came over the loudspeaker: “Due to a switch failure, this plane will have to return to Montreal.” What followed was a glorious winter morning’s tour of the city.
pont de la 25

EAST: Where the tip of Ile Jesus and Montreal nearly join together. I’ll write more about the nearly-completed highway 25 soon.

La Ronde

SOUTH: Pont-Jacques Cartier, La Ronde, and the port of Montreal.
montreal metro region

SOUTH-WEST: From above, it seems almost possible to wrap one’s head around our too-big-to-love metropolitain region.
Westerly

WEST: The Mercier and the Saint-Laurent railway bridge and the mouth of the Lachine Canal is just visible beyond. Even further west, the Baie de Valois, bewteen Dorval and Pointe-Claire, looks like a bit taken out of the island.
the other side of the mountain
NORTH-WEST: looking towards the sout-east, the silhouette of Mont Saint-Hilaire rises above the skyscapers and our little three-peaked mountain.

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15 comments

  1. Un mal pour un bien, as my mother would say. Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

  2. How the frick did you get such clear photos from an airplane seat?

  3. Thanks. To answer Dom – It was a Dash-8, and I was sitting in front of the propellers, so the view was good… A whole lof of color- and contrast-balancing in photoshop also helps.

  4. i hate flying in the dash-8’s but if you get shots like this out of it, it’s worth it :)

  5. Wow, these photos are amazing!! All the pictures I’ve ever taken from planes are always covered in spots because of the ridiculously dirty windows.
    Montreal looks beautiful like this!

  6. I have no doubt that it’ll come in handy one day… don’t want to use them all in one shot ;)

  7. I thought the same thing, that one was my favourite. I’ve set it as my desktop background and have received a few comments!

  8. Hey Alanah.

    Luckkkkky! I love these.

    Hope you’re well.
    KC

  9. Those are sexy Montreal photos. Thanks for sharing! I also don’t know how you took such lovely pictures knowing that there was a switch failure on your plane. I would have been freaking out and nauseous. Well done!

  10. Yo Roomie!

    The pictures are grrrreat! I sure miss it!

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