Montreal's Best: Fitz and Follwell

One of the absolute highlights of my Montreal trip? Going on bicycle tours held by the amazing people of Fitz & Follwell Co. :D Montreal is such a bicycle-friendly city - there are Bixi bicycles available for rent every other street corner; tons of bicycle lanes (which is pretty much non-existent in Singapore, thus my enthusiasm when I first found out about it) covering a substantial portion of the city, and pretty much all the students cycle around to and from the universities. At least it seemed that way. So when I happened to walk by the Fitz & Follwell store, not only was I taken in by the very cool interior decor and extremely friendly staff (yeah, they actually remember your name ;p), but I was totally psyched when I heard that they would be holding all sorts of bicycle tours when Spring arrived. I ended up going on two - Montreal Highlights, and Hoods & Hidden Gems. Both of which are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I think I took more photos on the tours but these were the few that I could scrounge up for now. :)



It's great that the tours are suitable for cyclists of all levels. I'm pretty much a novice rider (and surprisingly enough, only fell ONCE. Every time I managed to stop my bicycle successfully at a traffic light without falling off was a pleasant surprise. I blame it on the very high bicycles that just weren't built for a midget like me. -_-;;) but it was still incredibly enjoyable. There was one guy from London who probably cycles everywhere as a hobby and actually brought along his own extremely funky Brompton bicycle that was FOLDABLE. If it weren't so expensive and if S'pore had a couple more bicycle lanes, I might want to get something like that one day. :) You can just stow it in its case and carry it on the plane easily!  



The guy second from the left was the tour guide Martin. He is just PLAIN AWESOME. :D Extremely warm and friendly, knowledgeable about Montreal, speaks great English (you know someone has a real mastery of the language when they can  naturally pepper their speech with so many humorous jokes) and was just a great tour guide all in all. He happened to be the tour guide for both tours and if you manage to get him as your guide, you're in for a really enjoyable tour. :)


Here's a point we stopped at along the Lachine Canal which is a beaaaauuuutiful cycling path along one of the canals in Montreal. 



Lunch at Atwater Marche. Yummy pizza and a drink of your choice. Nothing but hot chocolate for me because it was coooooold that day. Remember, I was there in like March. 





The resident dog of Fitz & Follwell. Can't remember her name but she was a real calm sweetie. 

Look at all the incredible tours they have. Would you believe they even conduct FOOD TOURS in the summer? I felt like dying when I realized that they would only be conducting them in the summer and I was leaving right before that. Montreal is already a haven for foodies based on guide book recommendations but with actual locals leading the way and the chance to work off those extra calories along the way? YES PLEASE. 

Fitz & Follwell Co. 

115 Avenue du Mont-Royal West, 

Montreal, QC, H2T 2S9 

(514) 840-0739 

Remember, going on one of these bicycle tours is an absolute MUST if you're ever in Montreal. It's such a warm, welcoming store that you'll want to keep going back in there if only for the cosy atmosphere and warmth of the staff and store owners. :)