The Côte d’Azure, or French Riviera, is a beautiful hilly region overlooking the Mediterranean sea. There is an area of La Ville de Gatineau with streets named after popular spots along the Côte d’Azure (Rue de Cannes, Rue de Monte Carlo, Rue de Roquebrune, etc). It’s hilly too, and looks out over its own body of water, the Gatineau River. That’s where the similarities end. It’s a fine residential area of Gatineau to bike through. You can do a little bit of switch back climbing while taking in a few interesting house designs.
To get there I biked along Boulevard St Joseph, which isn’t too bad at 6:30 am, but I suggest the much more pleasant route hi-lited in green. Mostly along bike paths, it follows Boulevard de la Carriere for a bit, as a section of the Gatineau River Pathway is closed this summer for rapid transit construction.
Here’s an interesting house I spotted on the Gatineau Riviera.
I followed this short path at the top of the hill through Parc Saint-Exupéry, named after the author of Le Petit Prince.
Here’s another interesting house looking out across to the Gatineau hills.
The path along the Ottawa River just west of the Lady Aberdeen Bridge is partially flooded out, but there’s a beaten path you can follow to get around it. The rest is clear sailing.
