Staying in and Around Montreal: My Covid-Collection

When the world changed, almost overnight, in 2020, I found myself craving shelter from all the noise and uncertainty. I needed a reprieve from the what ifs and now whats. I needed to come to terms with the fact that I was (among many other things) a travel photographer who couldn't travel. Everyone around me began to experience what had become second nature to me for years, way before the pandemic hit: working from home, balancing work and mental health, carving out screen-free self-care time, setting boundaries, and finding simple daily joys to ward off anxiety and depression. 

But a new shift also took place. Almost imperceptibly, I started clinging to nature, more than ever before. Desperately, even. As though fresh air and quietude were the perfect antidote to the storm of contradictory feelings within. I wanted to discover new places, however close they were to home, just to see something, feel something. But I also wanted to be still, to replenish and recenter. 

This blog post is an ode to the special (yet so very local) places that my heart and lens have filled up on. I've included the locations in captions, to help you add some refreshing places to your list. You'll also see which photographs have made their way into my art shop...my "Covid Collection", for lack of a better term!

​Looking back now, the seasons were good to me. They held me up with their poetry and life lessons, and I somehow never felt alone. 

Entrelacs, Lanaudière (Québec, Canada)

Lac Taureau Reservoir, Québec

Flying over Lac Taureau Reservoir with a hydroplane

Pulling over on the side of the road somewhere in St-Joseph Sur Le Lac, Quebec

Picking tulips of every color and style at the Tulipes.ca field in Boucheville, Montérégie

Blueberry picking at La fruiteraie des Gadbois in Rougemont

Apple picking in St-Joseph du Lac

A glorious sunrise in Esterel, Quebec on a foggy lake before breakfast in bed

Blue hour in a sunflower field at La Belle de Coteau-du-Lac

A fall day on Mont-Royal by Beaver Lake in Montreal

Montreal's Botanical Gardens, through the seasons

Coffee tastes better in the mountains with a lake view, I just discovered.

And pizza tastes better on a vineyard, especially at La Bullerie in St-Joseph du Lac

I fell in love with the nature path in Knowlton, Eastern Townships

Winter activities on Lac Brome

In typical Montreal fashion, spring collided with winter's last hurrah.

Biking along the Beauharnois canal

Embracing nature's gifts and magical moments that lengthen time

In awe of the power and beauty of the Lachine rapids in Lasalle's Parc des Rapides

Sunsets that silence your worries in Sainte Marguerite, Québec

Vineyard after vineyard on La Route des Vins near Dunham, Eastern Townships

Holding onto summer before it folds into fall at Oka Beach

A rewarding hike of Mont Sourire in St-Donat

My happy place, which I probably would not have discovered had it not been for the pandemic

The waterfront at Ile-de-la-Visitation, Montreal

Goodbye to the Geese at Candiac sur le Lac

Where the Lachine Canal meets the St Laurence river

Walking path at the Récréoparc in Sainte-Catherine

Pedalos surprised by snow in Sainte Marguerite

Did nature help you recenter during this challenging time? Leave me a comment, I'd love to know. 

Credit: Amélie Pedrini, Derrière ta marque

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