Thanks everyone for your suggestions, especially Ron. Ron, you and I (and my partner) seem to have similar tastes.

In any case, the conference which my partner was attending was this past weekend, so we were in Montreal for most of Friday and Saturday.

Friday we got the 747 bus from the airport to downtown and headed straight for the Bixi station. We had a great culinary tour (La Banquise, Caffe Arte, St-Viateur, Schwartz's). Checked out the Old Montreal area a bit in the evening. All in all, a great day, with lots of zipping around on the Bixis. Alas, I did not encounter the fabled 7 speeds that Cone Wrench referred to. Since we were not rushing, I didn't find the heaviness of the bikes to be a problem, even though we had a few small hills (mostly those on Rue Berri). It was pretty neat to try out the unusual features of the Bixis - drum brakes, internally geared hubs and built-in generator for the lights.

Saturday I was on my own due to the conference, and headed down to Caroule to see if they had any bikes for me to rent. I can't say enough good things about Caroule. The staff I dealt with were great. Even though they were busy they took the time to chat with me, suggest some routes and fit my rental bike for me. They even offered to keep my giant backpack in the back for me so I wouldn't have to haul it all around all day.

I was lucky to get a bike - reserve ahead if you can. I don't know if this is the usual sort of road bike they have, but I ended up with a Norco CRR. Definitely the fanciest bike I've had the pleasure to ride, and likely will be for some time. I ended up heading to the Estacade and the path connecting path to the Récré-O-Parc and got to see the Lachine Rapids. In retrospect, I should have taken the photo from the drive side, I know. Sorry, I'm a hopeless newb when it comes to photographing bikes.

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All in all, a very nice trip indeed! I will definitely be back again.