Île Bigras is the largest of the four

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s that make up the Îles-Laval

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

in the

Rivière des Prairies The Rivière des Prairies (; ), called the Back River in English, is a delta channel of the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The Kanien'kehá:ka called it ''Skowanoti'', meaning "River behind the island". The river separates the citi ...

in Quebec. They all are part of the city of Laval since 1965. The Île Bigras was named in 1817 as ''Île Amesse'', after the name of its owner, Louis Amesse (other more recent maps have also shown the names ''Île Boiret'' and ''Île Boisvert''). The island was bought in 1890 by Émilien Bigras, who gave it his name. He was also the owner of the three other islands of the archipelago:

Île Pariseau Île Pariseau is a small island located in the Rivière des Prairies across the river from Île Bizard and Montreal Island. The island is part of Îles Laval which is linked to Île Jésus ( Sainte Dorothée, Laval), Quebec, Canada C ...

, Île Verte and Île Ronde. Thanks to the Deux-Montagnes commuter train line and its station, the island is less than 30 minutes from Downtown Montreal and

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

. It is also less than a quarter-hour from the

seasonal A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

reaction ferry A reaction ferry is a cable ferry that uses the reaction of the current of a river against a fixed tether to propel the vessel across the water. Such ferries operate faster and more effectively in rivers with strong currents. Some reaction ferri ...

that connects

Île Bizard Île Bizard is an island near the Island of Montreal in the Hochelaga Archipelago region. History Historically named Île Bonaventure, by 1723 it had come to be named Île Bizard, after Jacques Bizard, to whom it was conceded as a fief in 16 ...

with

Laval-sur-le-Lac Laval-sur-le-Lac is a small sector on the western part of Laval and was a separate city until the municipal mergers on August 6, 1965. This community contains North America's oldest French speaking private golf club, Le Club Laval-sur-le-Lac, esta ...

. A

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

at the station can accommodate several cars.

External links

Map of Île Bigras (Laval)

External links

See also