PLAYING WITH MEMORY.

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From Canada to France and back again: Annema describes returning to Québec with new eyes after working in our Nice boutique.

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I’ve been working at Café du Cycliste for a little while now. Over the course of shared days, shared kilometres and strong coffees, the team has become a second family. In the Nice boutique, I’m the little Québécoise of the group — the one who comes from the cold, who eats maple syrup and grew up among vast forests. The one with the charming accent.

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And yet, it was only when I arrived here in the south of France that cycling became much more than just a sport. A way to move at the right speed – slow enough to see, fast enough to feel – while always keeping joy at the heart of every pedal stroke.

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I was born in Quebec, in the Eastern Townships. A region of gentle hills and perfectly straight roads — or, as we say back home: “routes ben drette”. I had never really discovered my home region by bike.

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On a recent trip back to “la belle province”, I wanted to turn my first ride on home soil into a more mindful kind of exploration. Not a performance, but a game. Inspired by the spirit of PLAY in the SS25 collection, I designed a bingo card to complete over the course of the day. Each square represented a small challenge or a moment to be lived.

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My photographer friend came along – not to document kilometres, but to capture textures, light, and pauses – all the little details that make a ride unique, almost intimate. It wasn’t a tightly planned route, but one built on spontaneous choices, intentional detours and smiles shared along the way.

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On a bike, everything changes. Time slows down, your gaze sharpens and what you thought you knew reveals itself in a new light. It’s no longer a trip down memory lane, but a deeper kind of return. Landscapes feel wider, memories blur, and sensations grow more vivid. It wasn’t a great crossing or a feat of endurance. It was a loop of precious moments. And that’s exactly what made it special. A gentle way to reconnect with place, with childhood, with the idea that cycling can also be a space for play – and that adventure sometimes hides in the landscapes we thought we already knew.

To play is sometimes simply to change your pace. To come home and think, “Oh, this was here all along, and I’d never seen it this way before.”

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Photos courtesy of Louis-Mathieu Godin