Bike shows are so fun to check out! :)

What a peaceful setting!

What a great looking town gate!

Looks like what we call prickly pear. You can eat the bulbous bit beneath the flower.

One variety became a noxious weed in parts of Australia

Mike

Thank you so much for your very informative message. It sounds like Quebec will definitely be our cycling destination next year. We have the Cycling Guide for the Route Verte and are busy comparing the routes to the ones that you took. We’ll definitely include the Chemin du Roi since you mentioned it was a highlight.

As you said, it is always such a pleasure to ride on designated cycle paths and quiet roads. We are sort of neighbours—we live in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island—and we certainly wouldn’t consider our area to be cycle-friendly!

I may have more questions as we get further into our planning. I’m too lazy to write a blog, but I certainly appreciate the information we have gathered from those who do. For example, we’ll be looking for those chocolate blueberries!

Thanks again,
Wendy

Hi Wendy,
Our trip to Quebec motivated us to travel in Europe with our bike.
We met many cyclists from France that summer and we realized the potential of travelling in both places. Quebec has a European flavour in the cities mixed in with rural Fresh Canadian appeal in the countryside.
We really enjoyed the city of Montreal and were so surprised and pleased to find the infrastructure for cyclists well established. Quebec has been so far ahead in its vision for cycling and we can only imagine that it has improved in the past 8 years as well. Coming from British Columbia, we were blown away by the abundance of dedicated cycling paths which made us feel safe and welcome.
We rode dedicated cycling paths in the Eastern Townships, Petit Train d'Nord to Mont Tremblant and Lac St Jean in the north. A highlight for us was riding the old road "Chemin du Roi" along the St Lawrence from Montreal to Quebec City. As it is now a secondary road, we found the traffic good and respectful - no problems.
Lots of B&B's, motels etc are available. We did both camping and hotels, and found the infrastructure to be good, mostly with cyclists in mind. There is a cyclist approved system of rating hotels that you can get info on as well.
Highly recommend corresponding with the Route Verte organization as they can send you great resources. As well, we visited their head office in Montreal which is a great place to go - excellent (Bikeline type) maps, etc, advice, accommodation info, etc.
One note about Lac St Jean - "Blueberry Route" is that it was mostly cycle paths with some road riding, but what we found was that it doesn't predominately follow the lake. Nonetheless we enjoyed it.
Ironically, we have just been discussing figuring out a time to go back to Quebec. We are thinking of riding in Quebec and then carrying on to the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI.
Hope this helps. Feel free to correspond if you want to talk further. You have spurred me to dig out my maps etc and look at the area again.
Regards
Mary Ellen and Barry

We have just finished our cycling tour in Europe, doing the Munich to Venice route, as well as Slovenia and Croatia. We loved every minute of it, but are now thinking about what to do next year. We are considering staying in our own country for a change, and doing some of the Route Verte trails in Quebec. I discovered your blog from 2010, so I was wondering if you might be able to make some comparisons between cycling in Europe and in Quebec. Is the infrastructure in Quebec as good, in terms of separate bike paths and quiet roads? How about places to stay and restaurants when you get out of the bigger cities? I notice that you are camping while we would be hotelling it, but any information you could give would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Mary Ellen & Barry,
so good to see you had a great trip, and a safe return home!

We're still smiling about the odds of running into each other three times on recumbent tandems :-)

Hope to see you at Spezi next year, and/or to welcome you as our guests in Frankfurt! Please do drop us a quick email, ukseelbach (at) gmail (dot) com so we can stay in contact.

Kind regards,
Uli & Karola

I much enjoyed this homecoming tale, which parallels what we have done so many times. Homecoming begins a golden period, the few weeks between absorbing the luxuries of home and the onset of wanting to get going again!

Ah yes, yucchy food - welcome to Canada!

Look at how clean and smooth that road is, and how neat the town! The cows may have to wipe their feet before stepping out.

Hi Steve
Well, bad health happened. Despite taking antibiotics in Europe and seeing a doctor, I didn’t recover well from pneumonia. When I got home I basically “crashed” and had no energy, ears were messed up and a rough cough returned. I had that strange kind of exhaustion that I know from having had pneumonia previously. A series of visits to my doctor, more meds, an upcoming Pulmonary Function Test at Jubilee and I am finally surfacing again. A belated thanks to you and Dodie emailing me while travelling. I love the cycling community of travellers at large that we share.
We had an incredible trip and I am now sitting down to finish our journal. How is Dodie doing? Having a pair of wonky knees, I can relate.
Stay tuned for updates.
Mary Ellen

Hey Bartletts, I see you have updated some older posts, but where are you now. What happened in the past 23 days??

I love these and one day hope to get a chance to try one out.

And I remember tracks like these.
Love your photos Barry and Mary-Ellen.