August 14, 2019 to August 15, 2019
La Belle Province
Cycling along parts of the Route Verte, Quebec, Canada
We arrived in Quebec in the afternoon of the 13th, and having heard what a nightmare traffic is at the moment in Montreal (due to construction) we figured we would avoid the downtown altogether by heading south and finding a place to stay in Longueuil, which is across the river from Montreal. This ended up being a great decision as we found a campground right on the river at a marina. Although we could hear traffic from the nearby highway, it was pretty steady so ended up sounding like background noise. Also as a big bonus, this campground was right on the Route Verte section on this side of the river, so all we had to do the next day was hop on our bikes and ride - great!
After a decent night's sleep, we had our breakfast and coffee before heading north towards the little community of Bourcherville. We had decided the night before to keep our ride short on this day so that we could take advantage of the ferry that we could take into Old Montreal later in the day.
The weather was perfect and the bike path was at least off the highway, although it was pretty noisy. But hey, we'll take noisy but safe any day! We stopped after about 8 km to take a picture when I noticed that my Garmin seems to have gotten a bit carried away with itself! I'm not quite sure how it managed to decide we had ridden so far in just 20 minutes - good grief!!!
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I reset the ride and away we went, coming to a path alongside the road but away from the highway. Here we saw charming little cottages with wonderful views of the water. It was such a nice and relaxing way to begin our cycling here in Quebec! We noticed that there was a ferry we could have taken over to the little island of Charron, but we had plans for our afternoon, so decided against it. Just 11 km in, we stopped again for a little break before turning around and heading back to our camping spot where we collected our camera and headed over to catch the ferry at 12:30.
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This short ride took us past La Grande Roue, an amusement park on the island that also has a biosphere. We watched the people on some of the roller coaster rides as they went up and then crazily down. It seemed like every ride we could see from the boat was something you wouldn't catch either of us on - ever!!!! But if you like insane rides, then you might want to check this place out!
After the boat stopped there, it continued on, dropping us off right at the dock by Old Montreal. The last time we were here it was March and the temperature was below zero. We tried to walk around this area of Montreal, but it was so cold we just kept going into little shops just to warm up before going out and into the next. What a difference it makes coming at the right time of year! There were so many people in the streets, soaking up the warm sunshine and wandering in and out of the shops. It was utterly charming. We stopped for a quick snack of Poutine with smoked meat (beef) and a beer. I know, if you haven't tried Poutine, it sounds horrible, but honestly, it is just the best way to eat fries that there is, hands down! As we enjoyed our snack, we also enjoyed watching the people gathered in the street in front of us. After our little morning ride, it was the perfect way to spend our afternoon.
Snack finished, we joined all of the other tourists in meandering down the lovely streets, not paying particular attention to any one thing but just enjoying the ambience. At one point I did have to stop so I could have a video chat with my sister, Barb, as it was her birthday! Sadly, my phone quickly ran down so we didn't get to talk as long as we wanted, but not to worry, we will make up for that!
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After all of that wandering, we were, of course, a little hungry and so stopped in at the Ben and Jerry's for an ice cream cone. Ah, if only every day could be so easygoing!!!! Eventually, we made our way back down to the dock where we waited patiently for our ferry to take us "home". How lovely to just hop off the boat and be where we were staying! We totally lucked out in finding this place!
The next morning, we headed north. Our thinking for cycling/driving along this part of Route Verte is to drive up to a spot along the way and then cycle down or up, in a loop. This way we have our little home with us and don't have to worry about leaving it somewhere unattended.
Our destination for this day was the small town of Sorel. We were there in just over an hour and drove straight to the Visitor's Information centre. We had read on iOverlander that it was possible to park here overnight, but when we arrived there was a big sign saying no. Hmmm. Well, we went inside and spoke with the very friendly (and thankfully English speaking) attendant. She gave us some great ideas about a route for this day and when we mentioned that we had wanted to park overnight, she said of course we could! She just needed to print out a parking permit for us and, voila! We had our spot for the night!
We quickly changed into our bike gear and after a short stop at the grocery store for some snacks, headed out. We were going to head south along the smaller Richelieu River today to the even smaller town of Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu where we would catch a ferry over to the other side for the return trip. All in all it would be about 40 km, a good distance for us, given that we still have not built up enough hours on the bikes to spend a whole day cycling. The route took us along a fairly rough road, causing us to make unfavourable comparisons to the roads in Cuba. However, it was flat, the glimpses of the river through the yards of the darling little cottages (and some big) along the way were lovely and we had a tailwind. All of this made the first half of our ride just right.
When we came to the ferry, it was a very very short ride to the other side and, unlike the ferry at Drumheller, a small little hill to head up on the other side. We stopped in the town of Saint-Ours at the back of the little school to drink our lemonade and eat our energy bars before heading back towards the TI centre. Of course, you can never have it both ways, and so the nice tailwind that had been our friend on the way out became a savage beast of a headwind for the entire trip back - bummer! We just had to put our heads down and cycle until we eventually reached our destination.
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What a great way to end our day, sitting and relaxing by the river! We are so fortunate to be able to come here and cycle! Tomorrow its on to Trois-Rivieres where we plan on spending two nights, cycling south on the fist day and north on the second.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 248 km (154 miles)
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