August 12, 2010
Montreal to Hebertville Station by train: A rest day - the first in a long time.
We We have met a few people who have not bagged or boxed their bikes for transport on the train. It is a bit tempting not to go to the work of bagging the bike, but you can't be sure of the safety of your bike. Yves phoned for a mini-van to take us to the train while we finished our breakfast of white chocolate french toast. When we got to the train station the baggage clerk informed us that as we had arrived 29 min. ahead of departure (instead of 30 min.) and that he would not check our bike or panniers. We would have to carry it down many stairs ourselves to the train. Luckily a more reasonable colleague got involved and all was taken care of for us. It is significant to note that this was the first difficulty we had experienced with VIA rail after much travel with them. We had a 9 hour journey head of us - the Montreal-Jonquiere line. After weeks of cycling everyday, it felt odd to be sedentary and it was strangely tiring. We saw a different landscape as we headed north. We followed rivers, rapids, forests and farms.
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It was exciting to glimpse our first view of Lac St. Jean, the 3rd largest lake in Quebec with 210 km of shoreline and endless beaches. We could see the bike route alongside the train. It looked beautiful - can't wait to get going.
Jean Guy, the owner of our B&B in Alma, "Gite Almatoit" picked us up and transported us and more importantly our bike the 10 km to Alma. What a wonderful choice of accomodation - true hospitality. We had heard much about the expansive and hospitable nature of the residents of this area and Jean Guy lived up to these descriptions. He is truly an ambassador of the region and passionately shares his love of the region with his guests through his hospitality and breakfasts. It is his custom to welcome his guests on the verandah with a local beverage (Mary Ellen enjoyed a local beer) of beer, wine, cappucino,etc. meet the other guests and with his help select a place for dinner. We felt so welcomed at Almatoit - comfortable and relaxed with many common spaces for the guests. We could imagine staying here for a long time. Nonetheless, we must move on tomorrow morning and will return for another night before taking the train back to Montreal. Many of the guests come from France to Quebec. We enjoyed meeting a family from Angers, France: Marc Legroux and his family. We went out to dinner with them and had a wonderful evening. Marc was perplexed that French and English Canadians have difficulty commnicating. He seemed to take on the responsibility of paving the way for us by encouraging the waitress to help us in English. It gave us an interesting insight to how other countries see us.
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Alma is at the junction between the Sagenuay River and Lac St. Jean. With a population of 30,000 it is one of the largest communities around the lake.
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