Thursday, August 20, 2009

Trois Rivieres to Quebec Day 55

There were lots of very nice gardens along the route today. We thought these were quite nice and thought about them for our gardens in the future???

The first Irving sign this trip. It lets us know that we are almost in the Maritimes.

Stopped here for a nice late breakfast. It was the kind of cafe that you could have lazed away an afternoon quite easily watching the boats go by. Kind of far away but you can see a freighter in the background; it was going at quite a clip. We noticed that the St. Lawrence was quite shallow near the shore on our side so it must have quite a deep channel down the centre.

This small sleepy town looked like it had no decent places to eat so we stopped a local who directed us to this little bakery where Holly had a nice spinach quiche and we both had a date square. This little town had the typical narrow streets with people sitting on their balconies. It was about 2 pm when we went through and the veranda of the seniors' residence was line with the elderly in their chairs just watching the day go by. It is a shame that most of the people we see have no clue that we are on our adventure.


Day 55 riding and August 20th with our distance today being 144k. Tomorrow is our rest day in the city of Quebec. We spent a lot of our cycling time today on route # 138. Again, another beautiful, scenic ride and mainly in the country. Terrain is flat to rolling again and we're pleased with that! We had a big detour in Trois Rivieres and at the end of the detour, met a gentleman who had done the Tour du Canada ride in 2006. He had recognized the shirts and reflective triangles that were on the backs of our shirts. We had an interesting chat with him.

On our route today, there were lots of fruit and vegetable stands along the roadside. We had a coffee break at a little shop in Batiscan which is along the river and we watched a freighter pass by. Also, we had an afternoon break at a little bakery in the quaint little village of Donnacona. Yesterday, we came across a blueberry farm and again today. It seems that there is a huge church or cathedral in every little town and village here in the areas we're cycling through. There is a hugh cathedral in Notre Dame-du-Cap that attracts Catholic pilgrims from around the world. We cycled by it today.

Cycling into Quebec was a little hectic as the cue sheet was a bit difficult figure out. We did have one good steep hill to climb up and of course there was a stop light mid-way up and, yes, it had turned red by the time we got there so getting going on a green light was tricky!! We ended up missing a turn and got lost but then got re-directed after asking a couple of times the direction to Laval University. Good to know that we weren't the only ones making wrong turns. A bit of a hassle after arriving here but got settled into our room fine and had pizza for supper. The people we've met so far make an attempt to speak English to us. Also, something that is commonly done here in the corn season is buying cooked corn at stands along the roads. Enjoy reading this week's blog and we'll have more for you next week. Terri and Holly

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