St Vallier to Quebec City
We woke up at 7AM and quickly packed up so we wouldn’t cause Nile any problems with his landlord (even though he said his landlord shouldn’t be around that day). We said our thank you and good bye to Nile and got on our bikes for the short ride to the local bakery for breakfast.
This bakery was really amazing. Probably the best bakery we have ever been to. If you are ever around in the area you have to stop and try them (they are called ‘Boulangerie La Levee Du Jour’ and they are in St. Vallier, PQ). We got a few croissants for breakfast and a fresh baguette to take with us. It was a great start to what looked like was going to be a nice sunny day.
The weather was not going to cooperate that easily, and we had a headwind and also saw some rain clouds developing towards our destination of Quebec city (which was only 30km away). We kept on trucking as we usually do. As we headed south-west along the river, we encountered so many bike tourists like us it was incredible. They were all going the other way, but it was really neat to see so many in such a short period of time. The got to chat to a couple who stopped at the same depanneur we were at. They were from Barrie and were headed towards Sagannay, PQ. They gave us some tips about biking on the pacific coast. Soon after they had arrived it poured rain and even hailed for a little bit. Then it stopped and the sun came out again. It was the theme for the rest of the ride to Quebec city with a few rain showers here and there and the sun coming out soon after. The shoulder on the road and the bike lanes to the city was still so good, the weather events were really only secondary concerns to us. We then hit our first 1000km mark right before Quebec City.
We arrived at the ferry stop to Quebec city, where we encountered about 50 cyclists on very nice road bikes waiting to board the ferry. It looked like they were part of an organized group ride, possibly the police or firefighter association. As they passed us by to board the ferry, they had some jokes for us about our bikes being too fat and overloaded.
Once we got on the ferry, a number of them all came to talk to us. They were really interested in what we were doing and where we were going. One of the organizers even gave us about 50 fruit-to-go-bars, a big dark chocolate bar, and a box of granola bars! Either people are really generous or we must really look like desperate bums! 🙂
Everyone we’ve met so far on our trip have been incredibly friendly. I think travelling by bicycles make you very approachable (interesting looking as well I suppose). If we were travelling by car we can’t see how these meetings would ever take place! It really makes the trip for us, meeting so many nice people across the country, giving us so many great memories. Now at least in Quebec, this has all been possible because Katherine speaks fluent French. I think if she didn’t, it would be a bit more challenging to communicate with everyone to say the least. I understand what people are saying in French but unfortunately am not very good at actually speaking anything beyond the very basics.. I am hoping that one of these days I will get good enough to carry on a decent conversation.
Once we arrived in Quebec city, it started to pour rain again so we found some shelter and had our baguette and some cheese for lunch. It was neat to see so many tourists all of a sudden. This is also the biggest city we have been to on our trip so far and Quebec is an absolutely stunning city. With all that being said, since Katherine and I have been to Quebec city a few times before (we use to go back and forth between Ontario and the east coast a couple times a year), we quickly headed to Katherine’s relatives’ place in the city where we took shelter for the rest of the afternoon. It was very windy, and the off and on rain made us glad we were inside.
Katherine relatives took us out to a fantastic dinner by the wharf, and we then went to check out the The Image Mill. This is a light and sound show, with enormous projections utilizing the grain silos as a massive projector screen. It is an amazing show, and I can’t believe that I hadn’t heard about it before. A must see when you are in Quebec City!
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Trip Around The World 
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