Wednesday, June 13. St. Philippe de La Prairie to Montreal, Quebec. As I write this, it's actually Thursday morning. I'm sitting in a 1920's B&B near old town Montreal. It seems more like a hostel--our room shared a bath with 3 other rooms, and breakfast is bagels, croissants (au buerre) and Corn Flakes. But the coffee comes in a French press, and the yogurt flavor is framboise--it must be Montreal.
Our ride yesterday started out on the same type of badly-maintained roads that we've come to know and love in Canada. As we neared Candiac, we started to be passed by more and more extra-large dumptrucks, and the scenery became more and more industrial. Right before we reached the trucks home base, one of them came very close to running us both off the road. This is only our second close call in over 2,000 miles and countless vehicles, so still not a bad average.
As soon as we passed the mine (or whatever) that was spitting out the over-sized trucks, we could see the St. Lawrence Seaway and the landscape changed to upscale residential (waterfront property has that effect). We were looking for the Route Verte bicycle path which would take us into Montreal, and only had to backtrack once to find it. The Route Verte is Quebec's network of bicycle paths--about 3,600km worth at last count. The path into Montreal is scenic; water on both sides of the path. To the left, Montreal. To the right, the shipping lane. In between, nothing but cyclists and rollerbladers of all shapes and stripes. I kept thinking that I was smelling strawberries, and sure enough, wild strawberries were growing on the side of the path--ripe for the picking. A smattering of rain fell on our ride into the city, but not enough even to dampen the clouds of dandelion puffs that flew around us as thick as snow.
Once we crossed the bridge into the city, we found ourselves riding along the quays. The sun was out again, so we stopped for a late lunch at a sidewalk cafe'. The wait staff gave us directions to the B&B, warning us that it sat at the top of a big hill. And in a city that is full of cyclists, I was prepared to take them seriously.
I made it up the hill, thanks to my granny-gear, and we soon found Scott, the on-site manager. He was excited to hear about our trip as he was considering a trip from Montreal to his home in North Bay, Ontario. He hadn't done any touring before, so he was full of questions about routes and gear.
We stashed our bikes and BOBs in the garage, and headed upstairs for showers. The evening was coming on, and we strolled around the pedestrian area for a while before settling in to people-watch and blog at a corner coffee shop. The outdoor tables were all taken, but we commandeered a small table in an open doorway and settled in.
The fun part about this area of town is that the restaurants are all "byob". You stop at the corner bottle shop and pick up your wine, then stroll along the ave until you find a cafe who's menu fits your mood. We chose an outdoor table at Restaurant Minerva, and they opened our bottle of French table wine. The food was great and the service wonderful.
We lingered over coffee and dessert until the break after the second period of the hockey game, and then strolled back to the B&B to watch the end of the game. btw, this comment appeared in the Canadian paper after Carolina won their third game: "If Carolina wins one more game, the Stanley Cup will go to the land of college basketball". Well, Edmonton pulled out an overtime win, so the Stanley Cup is safe until Saturday night.
We're off today through Montreal to a KOA on the west end. This KOA is advertising a pool AND spa, so I'm looking forward to getting in early enough to enjoy it. More later.
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