Once he let me off on the other side, it was about 12 km to the ferry in Quebec City, along the amazing cycling network here. Once I arrived in Quebec City, it was nice to see something familiar, even though I had only been in the city for a couple days. Once I crossed the St Charles river, I knew exactly where I was and how to get down to the ferry terminal.
On the ferry, there were far more cyclists than cars (it was after rush hour), and I started chatting with one of the other cyclists. He was just heading over to Lévis to meet up with a friend there and cycle around for the day. Once we reached the other side, he wished me a bon voyage, and I started heading east along the coast.
Just after I had gotten out of Lévis, I stopped for a snack where there were wooden reclining chairs on the top of a hill overlooking the St Laurent. There were these 2 other women there that I started chatting with about my trip. One of them was a retired nurse, and they were asking all about where I was headed and how I ate on the trip. Afterwards as I was preparing to leave, they came up to me and said they approved of me putting on sunscreen, and then also gave me a bag of cut up veggies to take with me on my ride so I’d have something fresh to eat.
After this I continued on to Saint-Michelle-de-Bellechasse which had some really nice views, and then into Montmagny. From there you can take a ferry to l’Isle aux Grues, which has a really yummy fromagerie, but the ferry was under construction and not running. It was pretty cool biking along the St Laurent today and seeing it widen as I went. I was also pretty lucky and had some strong tailwinds pushing me along which was great, but I was looking out at the choppy water from the winds, thinking I would really not want to be in a canoe out there when that was the only route that connected all these communities.
Just after that I stopped at a fromagerie for an ice cream, and a few different people started chatting with me once they saw my bike setup and asking me where I was from. I have been so surprised how often people here have been complimenting my French, or asking where I learned it—not something I expected in Quebec (the last time I was in Quebec City in high school, people laughed at us because of our accents). Maybe there’s not a lot of tourists that speak French that come through these small towns, but in any case, everyone has been so friendly.
I was planning on staying in l’Islet, which apparently is one of the prettiest towns in the region, but once I arrived there, I had enough energy to keep going, so I carried onto Saint-Jean-Port-Joli. L’Islet was nice enough, but I didn’t think it was that distinctive from any of the other small towns I had biked through. Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, however was super lovely. There’s a ton of artists workshops and galleries, and many of them are wood carvers.
Something I’ve noticed in all these small towns I’ve passed through is that every town has a church (unsurprisingly), and a Canada Post office. Each Canada Post office has a Canadian flag out front, and usually this is the only Canadian flag in the whole town, as everywhere else only flies Quebecois flags. This wasn’t really shocking, but it was interesting how consistent it was.
When I arrived at my campground in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, I was pretty unimpressed. It was on the opposite side of the road as the St Laurent, so there weren’t any views, and it just seemed kinda dinky all around. They did have an indoor rec room/kitchen though, with a fridge and a stove. Since it was forecast to rain and since the winds were so high, I figured that cooking inside would be a better option than outside.
While I was preparing my dinner, another woman named Suzanne came in and we started chatting. She was the only other person in a tent on the campground. She’s a retired social worker from Rimouski, and just came here for a week to enjoy the outdoors. We ended up having dinner together and chatting about the region, and she told me that two of her friends, both named Camille, owned a bakery in the next town over. So I figured this could be a good stop the next day.
After dinner, I managed to wash everything and make it back into my tent before the rain started; I just hope that it’ll rain itself out tonight before I leave tomorrow morning.
Total distance: 110 km
Total elevation: 471 m
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