Day 07 - Sainte-Foy to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

46.6 km - Total so far 562 km 

RDWGPS: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/14874624

Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/g11906841239

Today was a day with the most stops eveerrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

We headed out from Laval University before 8 a.m. and straight for la Cote Gignac and le Parcours du Littoral that runs along the St-Lawrence River Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. It did not take long before we had the camera and out snapping pictures.

Québec City bridges and an ocean going container ship

The first of many stops chatting with fellow cyclists.
Note cyclists and pedestrians on separate paths. 

We chase away horses with our bear bells

rue Champlain, a narrow street with older well taken care of row houses.

We were surprised to see how busy with cyclists the path was that early in the morning. We got lots of waves, smiles and many a thumbs up. When we stopped to photograph the horses above, we noticed a street running parallel to the bike path and hugging the cliff, la rue Champlain. I bet most people who live in Quebec City are not familiar with it. Glad we are now.

Plaque of the Undaunted Fifty

Near the industrial zone of Anse au Foulon, we stumbled on two plaques (French and English) that state “Here stood the Undaunted Fifty safeguarding Canada, defeating Montgomery at the Pres de Ville Barricade on the last day of 1775, Guy Carleton commanding at Quebec.”. Had we not been on bikes, we would have never seen them.

The mandatory picture of the Chateau Frontenac Hotel. Construction
 equipment highlights how well the old buildings are cared for.

Hélène enjoying a quiet coffee in La Basse Ville (Old Québec)

We stopped for coffee across the street from the bike path and watched a great number of cyclists go by. We saw a heavily loaded tandem bicycle towing a trailer. We had a later encounter with a local cyclist who told us the folks on the tandem were Australians heading to Vancouver. They had been at his home for a few days, resting. This kind cyclist was concerned that we might have missed a turn on the bike path which would have caused us to head back towards Montréal. He was correct.

Originally we planned to leave Québec City and follow the Avenue Royale from its start. Since I had never been to les chutes Montmorency, we opted for the bike path up to the falls and then back on Avenue Royale. Very similar to Le Chemin du Roy, L'Avenue Royale is lined with very old ancestral homes of various architectural styles. The road is also very popular with cyclists. 

As a matter of fact, today, there was a small traffic jam in the village of Chateau-Richer. An ever growing number of curious cyclists stopped at an intersection to chat with two touring cyclists towing trailers. Local drivers appear to be well acquinted with the large number of cyclists and not one car horn was heard. 

Caveau a légume(root cellar) on the Avenue Royal (circa 1660)

A great number of the homes have signs such as this one that indicates when the house was built,
the architectural style and the name  of the original owner. Very informative

A well cared for home but the owner replaced the original
windows with ones of aluminium 

A cool looking older building in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

An unusual sideview of the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre Shrine

A most challenging climb, 24%.
Right after the picture, he headed up back up the hill.

All in all, a very good day. We got to see lots, had many encounters with fellow cyclists. 

Find below a short summary of Week 1. Week 2 starts tomorrow!



28.96 miles - Total so far 349.21 miles