Québec Bicycle Vacation - Day 3

Another leisurely morning. We didn't have to check out until 1:30 PM. We repacked our bags, trying to organize a bit for the bike part of the trip. We found out that we could move the car from the hotel ($26/day) to an open-air lot across the street ($16/day). So we moved the car and put a few things in it that we didn't need to take on the trip. Then we checked out and had the hotel store our bags.

We went back up to the old part of the city. It was rainy and the clouds were very low. There was almost no visibility. Even the tops of the tall buildings were obscured in the clouds.

We lunched at a touristy place, "Aux Anxiens Canadiens," which was very good actually. We had some tasty "game pâté" and then had the table d'hôte lunch: soups, Quebec meat pie (me), Lac-Saint-Jean meat pie (B). I think we both had the maple syrup tart which was like a concentrated maple pecan pie filling of sorts. Lots of amusing bits of overheard touristy conversations.

We were looking at Inuit art a lot. B has a dancing bear carving and was interested in another one. And it's not like you really shop around for those things. You look, you see, and then something speaks to you and you buy that one. So we fell in love with a diving bear carving and bought it. The gallery agreed to hold it for us until we got back from the bike trip.

Back to the hotel by 3:30 PM so we could meet the Freewheeling Adventures guide by  4 PM. When we last checked, we'd been told that there was one other person on this trip. Ian, our guide, arrived and we found out that there were two more people on the trip and that they were meeting us all at the B&B that evening.

We put the bikes up on top of the Freewheeling Adventures van and piled in for the 90 minute drive to La Pocatière. It was rainy the whole way. We talked to Ian a lot about our past bike trips and our other guides. He knew none of them. We got to our lodging, Auberge au Diablo-Vert, which was charming if a little overdone with flowers and pillows. There were two shared baths, one upstairs and one downstairs. So everyone had to get to know each other and be cooperative right from the start. The upstairs ceiling was also so low that Ian could not stand upright up there. He was very tall and thin. But I'm 5' 10" and I had to duck for the beams which were even lower than the ceiling.  (The pictures below were of the return trip when we returned our fellow travelers to the inn.)

    

The other two travelers were not together. B was from Toronto and E was from North Carolina. Both were nice gents. Neither spoke any French. There were often "when worlds collide" moments, but all in all everyone was very pleasant and I hope they had as much fun on the trip as we did. We all had different cycling styles and abilities and we ended up not seeing much of them on the road.

Dinner was at a pub in town, and in retrospect it was the worst dinner of the trip, and not so good by any account. The food was served in HUGE portions. I had a venison pasta dish. The meat was tough and everything else in the dish was watery tasting. B had some seafood thing that I didn't even taste. The beer was good. And the desserts were insanely big. I didn't eat any, but tasted B's piece of a Québec specialty: sugar pie. It's very much like a version of pecan pie - rich and sweet and totally yummy.

We went back to the inn and crashed very very early for us (around 9:30 PM). I was surprised to fall asleep so quickly and sleeping pretty much through the night.