Biking through Quebec
Sunsets, wild blueberries and coastal vistas beckon travelers to Route Verte
MONTREAL — In Montreal each spring, an epic bicycle festival demonstrates how 25,000 people can let the good times roll without bumping into each other too much.
In Quebec City and its hinterlands, cyclists plunge into a history shaped by French explorers, the Roman Catholic Church, aboriginal culture and British conquest.
In Charlevoix, an island provides a perfect loop for lovers of quiet roads and eye-candy vistas of mountains you don’t have to climb.
Then there is the south shore of the St. Lawrence, where the panorama of river, sea, sky and flowers defines the magic of bicycling in Quebec in ways that words cannot.
Those treats are mostly thanks to Route Verte, Quebec’s gift to the cycling world. It’s a vast network of trails and bike-friendly byways that is about to get another growth spurt. Quebec’s green way stitches together wild places, pristine villages and a few buzzy cities in a rich, French-flavored tableau.
It’s the masterwork of Velo Quebec, the bicycling association and Route Verte’s steward.
Sprawling over 3,300 miles, Route Verte is a handful to get to know, requiring more time than most people have. And the network will be undergoing its largest expansion in a decade with about 560 more miles.
Here are some of the great tours:
The Blueberry Trail: Veloroute des Bleuets circles Lac Saint-Jean, a lake so big it resembles the sea. In late summer it makes good on its promise of wild blueberries for trailside scavenging. The lake circuit runs for 160 miles on trails, quiet roads, village pathways and occasional paved shoulders. Signed as Route Verte #8, it meets the standards that are the hallmark of all designated routes in the network: Inns with Route Verte accreditation must offer healthy food choices, safe storage for bikes and tools while campgrounds must make room for cyclists even if full.
The route perfectly suits self-supported touring. But it’s also part of Velo Quebec’s summer extravaganza this year, the Grand Tour, a week (Aug. 3-9) of fully supported cycling.
Quebec City & Rail Trail: Quebec’s historic capital, like Montreal, has extensive bicycle paths for commuters and several of prime interest to visitors. Starting at the ferry terminal, the Promenade Samuel de Champlain path going west borders the riverfront for about 7 1⁄2 miles, looping onto a narrow walkway on the bridge crossing the St. Lawrence and joining with another trail in Levis. The Levis trail offers a spectacular view of Quebec City and a chance to return on the ferry, closing an 18-mile loop. Nature is nearby. The JacquesCartier trail runs about 50 miles on stone dust through forest and meadow. The river/sea: This is where I always go back to, no matter where else I go. On Route Verte No. 1, spread over more than 1,200 miles, cyclists can go along the south shore of the St. Lawrence for a week or in the Eastern Townships.
more, seeing the river widen going eastward into the wild beauty of the Gaspe Peninsula until the far shore disappears and the sea, somewhere, begins.
My hotspot is a day ride from the river road at Notre-Dame-du-Portage to Kamouraska and back, about 43 miles in all. In this wide panorama, the sky seems always etched with drama, as stormy sheets of rain and shafts of sun sweep over the mountains on the other side, the river churns in hues of brown and blue, and mist half swallows islands. The Kamouraska canola fields make for a brilliant yellow carpet and village homes — a kind of folk art in themselves— are lined with gardens. Sunsets are routinely extraordinary.
Isle-aux-Coudres: In the mountainous Charlevoix region, cycling tours are for huffing-puffing people but there’s an exception: a jewel of an island 15 minutes by car from Baie-SaintPaul, an art and tourist hub. Isle-aux-Coudres is reached by a free car ferry. The road hugging the shore is about 16 miles, and the scenery is stunning.
Estriade: A web of bike trails and designated cycling routes connects cities, farmlands, vineyards and towns in the verdant Eastern Townships. Among the trails, Estriade goes for 60 miles off-road, mostly paved and bordered by dozens of sculptures by international artists along a section.
The townships are a region of lakes, Victorian homes, orchards, covered bridges and resorts, maintaining a patina of England over a decidedly FrenchCanadian culture.
If you go: Full planning resources for cyclists at routeverte.com and check tourism sites for the regions you’re visiting via quebecoriginal.com