Today began and ended perfectly, with a little suffering in the middle. We started at the B&B with our 3 course breakfast which was excellent. We loaded up the panniers, said goodbye to our hosts and zipped downhill to the ferry and made it on with 45 seconds to spare. A nice start to the day.
On the Quebec City side of the river we picked up the bike path for a very enjoyable ride south. After the bridge we were on the Route Verte 5 for the duration of the day. Initially it took us through some neighborhoods but ended up in a park with a very steep downhill followed by several flights of stairs. I'm sure some sign in French warned us of this, but it was not obvious to us. To descend the stairs you just put on the brakes, head over the edge and hope everything arrives at the bottom together :-)
After succussfully navigating the several flights of stairs a nasty little construction detour took us up a 150 foot hill and through more neighborhoods. South of Quebec City where we ended up on some very pretty and lightly used country roads for several miles. Eventually it was the shoulder of Hwy 138 for the rest of the day to Tres Rivieres. The temps stayed in the 70's under partly cloudy skies with a mild breeze in our face.
I think I've figured out how to describe Quebec now - take equal parts of France and Iowa, put them in the blender and push the frappe button. The mix of quaint little side streets with cafes and WalMart strip malls is interesting.
As we got near our destination, after 82 hard miles, a rather annoying 4 mile detour appeared which took us directly in to the wind for the first half and forced us to bypass the 4 B&B/hotels we were considering. That left us to downtown and one preferred bike friendly hotel choice. This hotel turned out to be a little business like, but fortunately Patricia had spotted a nice B&B a few blocks away and they had a room and were very nice (as we have experienced at all of our stays in Quebec). Another great French dinner and we were ready for bed and another long day on Tuesday.
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