Clean Bin Project Tour Day 93 - Quebec to New Brunswick

 

To be honest, Grant and I were scared of the rest of Quebec.  Grant's french is non-existant and mine was left firmly back in highschool where it garnered me my lowest final grade on my entire transcript. Luckily, the cycle routes are well marked across the province, and the words for poutine and croissant are the same in English. I listened feavorishly to Michel Thomas teach French lessons as we rode, and in the end, Quebec surprised us.

I really can't say enough about the cycling.  The Route verte comprises of 4000kms of cycle trails, paths, and lanes all over Quebec (we obviously did just a small part). The churches were gorgeous, the waterfront towns were lovely, and the people were really friendly. Case in point - one blazing hot day, a man pulled chairs inside his air conditioned convenience store and insisted we sit inside to eat the lunch we had packed.

Then, just as I was starting to regain my French basics, we made it to New Brunswick. Here, the trail continued for awhile as a gravel railbed and the weather got ridiculously hot. So hot, our forearms sweated as we rode, and lunchtime turned into "search for air conditioning time" because even sitting in the shade felt like we were sitting under a laundry dryer vent.

We took the scenic route along the river for a couple days and ended up on a road that said "cul-de-sac" on the sign but which our trusty GPS clearly showed as a through road.  The road itself was, at first, lovely and shady, with trees growing right up to its edges and overhanging the asphalt, but as we progressed, it grew increasingly overgrown.  Grant commented that it looked almost postapocolyptic, like something out of a Cormac Macarthy novel.  And then the road ended.

And that's how we ended up in the photo, shin deep in water and giving our waterproof paniers a test.

(Bone dry, by the way.)

Clean Bin Project Tour Day 88 - Montreal and Quebec City

Who doesn't love Montreal? Jen's company has an office there, and we stayed with a colleague, Emilie, who used to work with her in Vancouver. Bicycles, including the ever popular Bixi, were everywhere, and we followed the lovely segregated waterfront route all around the city, getting the full tour of the island of Montreal.

Our screening felt like a bit of a reunion, as Jen's cousin and her family came out, as well as a friend we'd met travelling in Central America a few years ago. Needless to say, we would've liked to have stayed another day, but before we knew it, we were heading out of the city with Emilie serving as our ring leader and much needed francophone bakery expert and bicycle guide- when there are so many bike paths, sometimes it's hard to know which one to take. Thanks for everything Emilie!

We hadn't done any research on Quebec, but we were happy to find that the riding was amazing; fairly flat, with marked lanes, and lovely weather. We met an Australian couple who had the official cycle map, and we crossed over to the north side of the Saint Lawrence River with them where the cycling was even better.

Quebec City was gorgeous (although we had a heck of a time finding a place that had a vacancy on a Friday night), and we spent one evening of true vacationing - eating out, taking photos in the Old Town, and generally touristing around. We couldn't stop marvelling at the stone buildings and quaint shops.

We managed to get caught up in a women's marathon that was winding through the city after dinner. We stood on the sidelines and clapped and cheered for people we didn't know who were giving it their all. Maybe we got so excited because we know what it's like to be on the other side; people regularly honk to us along the road, wave to us from their front porch, shake our hands, and give us hugs after screenings, and we know that support from the sidelines makes a great journey even better.

Clean Bin Tour Day 84 - Bonjour Quebec

Wakefield, without a doubt, was the town that people had raved about the most. "You'll love it there", they said. "So beautiful and laid back. So many great shops. The people there are a perfect audience for your film". And they were right. 

Our good friend's sister, Fiona, managed to hook us up with two fabulous local champions: La Foret and Life Without Plastic.

I had known about Life Without Plastic from the 'blogging world' as the online source for great non-plastic alternatives (think stainless steel containers and wooden toothbrushes), so it was quite an honour to meet Jay and Chantal in real life. Mel and Siomonn from La Foret made sure we had the projector sorted and spoiled us by filling up our bulk bags (and a couple new stainless steel containers from LWP) with organic trail mix, pasta, and loose tea. Needless to say, our local promoters ensured that we screened to a packed house at infamous Black Sheep, and our audience was treated to the best door prizes ever. Thanks also to Julia who let us stay at her house even though she wasn't there (Wakefield's like that) and Andrew who provided a fab lunch and a quality swimming hole.

After a lovely ride through Quebec countryside, we had planned to camp the next night in Alfred, but as we were looking at the map outside the grocery store, a woman came up and invited us to her house for the night! Claudette turned out to be a gourmet cook whose sons were about our age, and we spent a great evening socializing with her and her husband, swapping travelling and family stories. What a friendly introduction to Quebec!

Hudson, one of our very first bookings, was our next stop. Once again we were spoiled. We stayed with the lovely Madeleine, the mom of a friend, who treated us like her own kids, feeding us homemade pie and letting us sleep on a luxurious memory foam bed. We screened at the community centre, hosted by the fantastic and volunteer run, GoGreen Hudson. We also met the folks from Steward Bags who came all the way from Cornwall to see the film and give us a few of their organic cotton produce bags to try - thanks guys.

As a final note, we are continually surprised and humbled with the hospitality people have shown us along this trip. Friends of friends, parents of friends of friends, and even strangers have welcomed us in to their homes, and we know that when the trip is over, these are the experiences we'll remember the most.