Wednesday, July 18, 2012

More gaspé vacation pics

Pointe à la Renommé lighthouse is also VGF - the world's first maritime-radio station (built by Marconi)
If you have ever thought about visiting Quebec's Gaspé peninsula (aka land's end) we offer this advice: DO IT!

We just came back from a family vacation there and loved every minute of it.  Even though it wasn't a bike-based vacation, there was a bit of biking. And a lot of awesome scenery, and plenty of eating delicious fresh local seafood. The five national Parks in the region (we are including Bic provincial park even though it is slightly outside the Gaspé region) are all spectacular destinations.

Rock garden in garden competition at Jardin Métis

Prince of Maguisha fossil is 370 million years old

A few exotic bikes parked at Reford Gardens

Bike tourist road hogs

"corrected" statue of Réné Levesque in his hometown of New Carlyle

Fully loaded tourer zigging his fully loaded bike up a hill

Magnificently restored covered bridge on Matapedia river.

Submarine tours (inside and out) are now available at Pointe au Pere in Rimouski

L'Anse au Griffon was where we rented an appartment for a week

On the way to the Cap Gaspé lighthouse in Parc Forillon

Cap Gaspé lighthouse is at Land's End

Surprisingly a Mazda Miata can be used for a gaspé bike vacation

Shrimp poutine at Brise-Bise in Gaspé

Route Verte #1 south from L'Anse au Griffon passes through Parc Forillon on Portage trail

Boat tour to Ile Bonaventure gannet bird sanctuary includes drive past famous Roché Percé

100,000 northern Gannets happily reproducing the species

Shrimp in a cup in Riviere au Renard only cost $2.25

Matane shrimp roll in Pointe au Renard only cost 4.50

Another important and mandatory tourist stop is Reford Gardens/Jardin de Métis

This dog at Reford Gardens has a twin behind Montreal's Place des Arts

The garden at Reford Gardens is the best we've ever seen

One of a million beautiful blosoms at Reford gardens

Ste-Flavie has these floating sculptures

Ste-Flavie also has these sea-escaping sculptures

Lighthouse at Pointe-au-Pere

Typical Gaspésie Rt 132 hillscape

Covered bridge at Grande Vallée



Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Far from home, in the Gaspé

Here's some scenic Gaspé photos.

Gaspé is a Québec destination you absolutely MUST visit.

speaks for itself...



l'Anse au Griffon beach



guidille homard anyone?



poussez... POUSSEZ!



the cod fishery, back in the day when Canada had cod



fish boat sculpture



view from very nice municipal parc at Mont St-Louis

Every town had a park or/and beach with picnic tables, benches and gazebos. 

yet another spectacular view



wooden chain, not good for bikes.



Mountain doesn't leave much room for road!



Coastline drive like nothing else in the east



The coastal scenery is simply amazing
Not visible in this pic are hundreds of roadside picnic tables, benches, and gazebos in parks, beaches, and scenic lookouts in and between the 100 towns of the Gaspé peninsula.  It's really a road trip extraordinaire. We cannot emphasize this enough!


Side trip to inland Parc de la Gaspésie teaches us about moose poop



view east from L'Anse au Griffon



Cap Chat at sunset after supper at Valmont resto



Mountains of Parc de la Gaspésie are real mountains



House-on-boat matches exactly the nearby house not on boat.



historic Maison Le Boutillier in L'Anse au Griffon
Interesting historic house with good gift shop and tea room


The view from the patio of the apartment we rented in L'Anse au Griffon

Friday, July 06, 2012

Summer time so leave Montreal island and Ride the beautiful Quebec countryside.

Your vacation destination answer is here: bonjourquebec.com

The next answer is Route Verte Quebec bike path networks : veloquebec.qc.ca

The last answer is : AllezY's awesome Quebec mtn bike trail directory AllezY.net

What are the questions?

Where do we get information about visiting the many regions of Quebec?

Where do we get info about riding bikes outside Montreal on the Route Verte?

 How do we find where the mountain bike trails are in Quebec?

Whether it is bike path rides, road biking. or mountain bike off road adventures, Quebec in summer is paradise.

Your Quebec bike vacation paradise is ready. Cross a bridge and get outside Montreal ride your bike and enjoy summer!

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Laurentian's scenic Riviere Rouge ride

We did a favorite laurentians ride on the weekend.  We love this ride. It is perfect in every way, except the quality of the road surface, which is sometimes good, but sometimes very bad. Luckily, the scenery compensates a lot. But we like to dream: if this ride was 100% top quality road surface it would be on everyone's list of Quebec's top 10 dream rides. 

We park in the Ste-Jovite part of Mont Tremblant town and ride over to Brebeuf via the covered bridge, then ride one lap of the Riviere Rouge through the three villages of Huberdeau, Brebeuf, and La Conception.


kayakers coming ashore at the covered bridge

How scenic? Very scenic!

Sadly, there was a lot of crappy pavement

Brebeuf has a sandy beach park and a path to the bottom of the rapids at the bridge

One of the best Elm trees we have ever seen

Pont Prudhomme is a very nice covered bridge, which is a pont couvert in Quebec

on hot days, under the bridge is the place to be. Splash!



Scroll down a bit for more pictures in another post





This is the ride map on Bikely.