Chemin des Patriotes and Jardin des Curiosités

Cactus? Blooming? In Quebec? Outdoors? It's definitely summer time. And it's definitely the Jardin des Curiosités.


Massive explosion of... summer colour


Giant golden flower, why do we like flowers so much?


All size, shapes, and colours are here to be enjoyed


One of our favorite odd-shaped flowers


800 plants are on the guide to the garden


Sometimes, there are no flowers, with man-made form and color elements replacing the chaos of flowers


Flowers are popular with the birds and the bees too


The nearby Canal de St-Ours, the first lock on the Richelieu river

We took a tour along the Richelieu river on the Chemin des Patriots road today. We started at Autoroute 20 and went north to St-Ours and a little bit further to these nice destinations.

The ride started off great: nice paved shoulders... then the nice paved shoulders disappeared, not good. We arrived at St-Ours and then to our destination: the Jardin des Curiosités, a place we noticed in the home and garden part of La Presse last weekend. The review was so glowing, we had to visit and see more some wonderful plants and flowers. Summer is short, so we try to maximize the enjoyment.

We were not disappointed, this garden is quite spectacular. We are always amazed at the variety, colour, and beauty of the many different sorts of flowers mother nature has invented, and of course we are feeding our particularly human affinity we all have for the beauty of flowers.

After our visit to the garden we went 200 or so metres south for a picnic lunch at the boat locks of the Canal de St-Ours, which are the first locks on the Richelieu river. This park-like setting in the river was a great place for lunch, and had lots of shaded picnic tables to get out of the hot sun.


Aerial overview of the gardens: there's a lot of strolling going on, and a particularly fine way to enjoy a summer's day


Map of the the Canal St-Ours island/canal/dam/fish-ladder/locks/history/park site


Photo of the St-Ours site before the present dam was built


We have not revealed it before, but we would love to do a canal cruise from Montreal to New York City. Preferably one with daytime bike-riding options as we travel south.