Montreal and Véloroute Gourmande – Day 7

We had breakfast in the apartment with the groceries we bought last night. We are riding from Sherbrooke to Drummondville today with the distance of nearly 90 km. Once we were packed up, we carried down panniers and bikes separately.

Our accommodation was right across the street from a school. We saw many people walking and biking to school. There was no traffic jam of cars around the school. The intersection has a scramble phase for pedestrians, which means that the lights were red for vehicles in both directions while pedestrians were allowed to cross in any direction, including the diagonal.  The crossing guard would walk towards the middle of the intersection during the scramble phase.

Here we are ready to go.

Here are a few buildings and a large mural which we saw on our way out of town.

We encountered a roundabout that had pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. Cars are required to yield to pedestrians and cyclists.

We were on a path adjacent to the river for a while.

Velo Route 4 goes to Drummondville, but from Bromont, where we were two days ago. Consequently, most of the day was spent on roads, but they were generally not very busy.

We generally have good shoulders to ride on.

We are encountered several instances of very short bike lanes that went from nowhere to nowhere.

It was overcast all day.

We found a little park with a porta potty and a a four seater glider.

This business caught my eye, but we didn’t visit.

Most of the trucks that passed us gave us at least the required 1.5 m. 

Most of the towns that we passed through, have gentle density in the form of four- or six-plexes. there were also so many buildings like these that are rental buildings. I wonder what Quebec’s zoning is like to get so much gentle density. In Ontario it seems to be single family homes or high-rises, and not much purpose built rentals. 

We bought a six pack of large date squares for $3.50. One of our more economical snacks. The proprietor spoke no English.

It had started to spit rain just before we stopped for our snack, but didn’t seem enough to warrant rain gear before we set off. It wasn’t more than a few kilometres before it started raining moderately and it was time to stop and put on the rain gear.

Shortly thereafter, I got too far ahead of the group, and Cindy got a flat tire. David and Dayle stopped in the three of them got it changed.

I was more than a kilometre ahead so stayed where I was until they caught up.

We planned to stop in Richmond for lunch, but hadn’t chosen where to stop. We wasted time trying to figure out where to eat, and then trying to find the restaurant. Somehow, we managed to ride a couple of kilometres when the Subway restaurant that we chose had been just a few hundred metres off of our route. I think we are all getting tired. We will choose tomorrow’s lunch spot tonight.

Richmond had an amazing row of red maples.

To continue on our way, we had to cross over the Saint François River. We didn’t have cycling infrastructure before or after, but there was a narrow paved shoulder and a sidewalk on the bridge.

Some areas now seem past their peak for autumn colors.

We had a 4 km long climb that was a pretty steady 3% grade, which was quite tiring. This is Dayle almost at the top.

After that, there was a beautiful descent L’Avenir, and the rest of the ride was fairly level or slightly downhill. There were several more incredibly long beautifully rubbed rose of red maples in L’Avenir.

Outside the church in L’Avenir, someone had set up a skeleton with a safety vest, and slow sign.

The route I had originally planned with the help of Ride with GPS was somewhat meandering to keep us off of route 143, but with the length of the ride, the weather, and the fact that we had to attend the Brampton Active Transportation Advisory Committee meeting at 7 PM, we decided to stay on route for 143 which took us right to our hotel.

It got busier as we got near to Drummondville. It seems like we got every red light. There was a small section of raised cycle track, but mostly we stayed on the road.

This bridge over the Trans Canada Highway had cycling infrastructure and cars were required to yield to bicycles and pedestrians on the ramps.

We arrived at the hotel with just enough time to check in, quickly change, and go out for a dinner which included poutine.

According to ChatGPT:  “Poutine was invented in Drummondville, Quebec, in the late 1950s.

The story most often told is that Fernand Lachance, owner of Le Lutin Qui Rit snack bar in Warwick (near Drummondville), first mixed French fries, cheese curds, and gravy at a customer’s request around 1957. Lachance reportedly said, “Ça va faire une maudite poutine!” (“That’s going to make a damn mess!”) — giving the dish its name.

Later, restaurants in Drummondville, especially Le Roy Jucep, helped popularize and perfect the recipe by adding hot gravy to melt the curds slightly. Le Roy Jucep even claims to be the official birthplace of poutine, and the Quebec government has recognized it as such.

So while the exact origin is debated, Drummondville is widely regarded as the home of poutine.”

Tomorrow will be a road day, as well, with a distance of about 80km.