The Way It Was
by Hattie Beresford
Cycling the Route of Navigateurs
This does not reveal the steepness of the hill nor the complaints of the rider
T
he dirt road stretched before us, rising ever upward along the amber wheat fields toward the woodlands and the rocky hilltops. Our thin tires barely grabbed the packed dirt, and our gears had maxed out at 1-1. It became a game of how slow could we go before falling over. No one in our little bicycle tour group wanted to be the first to dismount. Armand, our intrepid guide, had said he was going on a ride in Cuba, and one of our number was teaching him a little Spanish. I had a Spanish word for him, mentiroso – liar! Rolling hills, indeed! This was a relentless ascent. Groaning, we reached the top and pavement. The view back down to Fleuve Saint-Laurent (St. Lawrence Seaway to us Anglophones) was incredible, and I must admit, well compensated the effort. We cycled on, over hill and dale, racing past grain fields and dairies with the St. Lawrence ever in sight. Our week-long bicycle tour in the French-speaking province of Québec had started in Montmagny, a little town on the south shore of the St. Lawrence Seaway. One week later, we bid au revoir to our traveling companions at Métis-sur-Mer, some 233 kilometers east. Along the way, we strangers had become friends as we
Ms Beresford is a retired English and American history teacher of 30 years in the Santa Barbara School District. She is author of two Noticias, “El Mirasol: From Swan to Albatross” and “Santa Barbara Grocers,” for the Santa Barbara Historical Society.
shared the many adventures and festivities of the journey. Gastronomically, the experience was superb! Our picnic lunches always contained products from the region in which we travelling. We tasted ice cider (hard) from L’Ile d’Orleans and local apples and strawberries. The cheeses from Isle-aux-Grues, were made at the local cooperative owned by seven dairy owners. Their fromage sported names reflective of island history such as “Le Riopelle” and “Le Mi-Carême” named for a mid-Lent costumed festival indigenous to the Island. In fact, we spent the night before the bike ride on Isle-aux-Grues, taking our car across on the ferry whose schedule depended on the tides. It’s a charming place, the only one of an archipelago of 21 islands that is occupied all year. Four miles long by one mile wide, it is truly tiny. Today about 130 people live there year-round. This bicycle path is along the Route of the Navigators; luckily we weren’t in charge of the routing
The funky Auberge des Dunes and its dining room, Le Bateau Ivre
The company of cyclists prepares for takeoff from the quaint town of Montmagny
There are two hotels on the island. The Auberge des Dunes, in which we stayed, dates from 1952 when a small house was made into a hostelry. Over the years it grew wings, and the old tug, Le Bateau Ivre, was marooned across the way and put into service as a dining room and bar. Best described as “funky” (our suitcases rolled right into place on the slightly sloped floor of our room), it had the most magnificent views of the fleuve and the warmest reception. We borrowed bikes for a ride through one of the largest unspoiled wetlands in northeastern America and discovered the quaint architecture of the village and the magic of changing shoreline as the tide retreated from the salt marsh. The local border collie shepherded us along the way. Apparently, though the island was named after the cranes that once lived there in abundance, with the increase
WAY IT WAS Page 344
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The village churches became our navigational beacons
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