This morning after picking up a coffee at Timy's and before leaving Montmagny under cloudy skies I went back to the parc by the river to see what difference the tide makes. As you can see from the two pictures the change is quite dramatic.
Yesterday afternoon:
This morning:
I decided to continue to ride along the scenic route 132 through many small towns along the St Laurence. On a short parallel street I came upon an artists garden with some beautiful stone carvings and lovely flowers. The day lillies are in full bloom and they line the ditches and form low hedges in front of many houses.
This well maintained property is one example of the period houses along the highway that have the mighty river in their back yard.
Owing to infrastructure programs intended to help preserve provincial heritage sites, nearly each village has a refurbished and well maintained church. The 1768 Église Notre Dame de Bonsecours is in the village of Islet-sur-mer.
At first I just drove by a wacky art installation but since it reminded me of one I had seen along Route 66 I doubled back and stopped to take a few pictures. The Gallerie d'Art contemporain, as it is called, has a number of installations in the yard and on the pink house that also serves as the artists home, shop and studio.
I particularly like the beds suspended on wood posts.
While the larger bed had no name that I could find, the baby crib is called:
And now for the day`s small misadventure. Not having eaten yet, I decided around 11:00 or so to stop and pick up a coffee to have with my leftover cheese, baguette and crudités. The plan was to stand the coffee with its lid securely fastened in the topcase of the bike and stop at the next inviting roadside picnic table. Sound reasonable? Duh! All except the paper coffee cup in the topcase part. After 15 minutes with wipes and other assorted absorbent materials cleaning up the spilled coffee in the bottom of the case, I was able to enjoy me 2/3 cup of coffee and my snack at a rest stop at the Parc des Grèves at Notre Dame du Portage. Until I wash it out my rain gear it will have the distinctive 'Eau de Mac Coffee' smell; not bad really.
I followed 132 to Rivière du Loup and then took highway 85 and 185 (the remaining two-lane sections) to Dégelis at the eastern tip of Lac Témiscouata. Since it was too early to check into my hotel for the night I dropped into the tourist information office to ask if there were any interesting motorcycle routes nearby. After a brief discussion with the lady at the desk I decided that I should do a roughly 100 kilometre circuit around Témiscouata lake and the like-named Parc national. It was a beautiful ride through dense forest along routes 295 and 232. The 'Watch for deers' signs were plentiful but thankfully the deer were not.
Dinner at the hotel restaurant, a half bbq (actually roasted) chicken with coleslaw (in a plastic container) and frozen fries was, well, not impressive. You gotta be leary of an establishment that has a sealed plastic-wrapped dinner roll with little plastic butter tubs on the bread plates next to each of the place settings in the restaurant. But, the service, while slow (I had time to read more than a chapter of my book while sipping my glass of white wine) was friendly.
All in all a great day.
Tomorrow to Saint John.
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