Veloroute des Bleuets; Biking the Trail of the Blueberry-Day 2-Chombard to Sainte Felicien
Day 2 began much cooler than day one. The rain from yesterday had lowered the temperature and it was about 50 degrees, windy and cloudy when we set out. Today’s route took us through more rural areas and through a few small towns on the shores of the lake.
We hadn’t been on the bikes too long before we decided we needed another cup of coffee to warm us. We spotted the restaurant (Le Relais Du Bleuets) from which we had ordered delivery the night before, and parked the bikes.
We went inside, where we were greeted in French. We said hello in English, which set the staff into action. The greeter gestured to wait one minute, and she went and beckoned a server who knew English. The English speaking server asked us what would we like to order, and asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside. We chose outside where we could keep an eye on the bikes. She said she’d bring our coffee and blueberry muffin out to us when it was ready. We took a few minutes to look around in the little gift shop, where they had many blueberry based products. I mentioned to Jimmy that I wanted some chocolate covered blueberries to go with our coffee and muffin. How could I not? When one rides the blueberry trail, one must eat blueberries at every opportunity, and if that means that they are covered in chocolate, then even better! We spotted some small packages of candy coated blueberries, but that wasn’t really what we wanted. I asked the server if they had chocolate covered blueberries, she said yes, yes, and picked up a small and large package from behind the counter and asked which size. Large of course! She told us they were made fresh right in the store and pointed in the direction of a lady in a small kitchen off to the side making another batch. The server left us to browse and went back to what she was doing. The lady in the kitchen signaled to me to get my attention, then quietly motioned for me to come back into the little kitchen. I stepped through the curtain into the kitchen and attempted to start a conversation with her about how nice her chocolate covered blueberries looked, and how I couldn’t wait to eat them. It was apparent right away that she did not speak English at all, but she motioned for me to hand her the box of chocolate blueberries that I held. I extended the box to her and she took them and set them aside. She then picked up an identical empty box from her stack, and began to pack it full of the freshly covered chocolate blueberries she had made that morning. When she finished, she placed the lid on (it would barely fit over the contents) and motioned for me to follow her back out to the counter. She went behind the counter and tied a pretty blue and white ribbon around my box, placed a sticker on it with the name of the shop, and handed it to me with a big smile. It was just precious! She wanted me to have the freshest chocolate covered blueberries that she could give me. It was such a sweet gesture for her to stop her work and take such special care to present me with the beautifully full box of blueberries.
Though neither of us spoke the other’s language, she was able to bless me in that special way. I motioned that I would like to give her a hug, and we grabbed each other and hugged and hugged (no air hug, a real bear hug!) I was saying thank you so much as I hugged her and we both giggled as we hugged. We parted with big smiles on our faces as we waved goodbye. We took our berries out to the front deck seating and soon our coffee and muffin arrived. It was a delicious treat and fueled us for a few more miles.
Today’s route was more dedicated bike trails and had fewer sections on the road alongside cars. The skies soon cleared and it was a gorgeous day. Clear, with sunny blue skies and big white puffy clouds with a temperature of about 68 degrees. Perfect riding weather and I took more pictures today than I did yesterday.
Around lunchtime, we decided to take a short detour off the trail and visit Val-Jalbert. The short detour was beautiful, and I was excited to spot fresh wild raspberries growing right along the trail. I stopped and ate a few.
Val-Jalbert is a historic village with 40 original buildings and period costumed “residents”. The old village was fascinating and we enjoyed meeting the characters and talking to them. One of the young girls playing the character of a school girl, was especially excited to be able to practice her English on us. We were able to store our bikes in the welcome center in an unused room and stretched our legs as we walked up to the village. It was a beautiful walk on a boardwalk path through the woods.
Once we reached the village, we took some time to tour some of the old buildings. A rushing stream ran right along the trail and I took several more pictures.
We decided to eat lunch in the old mill building, and were totally surprised to see a huge waterfall as we rounded the corner to the mill.
Ouiatchouan Falls is higher than Niagara Falls and we took lots of pictures from every possible angle. We also rode the cable car to the top of the falls (included in our entry fee). From there we had a view of the surrounding farm fields and Lac Saint-Jean in the distance.
We had no idea we were in for such a treat. We just thought we would walk around and look at a few old buildings. Lunch was delicious! A lady in the line behind us helped us to place our order when she saw that we were having trouble. We’ve found time and time again that someone is always trying to help us! It renews my faith in people, but more than that, it renews my faith in God, realizing he always has help available when we need it!
We continued our ride after lunch and went through 2 very picturesque towns on the shores of the lake. Sections of the trail took us through campgrounds, quiet historic neighborhoods, and alongside blueberry and strawberry fields.
It was a challenging ride because of the wind. Something we hadn’t considered was the breeze coming off of the huge Lac Saint-Jean. So far we’ve had 2 days of brisk wind, with today being much brisker than yesterday. But the beauty of the countryside offset our burning legs. We found our hotel right alongside the trail, our luggage was waiting for us, and we quickly changed and headed to dinner.
Once again, our server knew no English and we knew no French, but her strategy seemed to be to just keep talking, in hopes that we would pick it up. We were trying our best to translate the menu with our Google translate app, but it is hit or miss. Tonight it was miss! A lady seated at a table behind us, observing the whole thing, came over to our table and asked in English if she could help us. (thank you Lord!) We said yes in unison! She pulled out the chair beside me, sat down and said, “How can I help you?” I said, “Could you read the menu to us?” She laughed and said of course! She started at the top with the appetizers and read/translated the entire menu into English. It was a great help, and we were able to point to the correct line when our server returned to take our order. We ended our meal with a slice of blueberry pie, and it was another memorable day on the trail of the blueberry!
