Family Bike-Tour
A couple of weeks ago my boss showed me a little booklet, ”check this out, could be fun for your family”. The booklet was a “Velo-Quebec” organised 3-day expedition. My boss and his family had signed themselves up, and I guess he was wondering if I still had material ahead of me for the Lole Love blog…
I came home and showed the booklet to my boyfriend, who thought I was either foolhardy or insane to think a 3-day biking adventure with our 3 highly expressive boys, 8-10-12 years old, that included having to camp 2 nights, and bike nearly 150 km, could be any “fun” at all. I thought it may be a nice, and of course challenging way to make biking more present in our family life. He gave me the benefit of the doubt and we prepared the boys by studying the map, practising with a long biking tour the week-end before and tuning/ fixing/ completing our bike gears.
The bike trail was country roads, with plenty of trucks, pickups, farm tractors and we all had to share the road. I NEVER would have biked this trail if I would have been alone with my little family, despite all the efforts made from so many people / governments / groups (Vélo-Quebec for instance), sharing the road between bikes and cars is not yet harmonious, BUT sharing it with nearly 2,000 other bikers, mostly families, was fantastic and calmed down the cars too.
It also was well organised by Vélo Québec. Our bags were carried from one place to another, there was water-supply vans throughout the course, motor-bike security patrols, and also “drop-out” vans for people that couldn’t /wouldn’t finish the day. Food was also supplied efficiently. We also tried the technical team as one of my boys had a flat. It was provided by volunteers (many of them) that were very well recognizable with a special shirt and their service was very quick, professional and highly pleasant!
And the scenery was absolutely beautiful. As we were on the country side we saw farms and fields, cows, horses, and even an Alpaca farm! The animals looked funny: they were shaved for their wool and truly looked like poodles that had been stretched at the neck and legs! Hello Gumby!!! We also saw so many different houses of all kinds of styles. Some were luxurious, many typical, but I also some in such conditions that they could have been perfect for a scary Steven Spielberg movie. The strangest site was an experimental farm with 2 sets of electrical barbwire fences… Could experimental crop dangerously escape??? Or was it something else tested there…?!?! Perfect for a Michael Crichton story…
So we made it in one piece without ever using the “drop-out” truck which would have been a complete dishonour for my men’s pride, and yes they really can be proud of what they did, under a perfectly heat waved sunny week-end! And now I have some months ahead of me to convince them for next year!!!!
Velo Québec is forerunner, prime mover and innovator on all things bicycle-related in Montreal. Their travel packages offer a wide variety of destinations around the globe and fit levels.
Tags: biking, velo quebec, veronique lemieux
OTHER FRIENDS 
WOW Vero! I am impressed! Keep in the loop for next years adventure!