Vermont Tour (Day 5: Québec)

WWPD (what would Pat do)? I asked this question more than once on this tour. One doesn't ride with a partner for 25 years without developing a tacit understanding of how to go about things. I really did know what Pat would do. We had a choice, stay on the main route (the pink line, top map, scaled from 300 feet to 2,300 feet) through Vermont, and suffer a 4-mile, 2,000-foot climb, or go through Québec (bottom map, scaled from 300 feet to 1,300 feet), add a mile to the day, but lop off a few hundred feet of elevation. We chose the latter precisely because that's what Pat would have done—and because we were more than a bit knackered after that first long day of hills. We had planned for this, and brought our passport cards.

Customs was a breeze, especially after the steep climb up giving us an air of calm fatigue. Apparently, they see this a lot, lazy bike tourists taking the path less onerous by avoiding the notorious Long Trail Peak on Vermont 105. 

Some great views looking south toward Vermont. Vermont and Québec do have one thing in common: Vermont used to be it's own country, and many Québécois have long wanted Québec to be independent of Canada.

The first mile and a half was down hill and gravel. Welcome to Canada.

After the gravel, the pavement was mostly decent, traffic was sparse, and unlike Vermont, the drivers sane. Southern Québec is fairly well-off compared to the north, and northern Vermont is poor compared to the southern part of the state, and compared to Québec. It really showed in the tidy countryside and the well-kept small towns on the Canadian side.

 

At first, I thought this might be Orange Julius Caesar's summer palace, or perhaps Caligula's summer retreat...

...but on closer inspection, it proved to be the famous (or infamous) Neo-Roman House of Abercorn,  at the corner of 139 and rue des Churches in Abercorn, Québec, nominated to be the ugliest house in the province. Here's a little history of the place and its eccentric owner: «Le projet d'une vie». 

Excerpt, translated from the French:
"When we meet Mr. André Desroches, we are surprised from the outset by the calm and discretion of the character. One might expect a bubbling and impetuous gentleman, but he rather conducts his affairs with an all-internalized authority. "I never said an unpleasant word in all my life," he confided in his soft voice. I am the 16th child of a family of 17 and my mother always said that I had good character." It could make you smile if one does not immediately feel in this man a deep seriousness, added to an immense respect of his parents who transmitted to him strong moral and religious values. "They gave me everything they could with what they had. It gives the sense of responsibility very young. ""

The Tasting Bar on Main Street in Newport, Vermont for the first (and second) beer of the day, where we colluded to get a cab the next day back to Burlington, and the lesser hills and better food of the Champlain Valley. This would prove to be a wise but expensive decision. 

I had the Hill Farmstead Edward, an unfiltered, dry hopped American pale ale that was quite good. Dean had the Lost Nation Saison Lamoille and thought it okay. The Kingdom Brewery Round Bard Red wasn't half bad, either. 

Saturday's forecast called for rain; we called a cab, for a day off and a leisurely 2-hour van ride back to Burlington. That's what Pat would do.