Day 32: Perce to Paspebiac

110km/68m, 6hrs 9mins, 17.9kph/11.1mph, 780m/2535ft of climbing.

Quiet day today, fairly easy ride along the Gaspesie south coast.

Only a couple of days now until I leave Quebec after about three weeks. It has been interesting, and sometimes surprising. The first thing, as always, is the scale. If you look at the map, the Gaspesie peninsula is a piddling little appendage on the south of the Province. But despite my arriving by ferry half way up its north coast, it will have taken me ten days to ride round it. And while I seem to have covered a lot of ground, Quebec stretches a thousand miles north of where I have managed to reach.

I've been impressed by how easy it is to cycle here. I was told by more than one Ontarian that Les Quebecois were crazy drivers and that I needed to be careful. But in general I have found the drivers to be very considerate. And Quebec makes much more provision for cyclists than Ontario, by and large. Lots of signs reminding drivers to share the road, a fair number of segregated cycle lanes and a number of well-signposted "routes vertes" that take one off the main roads. And lots of "haltes municipales" at the roadside; shelters with toilets, picnic tables and access to drinking water. Very convenient.