Bicycling the Véloroute des Bleuets – Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Canada

Looking for a hassle-free bike holiday with a French flair?

The Véloroute des Bleuets is a 256 km cycling path that loops around Lake Saint-Jean in the heart of the Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec. Where the heck is that you may ask? The region is an easy drive north-east of Montreal and Quebec City. For avid train aficionados, hop aboard a VIA train in Montreal with your bike and voilà, before you know it (ok, it takes a few hours!) you can be on the bike path and cycling your way along the scenic lakeshore in the heart of wild blueberry country.

The Véloroute offers a great way to experience a bit of French Quebecois culture while enjoying a hassle-free biking holiday. A well organized infrastructure of rest areas, accommodations, bike repair centres, restaurants, and tourism sites
ensures a great few days on the road. You can also rent a GPS Cyclo Guide to attach to your bike for extra video and audio info on tourist sites and services along the way.

To make your trip even easier, there’s a luggage transportation service available! No need to drag around the extra
weight of your luggage, it will be delivered to your accommodations along the way! As of this year, the Véloroute is 100% paved with a mix of dedicated cycling path, designated road surfaces, and paved shoulders. It’s rated as easy-to-intermediate level throughout and there are only 3 slopes with a 9% gradient or more. No huffing and puffing up big hills! This means it’s perfect for families, ideal for those looking to experience their first extended bike tour, and amazingly simple for the more hard-core cyclists.

The best reason to go though is all the good stuff you get to see and do along the way! Lake Saint-Jean is the third largest lake in Quebec. It’s big, it’s blue, its shores are lined with warm sandy beaches, and the agricultural fields that surround it provide a picturesque backdrop for your ride.

Of course, good eating is important during any holiday! Wild blueberries, fresh artisan cheeses, award-winning local beers, and fine French style cuisine are the specialties here. There’s even a Cheddar Cheese Museum along the way in the village of Saint-Prime! No worries about going home hungry!

If culture and history are more your thing, there’s lots to see and do. An absolute must-see is the Historical Village of Val-Jalbert. This 1920s ghost town is a gem of turn-of-the-century Quebecois architecture and has a spectacular waterfall to boot! The village was built as a company town to house the workers of the pulp mill. Today, you can stay overnight
in the old workers’ houses or in the little hotel above the old General Store, visit the original convent school, tour the village and hike along the river to the top of the waterfall. This is a one-of-a-kind authentic experience, don’t miss it.

Love animals? Make sure to stop at the Zoo sauvage in Saint-Félicien. This isn’t your average run-of-the-mill zoo, this one
specializes in boreal animals that live in semi-wild conditions. Visitors are caged and the animals run free! A visit also includes stops at recreations of a fur trader’s post, a lumberjack camp, and a settler’s farm – a fun way to learn about the history of the region.

The Véloroute des Bleuets loops its way around the lake and through over 15 amazingly friendly towns and villages along the way. Most visitors take 3 to 5 days to enjoy all 256 kilometres. If you want to keep on riding, the Saguenay and Fjord region can also be accessed as the Véloroute des Bleuets is linked with the Route Verte (the cycling route that crisscrosses the province). Whether you prefer camping, B&Bs, inns, or top-notch hotels there are lots along the route and they are equipped to serve cyclists and their special biking needs. Several outfits provide full-service holiday packages, or you can use the official Véloroute website to plan your own personal excursion.

For more information about the Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean region and itinerary suggestions, you can check out the websites: http://www.veloroute-bleuets.qc.ca/ or http://www.saguenaylacsaintjean.ca

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