I'm a biker chick

Last week, after seeing how well LP now gets along with his parents, M said hey, us two now might be ready for a little motorcycle adventure! My answer was yes, yes, yes! How things change. There was a time when LP simply could not get out of my arms and would wail for hours at a time if we tried to hand him over to other people. He would just NOT have any of it. When he was 8 months old, we took him on a cruise to Bermuda and brought my mom along, who was only too eager to pitch in and spend some time with him. I thought it was the best solution possible, a nice, family vacation but with a babysitter allowing M and I to have a few couple moments too… I envisioned sleeping in, maybe a romantic dinner, the two of us lounging on the deck with drinks… And most importantly a snorkeling outing, since Bermuda is apparently one of the best places in the world for that. But none of it happened. While we had a wonderful time, LP did not want me to leave his eyesight for a minute, exploding into history-making meltdowns as soon as I left him to get a plate on the buffet station.

I had not hopped on a motorcycle for the past three years : two summers ago I was pregnant, and last year, well someone had to take care of that baby, right? A year ago M sold his old bike and got a BMW 1150R, which he loves but mostly only rides to and from work every day (he’s so dedicated that every morning, he drives LP to daycare, comes back home, leaves the car, then rides off!). You should have seen him, the big expert, doubtfully looking at my pink Adidas Tuscany sneakers as we packed. "Don’t you have like, riding boots? And riding gloves, maybe?"

Err, honey, do you know me? You’re even lucky I have a leather jacket, which I think I remember buying in Italy (or was it Spain?) seven years ago. Even though we have Siberian winters and there are loads of hi-tech, extreme weather gear available, I go around without an appropriately warm winter coat on, wearing stiletto-heeled boots. When it comes to sportswear, I’m equipped for like jogging, going to the gym, rollerblading, and I think I have one of those shiny biking t-shirts with pockets in the back somewhere, but that’s pretty much it. It’s not that I’m clueless, I can ski, I can hike, I can even canoe, but I’ve always gotten away with borrowing stuff from people when I needed it.

I left on Friday night with the car carrying LP, the extra helmet and the luggage/baby gear, while I painfully watched M getting soaked throughout on the bike all the way to his parents' house near Quebec City. On Saturday morning though, the sky had cleared and things were looking up. Even though the thought of leaving my son overnight for the first time made my heart squeak a little, I knew he would be fine. Only a few hours after we arrived, he had already managed to turn his grand-parents’ house upside down, and find the cookie stash.



The beginning of the journey... For the record, I'd like to point out that M does NOT wear bandannas like that in real life...

We departed with a roar, and the wonderful feeling of riding quickly came back to me, with the wind, the air, the smells, and the impression of really belonging to the landscape.

We rode north, across the beautiful Charlevoix region where we stopped for lunch. Mid-afternoon we reached the village of Tadoussac, where the St.Lawrence and the Saguenay River meet, and took a small ferry to Baie Ste-Catherine. This is a breathtaking place and although I grew up very close from there on the Saguenay, I had only been there once.

We arrived at Les Escoumins where the St.Lawrence begins to be large enough for people to call it "the sea". The air smells salty, the water is crystal clear, and you can find urchins and starfish on the shore. I remember having been there once as a child with my grandparents, and it remains one of my greatest childhood memories...

How many shades of blue can you see? Les Escoumins.

We boarded a second ferry across the St.Lawrence, which -really slowly- took us to Trois-Pistoles where we had a room reserved. We had a relaxed seafood dinner with wine at our hotel, and then we more or less crashed on the bed, after this exhilarating but exhausting day.

On the 90-minute ferry ride, during which we saw several small whales, dolphins and seals...

Canola fields near Cacouna

The next day the landscape was completely different, still very close to the water but less rugged, with a mix of fishing villages and farmlands... We've crossed some of the most beautiful Quebec villages I've ever seen, including Cacouna and Notre-Dame-du-Portage... I wish one day when we retire we can maybe buy one of the many beautiful old waterfront houses we saw there and have LP's children over for summer vacations...

A sad, forgotten boat on the shore in Kamouraska...


On our way back we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the sailboats that were part of the Transat Québec-St-Malo race, only a few hours after it started. This race, which is quite an event in the sailing world, only takes place every four years. If all goes well, the first of these boats should reach the coast of Brittany in about two weeks...

All in all, we rode about 560 km together (almost a thousand km for M) and even though it was really fun, I was also awfully sore at the end! I was really happy to arrive and hold my son, although I must say this weekend of only us to take care of and no diapers to change felt great. We'll have to do it again from time to time, probably even pushing our luck and trying to get away for two or even three nights! It turns out, LP only called for us once when he woke up, and had a blast on the new swing his grandpa installed. Here's a picture taken by grandma while we were away, which show us that ever true to himself, he was very busy eating...