Is Canada the perfect country?

We may seem a little biased on this subject, but we feel it's only fair to give a shout-out to our favourite parts of cycling in Canada.

Collecting sap for maple syrup at a sugar shack near Quebec City

The bike paths.
We were pleasantly surprised by the amazing infrastructure for cyclists, mostly in Quebec, which is home to a "Route Verte" network of bike lanes and paths. There were often rest areas along the way, which provided picnic tables for lunch as well as a convenient place to camp.

This 200km "linear park" is a well-maintained bike path north of Montréal

The food.
Restaurants were once again beyond our budget, but the grocery stores overflow with possibilities. Fresh fruit and veg was abundant at roadside stalls and farmers market (it's also conveniently harvest time for tasty peaches, apples, corn, berries, etc). And pretty much everywhere we could pick up the necessary ingredients for whatever meal we could imagine.
 

Fruit stall at Atwater Market in Montréal

 Nature!
Maybe a bit obvious, but we biked through some amazing wilderness. We purposely chose a very indirect route from Ottawa to Quebec City, preferring to cycle through less-populated areas. We got to see lots of forests in their beautiful fall colours. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) we didn't see any bears. But we saw plenty of migrating birds, deer and assorted small mammals.

In Mont-Orford National Park