29 September 2022 Napierville or Bust

 This itinerary was debated via email before we settled on a loop through the Montérégie via
Candiac, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Chambly. It transpired that the debate continued en
route and we rode to the motto ‘Napierville or Bust’.

The Fixture started as planned, as Birdie Munger, Laura Snowball and Alice Hawkins waited for
the EXO4 train from Vendôme to Candiac at 09h40 (with A.T. Lane behind the camera).

The temperature was 2C under sunny skies in Candiac.

We rode south on Rang St-André and our route was blocked - the bridge over the Ruisseau
Saint-André at Montée Monette was out. We discovered that there are no alternate cycle-
friendly roads running east toward Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. So we threw our plans away and
continued south – Napierville or Bust.

En route south to Napierville on the flat ancient seabed of the Champlain Sea, with cornfields
everywhere, via Rang St-André and Rang du Couteau.

Coin Douglass (yes, 2 s’s) is Outer Napierville and we decided it was time to return north after
lunch at Resto-bar le Douglas (yes 1 s)….. fast and friendly service and good resto-bar food.

And then we saw this wonderful Georgian-architecture in the form of Nathaniel Douglass’ 1816
home. Not the rural habitant architecture of Quebec but a style borrowed from New England
from where Nathaniel fled during the US War of Independence (1775-1783). He was one of
many New Englanders who settled in the region.

We marvelled at an agri-business corn combine harvester; a name derived from it combining
four separate harvesting operations—reaping, threshing, gathering, and winnowing— to a
single process. Wow! We saw several on our return to Candiac and they cost up to $500K each.

Upon reaching Candiac we rode along the Seaway toward Champlain Bridge. At very quaint
Vieux La Prairie we were urged to stop by Alice to see the village (which we did) when Laura
suggested we stop at the café Quartier Général du Vieux La Prairie for chocolat chaude (which
we did).

Vieux La Prairie loves Hallowe’en. This is one small part of a multi-block ghoulish event space.
Alice sits down to dine with a local

In the failing light of a beautiful day we proceeded onto the Island of Montréal. It was an
unexpectedly very interesting fixture, made all the better by the good company of our four
riders.

Birdie Munger