Why exercise someplace new? Because by doing so, you can reinvigorate your energy, address your curiosity, challenge your endurance on a different terrain, gain appreciation for the beauty of a pristine environment and connect with new people and cultures.
While France was not on my radar screen this summer, New France (the province of Québec) is only a few hundred miles up the road and the cycling trails and provincial parks are outstanding. So, along with my map aficionado, (that’s my partner, Patrick) and our adventuresome friends from Scituate, Massachusetts, we bicycled among fields of wheat and the forever “strawberry fields” of Ile d’Orléans (the residents grow a sweet strawberry that is harvested repeatedly throughout the summer and early fall), took notice of the multiple historic stone farmhouses and churches and made several purchases of local chocolate, wine and cheese.
If you haven’t yet visited Île d’Orléans, I implore you to put it on your bucket list. One of the first settlements in New France, several descendants of the original 300 founding families continue to reside here. Only 10 miles from Quebéc City, the island has remained rural and the scenery from all vantage points is exquisitely beautiful.
On another day we cycled around the outskirts of Quebéc City, successfully confronting a massive downpour without incident thanks to the roof of a Petro-Canada station, jumped onto a rail trail and stumbled across Wedanke, a Huron-Wendat First Nation, located within the confines of Quebec City. After a scrumptious brunch at Sagamite Restaurant Terrasse, one of the reserve’s restaurants, where we witnessed celebratory drumming, we meandered up to their local museum grounds. There we talked with a tribal historian and learned Wedanke is the only remaining Huron community in all of Canada. The word “huron”, was never one the tribe appreciated because in Old French, the word means having hair standing in bristles on the head, like the head of a wild boar.
On a third day we ventured into the Charlevoix region capturing the day’s end with a hike on a La Chouenne Trail with magnificent viewpoints of the valley and of the face of Mont du Gros Bras trail within the Parc national des Grands-Jardins. 
There we reveled in the breathtaking Laurentian Mountains and the St. Lawrence River. This park, first established in 1981 by the Quebec government, was named for the carpets of ground lichen and the exceptional Arctic vegetation at this latitude. Though we weren’t lucky enough to see any, we learned that caribou often roam within the park’s boundaries.
Bicycling has been one of my passions since childhood. I maintain there’s no better way to learn about communities and cultures than to travel on their roadways, peruse their homes and gardens and strike up conversations with local shop owners, farmers and whomever else one finds. Not only did our bodies get a good work-out over our three day journey but we also gained a bit more command of the French language including the rolling of our “r’s”.
Where has this summer taken you? What new places have you found to walk, hike, swim, paddle, cycle, stretch, jog, horseback ride or scull? We are all ears and eyes. Au revoir. 
Bonne Journée.
See you on the PATH Ahead.
Shevonne, Gillian and Amy