Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is a small city of just under 100,000 people located southeast
of Montreal, halfway to the U.S. border. We biked there in August of 2020 to explore Quebec’s
Route Verte series of bike trails and paths, and we were not disappointed.
The first leg of our trip was a 17km ride to Parc de la Cité in the suburb of Longueuil.
Leaving the Plateau in Montreal, we went across the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, which has good
bike lanes and even better views of the city. The bridge is the steepest part of the whole
trip.
After the bridge we arrived in Longueuil, where we went through some bike-friendly residential
streets before officially getting on the Route Verte. It’s paved and at this point it separates
and goes in a completely different direction from the road.
About a kilometre into the path there’s a circular structure that brings you up a
bridge to get over train tracks and a highway. This bridge gives a really good view of the
Montreal skyline above the train tracks.
Heading down the ramp, it was just a few kilometres of straight riding, first through a power
transmission corridor and then on a bike path that follows along a larger road but stays
largely separated.
After this we arrived in Parc de la Cité, or City Park, which is a good rest stop after
about an hour of riding. Right by the bike trail there were benches and picnic tables
overlooking a lake, but there’s also a pavilion with more amenities if you go further in.
The second leg of the trip follows the Route Verte for another 13km to Chambly, a city
of about 30,000. Past the park, the bike path alternates between going through the woods
and going along the edges of residential areas, with an occasional field too.
This part of the trip is very straight, flat, and comfortable, so it shouldn’t take too
long, although there are a few speed bumps near the residential areas. Also, runners
and rollerbladers are pretty common on this stretch.
Approaching Chambly there’s a bridge and a small rest area with a fountain to fill
up on water. From here it’s just two kilometres to the centre of Chambly, which is actually
probably more oriented to tourists than the final destination on this ride.
This small city has a prominent waterfront on the Chambly basin with lots of shops, restaurants,
boats, rentals, and a good view of Mont-Saint-Hilaire. It’s also home to Fort Chambly and the start
of the Chambly Canal, both of which are National Historic Sites of Canada.
The third leg of the trip follows the Chambly Canal for another 18km to the final destination,
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. The first half of this is mostly gravel and slightly inclined,
and it goes by a bunch of locks on the canal that you can see boats going through.
Around halfway through this third leg of the trip you’ll reach Sainte-Thérèse Island,
which has nice large paved bike lanes on a road with minimal car traffic. After this
island there’s a choice between continuing on the path between the canal and the river
or switching to the road on the mainland.
We continued on the path and got some nice views but we found the gravel here a little
harder to bike on. Also, you can’t get off until you reach downtown. On the return trip
we took the main road for this segment instead, which has good bike lanes for most of the
way.
And with that, you’re in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. For us the trip took around three hours of
actual biking time—a bit more on the way there, a bit less on the way back.
Going there and back on the same day would have been doable, but we wanted to relax a
bit so we got an AirBnB for the night. Unfortunately we were woken up by a loud freight train going
through the middle of the city at 3:30 in the morning, which we didn’t expect.
The next morning we walked around the city. It seemed like a bit less of a tourist destination
than Chambly but it was still enjoyable and worth seeing. The old downtown has a bunch
of shops and restaurants, and the area around the canal was very nicely set up in an oasis
theme. That’s desert oasis, not Wonderwall Oasis.
Normally in August this city is the site of a big hot air balloon festival, which would
have been nice to see, but this year it was cancelled due to COVID-19. It’s definitely
something to keep in mind for travel in future years, though.
Language-wise, both Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Chambly are less bilingual than Montreal.
Establishments that serve a lot of tourists are almost always used to English, but if
you go further into these cities then you should keep in mind that lots of people will
be less comfortable in English, especially if they’re older.
If you’re interested in practicing French then this is a good opportunity. Otherwise
we still recommend trying in French to the extent that you can, or at least asking people
if English is OK before using it. Keep in mind when you’re planning your trip that
many shops, cafes, and other small businesses in Quebec are closed on Mondays.
After a morning in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu we got on our bikes and headed back to Montreal.
We considered taking a different route and going west from the city instead of north,
but it seemed like roads that way were much less well-suited for bikes so we took the
same way back.
Overall we would definitely recommend this bike trip from Montreal. What we’ve seen
so far of Quebec’s Route Verte has been really excellent. We haven’t been everywhere
in Canada but Quebec’s rural bike infrastructure is some of the best we’ve seen in the places
we’ve lived/visited.