Quebec Route Advice

we avoid 400 series and quebec freeways totally when travelling from southwest ont to the east coast.

basically from sarnia to Ottawa on hwy 7(but through Orangeville and barely south of lake simcoe to Peterborough.)

we cross the Ottawa river at Hawkesbury then to St Jerome then to the ferry between montreal and trois riviere. then the river road(132 iirc) all the way to riviere du loup.

much slower of course, we do the 1600 km trip in 3 days but very scenic

I try to avoid traffic on the island at all costs. The new toll bridge west of Montreal on Hwy 30 is well worth the $9 it cost with four axles. Take exit 29 off the 20, then stay right towards Sorel/Tracy, then take 20 all the way to Quebec City.
None of my GPS units, a Tom Tom, Magellen and Rand McNally RV, nor Google, will route me that way, I have to force them to take that bridge.

Tim

Best and fastest way thru Montreal is to take 40 east to 13. 13 north to 640. 640 east to 40. 40 east to Quebec City, keep going to Saguenay area.
20 south of Montreal will put you in the middle of the worst traffic.

What Fizz said.
We tried the high road back in 2011, and drove through Trois Rivieres, and it was really quite interesting and picturesque.

If you're not in to much of a hurry the two lane roads on either sides of the St Laurence will take you trough some of the oldest villages in Canada. That's 132 & 138

I tried entering "Toronto to Saguenay" using google, and it offered a google map with 2 routes, one high, one low. The lower route uses the highways you mentioned, mostly TC east around Montreal, and crosses back north at/near Quebec City towards Saguenay. I'd probably use 132 east towards Quebec City from Montreal, but that's just because we've driven it so many times on our way out to Gaspe. It's a slower drive, but more scenic being beside the St. Lawrence River more often.
If you use a GPS, what routing does it choose?