Episode #4: The Gaspé Region of Quebec

Travelling east along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, we entered Quebec's beautiful Gaspé region. The Gaspé Peninsula is one of Quebec's most popular tourist destinations.

Our first stop was Distillerie Cap-Au-Péchés, near Rivière-à-Claude. It's a Terego Camping location (Canada's version of Harvest Hosts), where participating businesses welcome self-contained RVs to stay overnight free of charge in exchange for supporting the business by purchasing some of their products.

Distillerie Cap-Au-Péchés in a re-purposed church

Distillerie Cap-Au-Péchés is a small-batch craft distillery producing a variety of gins and liqueurs. The owners have beautifully restored a former church into their distillery and retail store, creating one of the most unique tasting rooms we've visited.

We settled into the original church pews while their enthusiastic master distiller walked us through the inspiration behind each spirit, explaining the ingredients and production methods before inviting us to sample them all.

Smiles all around as we sample various gin's in old church pews

The "still" is behind us, where all the magic. happens

When it came time to choose a bottle, we couldn't help but smile—the products were displayed on shelves built into the church's former confessionals. We selected their Survenant Gin, infused with tender new spruce tips that impart a subtle, refreshing hint of mint. We were assured it makes an exceptional gin and tonic, and we're looking forward to finding out. Our overnight campsite overlooked the St. Lawrence River, making for a peaceful and memorable stay.

Products on display in re-purposed church confessional

The drive along Highway 132 is both beautiful and demanding. The road hugs the coastline through countless small villages, winding over rolling hills with spectacular views around nearly every corner. Some stretches are newly paved and smooth, while others are rough enough to require your full attention.

Our next destination was Forillon National Park, located at the northeastern tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, where the northern Appalachian Mountains meet the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Forillon National Park

Established in 1970 as Quebec's first national park, Forillon also has a difficult history. Creating the park required the expropriation of approximately 225 families from their homes, while more than 1,200 landowners lost farmland and woodlots. The forced relocations caused significant hardship and forever changed the social fabric of the surrounding communities.

Long before European settlement, the Mi'kmaq people had travelled through and harvested the abundant marine resources of the region for thousands of years. Later came French and British fishermen, lumbermen and farming families, whose communities prospered through the cod fishery.

Following decades of advocacy by the Association of Persons Expropriated from Forillon, the House of Commons issued a formal apology in 2011. Today, Parks Canada preserves both the area's remarkable natural beauty and its complex human history through restored heritage buildings and interpretive exhibits.

Whatever one's views of the park's creation, there is no disputing its spectacular scenery. Covering 244 square kilometres, Forillon offers rugged cliffs, endless hiking trails and opportunities to see whales, seals, seabird colonies, red foxes, black bears, moose, lynx, coyotes, mink and numerous species of raptors.

During our stay we visited Cap-des-Rosiers Lighthouse. Navigating the St. Lawrence in the early 1800s was extremely hazardous because of strong currents, unpredictable weather, large tides and a rocky coastline. After numerous shipwrecks claimed thousands of lives and valuable cargo, pressure mounted for a lighthouse to guide mariners safely into the Gulf.

Cap-des-Rosiers Lighthouse

A tight, steep climb

The original Fresnel lens in the lighthouse with it's 400 watt bulb

The light can bow seen 42 kilometres away at night

Constructed between 1854 and 1858—before Confederation—it remains Canada's tallest lighthouse at 112 feet. Its original French-made Fresnel lens is still in operation, an engineering marvel capable of projecting light more than 42 kilometres. The lighthouse originally burned whale and porpoise oil before converting to kerosene in 1869, incandescent petroleum vapour in 1903 and electricity in 1950.

Today the lighthouse is fully automated. It became a National Historic Site in 1973 and a Federal Heritage Building in 1994. More than 165 years after it was built, it continues to serve as an active navigational aid while standing as one of Forillon's most recognizable landmarks.

We also completed the hike to Forillon's famous "Land's End" at Cap-Gaspé. The round-trip hike is about eight kilometres with over 1,000 feet of elevation gain, following dramatic cliffs overlooking the Bay of Gaspé and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The reward comes with the final climb to Cap-Gaspé Lighthouse, where the sweeping views truly make you feel as though you're standing at the edge of the continent.

You can just see the lighthouse at Cap-Gaspé we hiked to

Recovering from our hike up to Cap-Gaspé

Spectacular cliffs

Along the trail we stopped at one of Parks Canada's restored heritage buildings and met Jonathan, an enthusiastic interpreter dressed in period clothing. Working inside a recreated 19th-century general store, he explained how local families purchased imported goods on credit, settling their accounts after each cod fishing season. It was a fascinating glimpse into everyday life in coastal Gaspé over 150 years ago.

Great views of Baie de Gaspé

By the time we returned to our campsite, we had one thing on our minds: a cold drink, a hot shower and an early bedtime.

Our campsite at Forillon National Park

Every Town Has a Story

Back in January we mapped out a route that would take us to Canada's East Coast and back. It included many well-known destinations—Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax—but also dozens of small towns and villages that most travellers simply drive through.

As we've travelled, it has struck me that every community has its own story. Each has a reason for existing, a unique history, community leaders, business owners, athletes, volunteers, local heroes and a cenotaph honouring those who never came home.

There were countless other routes we could have chosen, each passing through a different collection of communities with their own stories waiting to be discovered.

Add them all together and you have Canada. It's not perfect, but it's about as close to perfect as you'll find.

Percé and Bonaventure Island

Percé is one of Quebec's premier tourist destinations and a member of the Association of the Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec. Long before tourists arrived, however, it was the traditional homeland and seasonal fishing territory of the Mi'kmaq people.

European history began with Jacques Cartier in 1534, followed by Samuel de Champlain in 1603. For centuries the harbour attracted Basque, Breton and Norman fishermen, eventually becoming a major cod fishing and processing centre. When the cod fishery declined during the 20th century, Percé successfully reinvented itself as a tourism destination centred around its world-famous landmark, Percé Rock.

View of Percé rock from our campsite

View of Bonavista Island from our campground

Just offshore lies Bonaventure Island, also named by Cartier in 1534. It evolved from a seasonal fishing station into a permanent community before declining with the collapse of the cod fishery. In 1971 the Quebec government acquired the island, relocating its remaining residents. Today the island, together with Percé Rock, forms part of Parc national de l'Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé.

The island is home to more than 110,000 Northern Gannets—the largest colony in North America and one of the largest in the world. These remarkable birds return each spring from the Atlantic, with lifelong pairs nesting in the exact same location year after year to raise a single chick.

Northern Gannets are extraordinary hunters. Spotting fish from heights of up to 100 feet, they plunge into the ocean at speeds approaching 80 kilometres per hour before pursuing their prey underwater using both their wings and webbed feet.

Northern Gannets cling to the cliffs

Thousands of Northern Gannets in the air

Hiking up to the "colonies"

Thousands of nesting pairs. They return to the exact same spot each year to raise one chick

Click on this photo and you can see three chicks in their nests being protected by a parent

Another 20 thousand Northern Gannets

Fran and I visited Bonaventure Island by boat in 2016 and hiked to the gannet colony. Since we were back in the area, we couldn't resist doing it again.

The shortest return hike from the dock to the colony is just over 10 kilometres—and we tackled it only two days after our challenging hike in Forillon. We may have bitten off a little more than we should have, but we survived, and seeing the thousands of nesting gannets once again made every step worthwhile.

A cold drink (local beer) after our long hike

Our final stop in Quebec was Carleton-sur-Mer.

Its shoreline is defined by two remarkable overlapping sandbars that extend into Chaleur Bay, creating a sheltered lagoon with unusually warm seawater and one of the province's most beautiful coastal settings. One of the sandbars is home to a large campground, where we settled in for a well-earned rest.

Carleton-Sur-Mer - 2 large sandbars with our waterfront campground on the largest sandbar

Our campsite, backing on the water

Fishermen unloading farmed muscles

Local fishing boat fleet

Carleton-Sur-Mer behind us

After two demanding hikes in three days, we decided relaxation was the order of the day. We spent our time enjoying the beach just outside our bedroom window, soaking up the sunshine and the constant cooling breeze off the bay.

Before leaving Quebec for New Brunswick, we treated ourselves to a wonderful dinner at a charming local Québécois restaurant—a fitting farewell to a province that had once again exceeded our expectations.