La Gaspésie

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The coast of the Gaspé Peninsula near Rimouski, QC.

Ten hours of driving. And that only gets me as far as Lévis, which sits on the banks of the St. Lawrence River just opposite Quebec City. It’s my first night’s stop on my long-awaited journey to Gaspé. It has been raining since I left New Jersey, from a drizzle to a heavy downpour. June 2013 is well on its way to officially becoming the wettest June in recorded history in the Northeast USA – a persistent pattern that is following me to the Canadian Maritimes.

The rain makes little difference to my spirits. I am en route – how great is that? It’s not just traveling for itself, but often how much preparation precedes it. My research for this trip to the Gaspésie, the region's formal name, began in earnest some nine months ago. It was then that I started to piece together the story of a part of my father’s family that I never knew and the famous legend of ancestors who survived a shipwreck somewhere along the coast. Over the course of the winter, the family tree I am compiling grew to some 1,000 members. Many of these come from the Canadian branch - all Irish Catholic families who had some ten children each. My new contacts include several new-found relatives having common family roots who I will soon meet for the first time. The research into the Gaspé family tree is just one facet of this journey, however.

Aside from my family connections to the town of Gaspé, Quebec pulls at me like no other place. After crossing the border, one steps into country no less foreign or charmante than France, but with a more relaxed, North American congeniality. The historic architecture feels very old world European. Fast food is a rarity– a few such restaurants dot the Gaspésie but, for the most part, they are found in the more populous cities. Tim Horton's (the Canadian cross between Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks) has a fairly strong presence, but even that has spotty coverage. At the other end of the scale, white-tablecloth restaurants are also few and far between. Mom-and-Pop coffee shops or take-away stands seem to outnumber all other types. Life is not easy in the Gaspésie – the people I see are always working. Leisure time and spending money are not major preoccupations, from what I see.

The village of Grande-Vallée, Gaspésie, QC.

Religion has played, and continues to play, a central role the in the history of the Gaspé. Evidence of this heritage survives in most villages along the St. Lawrence, which consist of a cluster of modest houses - mostly 20th Century – surrounding a monumental 19th Century masonry church. This is particularly true in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, but it extends into the Gaspésie as well.

A few stores and a gas station form the core of the business district. In spite of my worst fears, there is no shortage of le diesel - the fuel that feeds my VW - but it costs about twice as much to fill up here as in New Jersey.

Route 132 along the St. Lawrence River from Bas-Saint-Laurent to the Gulf of St. Lawrence has some of the most spectacular scenery of all la Gaspésie. It is filled with interesting wilderness areas, lovely gardens, and breathtaking vistas. Its proximity to the St. Lawrence River – the site of so much history and enterprise over almost four hundred years – has left its mark in numerous heritage sites and historic architecture. More recently, the Gaspésie’s elevation and exposure to the Gulf of St. Lawrence has fostered a rapidly expanding wind energy industry that has signaled a rebirth, of sorts. It has kicked off the construction of wind farms across the peninsula, with more in the works. It has also created several thousand jobs, replacing ones in the traditional industries of fishing, mining, and lumbering that are in decline.

Bas-Saint-Laurent

The real kickoff of the journey is on the second day, when I enter Bas-Saint-Laurent (Lower St. Lawrence), the region bounded on the south by Chaudière-Appalaches and on the north by the Gaspésie. It is raining as I leave Lévis, heading toward Rimouski, my next overnight stop. The clerk at my hotel urges me to avoid the Trans-Canada Highway – high-speed, well-maintained, but boring – and instead follow coastal Route 132, which makes a spectacular loop around the entire Gaspé Peninsula. In B-S-L, it is called the “Navigators' Route” (Route des Navigateurs), linking Baie-du-Febvre in Centre-du-Québec with Sainte-Luce at the north end of Bas-Saint-Laurent.

My target for the day is the Parc National du Bic - one of the wilderness areas I want to explore; but the clerk recommends that on my way there, I should not miss the charming village of Kamouraska. “It would be a good place to stop for lunch,” she added. “It is an arts community with several great restaurants and a very good historical museum in the Presbytère (Rectory).”

It is very early spring, well before the main tourist season. I suspect that Kamouraska in a few weeks will be chock-a-block with visitors from Quebec City, enjoying a day trip in the country. It's only about 1-1/2 hours from the city by car, a little more by bus.

A walk down Avenue Morel, the main street, gives me my first taste of the local architecture. The houses are typically well-maintained; the lawns and gardens incredibly tidy.  Not surprisingly, the French influence on architecture is quite strong here. An interesting example is this "ancestral house," a style characterized by rectangular footprint, pitched roof with swooping eaves and small dormers, that appears to date from the early 1800s, perhaps not long after Kamouraska was established. I optimistically think that it looks like its awaiting restoration. What a great project that would be!

Early 19th C. "ancestral house" overlooking the St. Lawrence River., Kamouraska.

Opposite this house is the "Villa Saint-Louis," a hotel with a generous porch and a late 19th C. mansard roof. The Villa was first built in 1819 as a residence and converted to a hotel in the second half of the 19th Century. I successfully resist calling the number on the "for sale" sign, but if you have $725,000 C, it's yours.

Villa Saint-Louis, 125 Avenue Morel, Kamouraska. 

French is the first language in the small towns, although most people you encounter are also able speak English, if pressed. In Kamouraska, English speakers are far outnumbered by francophones. I am feeling a bit tongue-tied as I struggle along with my rusty French. But people are kind and, using a mixture of English and French known as "Frenglish," we eventually make ourselves understood.

The town was a former commercial powerhouse, home to the Desjardins family, wealthy industrialists of the 19th Century Today, the town is an interesting mix of attractions, including a local history museum, a restaurant, a shop that sells crafts produced by local artisans, and another that sells local jams, cheese, and fresh bread, which has a line out the door at lunchtime. A number of artists' studios and galleries are sprinkled along Avenue Morel, but the center of the arts activities seems to be the impressive Kamouraska Art Center, housed in the 1888 Palais de Justice (Courthouse) of Kamouraska.

Le Centre d’art de Kamouraska

le Centre d’art de Kamouraska

It rains off and on all afternoon as I make my way north to Rimouski. Walking in a downpour through the nature preserve of the Parc du Bic becomes less and less appealing. I am soon distracted from my disappointment by the massive churches that tower over every town and village along the St. Lawrence. How could the people of these small villages support such relative opulence? There must have been money around somewhere, but lacking today are obvious remnants of any large industrial buildings or in mansions of the wealthy -- only relatively modest homes and, of course, the monumental churches.

From left: Saint Georges de Cacouna (1845-1848; Louis-Thomas Berlinguet,
Arch.); Eglise L'Isle-Verte (1855; Louis-Thomas Berlinguet, Arch.);
and Eglise Saint-Fabien-de-Rimouski (1854; restored 1898).

La Gaspésie

The Route des Navigateurs ends just north of Rimouski, where it enters the Gaspésie and continues on simply as Route 132.

My first destination in the Gaspésie was Reford Gardens/Les Jardins de Métis in Grand-Métis, QC, about 35 minutes north of Rimouski. Elsie Reford began transforming her fishing camp on the Métis River into a garden in 1926, when she was 54 years old. She was not a professional gardener, by any means, but the years of her experimentation and study helped create an exceptional garden of interesting cultivars in a challenging environment. It is the northernmost garden in the eastern half of North America. The site was opened to the public in 1962.

Pink Hellebore (Helleborus, sp.), Reford Gardens, Grand-Métis, QC.

Today is raining for the third day in a row. By the time I arrive at the Gardens, however, it is more of a heavy mist. I decide that the gardens are too important to miss because of a little wet. There are few visitors. The network of pathways is quiet, except for the sound of the rushing creek that meanders through the site. Heavy droplets glisten on the foliage. The fragrance of rich wet soil mixes with the sweet early blossoms. It is exquisite.

Reford is famous for one of Elsie's rare specimens: the Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia). Sadly, I am too early for its flowering period. But many other unusual specimens catch my eye in these well-tended gardens. Along the walk to the Belvedere near the Lodge, I am struck by a border of robust Mugo Pines (Pinus mugo) with candles in flower – some pink and some white. It is something I have never seen before.

Mugo Pine (Pinus mugo), The Belvedere, Reford Gardens.

The historic building on the site is the Estevan Lodge, first built in 1887 for Sir George Stephen – wealthy railway magnate and founder of the Canadian Pacific Railway, among other enterprises. Given the weather and the early season, the lodge looks closed, especially since the restaurant there is undergoing renovations. A young intern greets my tentative knock on the front door holding a mug of coffee; I clearly am interrupting his morning break. Nevertheless, he kindly gives me a full tour around the house. Sir George is said to have imported the natural interior cedar and pine woodwork from the far western provinces of Canada – something that would have been outrageously expensive for anyone but the owner of the railroad! The warm and well-crafted woodwork makes the interior particularly inviting, much more interesting than the exterior, which was extensively modified by the Refords.

The former parlor of Estevan Lodge, Reford Gardens, Grand-Métis, QC.

My next destination in Gaspésie is Éole Cap-Chat, the tallest vertical-axis wind turbine in the world, and the Nordais wind farm, one of the largest in the Americas. Nordais alone has 133 wind turbines, which produce some 100 MW of electricity for the Province of Quebec. Currently there are a total of 13 wind farms operation in Quebec, with many more in development. The guide tells me that the local residents were first very skittish about having this new technology installed on their farmlands, but that over the years, they - and their cows - have become more comfortable with it. Now, wind turbines are spinning on the crest of many of the coastal ridges, not only along the St. Lawrence, but above the Baie de Chaleurs, the boundary Gaspé shares with the Province of New Brunswick.

Wind turbines, Nordais Wind Farm, Cap-Chat, QC.

In addition to being an operating wind-farm, Cap-Chat is a wind-energy interpretive center, for which you can arrange a guided visit. Many visitors come to the center each year to learn about wind energy, including school groups and foreign tourists, who arrive in buses. But today there is just me.

The Éole (vertical-axis wind turbine), Cap-Chat, QC.

The most surprising fact is that the Éole (the vertical-axis turbine) was in operation for a only few years. It was originally conceived as the solution to the problem of the changing direction of the wind. A vertical-axis turbine is omni-directional; it responds to wind from any direction. This is unlike the more standard turbines we usually see on the mountain ridges, which must rotate with the wind direction to optimize the amount of energy they generate. However, the turbine had to withstand the stress of constantly shifting wind loads, which vibrated the bolted connections at the bottom of the mast and ultimately made the mast unstable. Rather than worry about the collapse of the apparatus in a strong wind, the company decided to decommission this early model and use it as an interpretative and educational center for the public, given the importance of the industry to Quebec.

The Ville de Saint-Anne-des-Monts, just north of Cap-Chat, is the third and last overnight stay before Gaspé. The town is the jumping off point for visitors going into the Parc National de la Gaspésie. The Chic-Choc Mountains, which make up the greater part of the Parc, are part of the Notre Dame Mountains and form the northern terminus of the Appalachian mountain range. According to the Quebec Biodiversity Website:

The rocks of this range are sedimentary, dating back to the Paleozoic era, 250-500 million years ago. In western Quebec, the mean elevation is about 500m, while in the Gaspé peninsula, the Appalachian peaks (particularly the Chic Choc mountains) are some of the highest in Quebec, surpassing 1000 m [3281 ft].

OK, this may not match the highest mountain in the Appalachian chain (Mount Mitchell, in North Carolina, USA, measuring 2,037 metres (6,684 ft.)), but it is still impressive. And that is only half of the story.

The Chic-Choc Mountains, Parc National de la Gaspésie.

The “Monts McGerrigle” (the McGerrigle Mountains) are the other half of the story. They are volcanic rather than sedimentary, and younger (380 million years) and harder than the Chic-Chocs. This metamorphic rock, from which the softer overburden has eroded, forms the large granite boulders you can see on Mont Jacques-Cartier. The Chic-Chocs are oriented in a E-W direction, while the McGerrigles traverse them in a N-S direction. Both ranges have been shaped by the glaciers of some 8,000 years ago, which have left scours and scars on the mountain profiles.

Map of the Chic-Choc and McGerrigle Mountains, Gaspésie, QC. Courtesy of the
Société des établissements de plein air du Québec (Sépaq).

As fascinating as this geological history is, I am unsuccessful in locating any books on the subject during my trip. The best – and only – exploration of the subject I find is the National Parc’s Discovery and Visitors Centre’s excellent permanent exhibit, "A Sea of Mountains in the Heart of the Gaspésie."

The eastern end of the Gaspé peninsula is called “Land’s End.” The name Gaspé reportedly comes from gespeg, a Mi'kmaq word. It is here that the Appalachian chain rises up from the deeper earth at rakish angles and ultimately tumbles into the sea. The rock formations are raw and rugged along this part of the coast, with some unique and unusual specimens to research.

"Land's End," the easternmost end of the Gaspé peninsula. 

So that is the end of this chapter. I hope I haven't overwhelmed you. And yet this still only skims the surface of the discoveries I found along the south shore of St. Lawrence. Each one of them has its own story. There’s still so much to learn.

Resources

“Achats d'électricité – Marché québécois: Parcs éoliens et centrales visés par les contrats d'approvisionnement” [Interactive Map of Wind-Farms in Quebec]. Hydro-Québec. Company website. Accessed July 21, 2013. URL: http://www.hydroquebec.com/distribution/fr/marchequebecois/parc_eoliens.html

Banque d’images du Centre d’archives. Gaspé, QC, Canada: Musée de la Gaspésie. http://www.museedelagaspesie.ca/album/

Davies, Blodwen. Gaspé: Land of History and Romance. New York: Greenberg, Publisher, 1949.

“Discover Rimouski.” Ville de Rimouski. Official website. Accessed July 21, 2013. URL: http://www.ville.rimouski.qc.ca/en/decouvrezRimouski/

“Eglises.” Tourisme partrimonial du Bas-Saint-Laurent. Website. Accessed July 20, 2013. URL: http://www.patrimoine.bassaintlaurent.ca/eglises/region/tous [Compilation of 19th C. churches in the Bas-Saint-Lawrence region, along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.]

Éole Cap-Chat. Official website. Accessed July 21, 2013. URL: http://www.eolecapchat.com/e_index.html

Grande-Vallée. Official Website. http://www.grande-vallee.ca/en/index.php

Kamouraska, Une Marée de Richesses. Official Municipal Website.  Accessed July 23, 2013. URL: http://www.kamouraska.ca/

Le Centre d'art de Kamouraska. Website. Accessed 22 July 2013. http://www.kamouraska.org/index.php/a-propos/

“Les Jardins de Métis – Portrait of a Landscape.” National Library of Canada Electronic Collection. Website. URL: http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/metis/ahome.html

“Natural History of Quebec.” Quebec Biodiversity Website. Montreal, QC. Canada: Redpath Museum, University of McGill. Accessed July 21, 2013. URL: http://redpath-museum.mcgill.ca/Qbp/Natural%20History/nat_hist.html.

Parc National du Bic. Société des établissements de plein air du Québec (Sépaq). Website. Accessed July 23, 2013. URL:  http://www.sepaq.com/pq/bic/

Parc National de la Gaspésie. Société des établissements de plein air du Québec (Sépaq). Website. Accessed July 21, 2013. URL: http://www.sepaq.com/pq/gas/

 Reford Gardens – Les Jardins de Métis. Official Website of Les Amis des Jardins de Métis (Friends of the Gardens). URL: http://www.refordgardens.com/english/index.php

Thistle, Scott. “Tied to the wind: How a region in Quebec is making wind energy pay.” Maine Sun-Journal (May 30, 2010). Online Edition. Accessed July 21, 2013. URL: http://www.sunjournal.com/state/story/842528

“Wind energy projects in Québec.” Ministry Ressources naturelles Quebec. Government of Quebec, Canada. Website. Accessed July 21, 2013. URL: http://www.mrn.gouv.qc.ca/english/energy/wind/wind-projects.jsp