National Park wharf. From there most folks hike one of four trails (1.7 miles / 2.8 kilometers to 3.5 miles / 5.6 kilometers) one-way across the island to view the gannet spectacle. Witnessing Bonaventure Island’s gannets at close range rates as a world-class wildlife experience and it definitely was one of the highlights of our Gaspé experience. Intent on seeking out the best seafood in town, we were directed by a number of folks to La Maison du Pécheur, on the water right next to Percé’s wharf. We were famished when one of the house favorites, the “Trident”—a trifecta of lobster, salmon, and scallops—was finally set before us. It was all very good—and a great way to top off our evening in Percé.
historic attractions, Site Historique du Banc-de-Pêche-de- Paspébiac. It’s a complex of 11 surviving buildings from the 18th-century headquarters of Jersey-based Charles Robin Company & LeBoutillier Brothers—for more than 150 years the Gaspé’s largest processor and exporter of cod and its primary shipbuilder. The complex once included more than 70 buildings and employed hundreds of men in the processing of salt-dried cod and building and repairing boats for the company’s North Atlantic fleet. Of particular interest is a large high-roofed structure once used for storing cod but now nicely refurbished to house thematic exhibits on commercial fishing and shipbuilding.
Fishing boats and sheds on the banks of the St. Lawrence.
Excursion boats bring visitors from Perce to enjoy close-up sightings of the more than 250,000 birds that nest on the cliffs at Parc National de I'lle Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Perce.
The snug and picturesque fishing harbor at Sainte-Therese-de-Gaspé.
In leafy New Carlisle, settled by American Loyalists following the Revolutionary War, we marveled at the village’s three towering Protestant churches, quite similar to those of New England. Nearby New Richmond was founded by English colonists in the 1760s. The area’s strong British presence and influence is preserved at an open-air “living museum,” the Village Gaspésien de l’Héritage Britannique. Not far down the road, the town of Bonaventure is a bastion of Acadian culture, reflecting the patchwork of French and English villages along the Baie-des-Chaleurs. The Museé Acadien du Québec, in Bonaventure, recounts the odyssey
On the return leg of our circumnavigation of the Gaspé, we followed its softer, gentler underside west along Route 132, tracing the shore of Baie-des-Chaleurs, which separates Québec from its southern neighbor, the province of New Brunswick. Fewer twists and turns and lesser grades helpedmake the going quicker but we still paused to enjoy some of the highlights along the way, including picture-perfect little fishing villages such as L’Anse-à-Beaufils and Sainte-Thérèse-de-Gaspé. At Paspébiac we visited one of the peninsula’s most significant
12 COAST TO COAST SPRING 2016
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