As he approached the Gaspé Peninsula of present-day Québec back in July of 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier described the forest-clad cape as “the fairest land that may possibly be seen …” Later that day he planted a cross and claimed “la Gaspésie”—familiarly known as “the Gaspé”—for France. Some 480 years later, my brother Al and I were similarly smitten by the scene as we piled out of our Roadtrek camper van at the dramatic northeastern tip of the Gaspé. Scanning the scene—where imposing mountains plunge abruptly into the wave-lashed waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence—it was easy to imagine it all just as Cartier found it. The long drive (435 miles / 700 kilometers) from Quebec City out to the Gaspé was a delight as we followed Route 132 (Québec’s longest highway) along the mighty St. Lawrence River. We passed leisurely through two lovely regions of Québec, first Chaudière-Appalache and then Bas-Saint- Laurent, pointing the Roadtrek eastward until we reached the beginning of the Gaspésie, technically at the tiny village of Sainte-Flavie.
LORER Gaspé Peninsula
story & photos by DAVE G. HOUSER
Six bronze steles comprise this superb monument to Jacques Cartier, standing at the site on the Baie de Gaspé where he first landed in New France in July 1534.
Although France ceded control over what is today Canada to Britain a la the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the province has nevertheless remained steadfastly French through the centuries. It certainly seemed to us that we were touring France—a sense reinforced by the fact that more than 80% of Québecers speak French as their first language. They are, however, more polite and patient with language-deficient folks like us than are some of their European descendants. As a result, this journey—which evolved as a five-day circumnavigation of the broad, burly Gaspé Peninsula—was as problem-free and seamlessly pleasant as any we’ve ever undertaken. During nearly every trip, we encounter something weirdly wonderful or wonderfully weird. This time it happened at Sainte-Flavie when, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a troupe of human-like figures standing in a tidal flat beside the road. What I’d seen was eccentric sculptor Marcel Gagnon’s largest and most remarkable work, Grand Rassemblement, made up of more than 100 concrete characters arranged in various poses—sometimes in or out of the water, depending on the river’s tide—but always guaranteed to stop traffic. The popular artist and his family maintain an inn, a gift shop/gallery, and a restaurant on the site.
COAST TO COAST SPRING 2016 9
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