The Gaspé Peninsula, or Gaspésie, in French is peninsula along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Chaleur Bay, on the south side of the Peninsula separates it from New Brunswick. I don’t know exactly where it starts and ends. The name Gaspé comes from the Mi’kmaq word gespe’g, meaning “end”, referring to the end of the land.
Originally, this was the land of the Mi’kmaq people. Actually, much of the land we travelled through in eastern Canada—commonly called the Maritimes—was in their territory. And that is important but too often forgotten by Canadians. Jacques Cartier arrived in Gaspe in 1534 and many people think—wrongly of course—that this is when Canada started. This is a very large area, bigger than Belgium for example. Approximately 140,000 people live there. About 1/10th as many as Manitoba.
Though I don’t know exactly where it began, for me it began after leaving Rimouski and the “people” leaving the St. Lawrence River, looking out for land. This marked the beginning of the Gaspésie for us. It is one of the most interesting areas of Canada in my opinion. It is an area with a great variety of simple, yet elegant homes. They are not ostentatious, but nonetheless beautiful. Simple beauty. Well-tended. These people have heeded the wise words of Bob Dylan, “Don’t go mistaking paradise for that home across the road.” This area, though I had been there before many years ago, was one of the surprises of the trip.
Canada is full of surprises. And not all of them are bad.
It was a lovely ride beside the St. Lawrence River. Of course, sprinkled along the way were a few lighthouses. The first one was the Cap Chat Lightouse that was completed in 1909. It is not very tall and unlike the fine sculpturing of the lighthouse at Rimouski, this one was a squat square towers built of reinforced concrete with a circular red lantern It is 133 feet (10 metres) above the sea. It has a revolving Fresnel lens built in France and at the time produced a white flash every 3 seconds that was visible for 17 miles. A new dwelling was built for the lighthouse keeper after the original one burned down in 1923.
I learned that during World War II Cap Chat was a staging area for German U-boats who hoped to intercept coal convoys from Cape Breton Island. Because of stratification in the area of fresh and salt water it was difficult for radar to detect them. It is possible to rent the house for overnight stays. Wow! Life is good. I have slept in a few lighthouse keepers homes over the years and would have loved to stay, but we got here too early to pack it in. Sadly, we had to move on.