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Follow the lights of Quebec, The Everett Herald, April 25, 2004
Lovers of lighthouses, head to ooh-la-la Quebec. This Franco-Canadian province is home to 43 traditional lighthouses along the St. Lawrence River, North America's mighty seaway linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.
Located in "Le Quebec maritime," the regions of Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspesie, Cote-Nord and Iles de la Madeleine, nearly two dozen of Quebec's lighthouses have been given new life, transformed into museums, inns and bed-and-breakfasts.
In August I took a thousand-mile road trip, visiting nearly a dozen lighthouses ("phares" in French). The Quebec Lighthouse Trail showcases these "Sentinels of the St. Lawrence" in all their glory, and is a study in history and architecture against a backdrop of lovely landscapes and small villages.
My journey began in Quebec City at the Auberge Saint-Antoine, a cozy upscale boutique hotel in the Old Port facing the St. Lawrence River. From there I would head east along the river as it slowly widens and becomes more oceanlike.
Riviere-du-Loup, a two-hour drive from Quebec City, was our jumping-off point. There we boarded the "Le Pelerin Quebec" ("The Pilgrim") for a four-hour river excursion.
At the helm was Jean Bedard, the founder of Societe Duvetnor, a nonprofit organization preserving the ecological richness of the Lower St. Lawrence Islands. Soon after we got our sea legs, Haut-fond Prince lighthouse came into view, a red-and-white-striped behemoth buoy built by the Canadian Coast Guard in 1964.
Bedard explained that on Christmas Day 1966, a huge storm pounded the 81-foot-high concrete and steel pillar, with waves shattering the windows. The three lighthouse keepers sent out a distress signal and were rescued within 24 hours.
Fortunately, our day on the St. Lawrence was much milder, with azure seas and skies and sightings of beluga and minke whales.
As we motor on, Ile du Pot a l'Eau-de-Vie lighthouse looms ahead. Located on an island of the same name, it's been dubbed Brandy Pot lighthouse in English. The crisply colored red and white lighthouse was built in 1851 and abandoned a little more than a century later.
Since 1989 it's been operating as an inn, with three bedrooms (guests can rent it for 24 hours through Societe Duvetnor). For nonovernighters, a trip up the spiral staircase gives a 360-degree view. Brandy Pot Island is also a bird sanctuary, as thousands of eiders migrate here from May to July.
The next morning we depart Riviere-du-Loup via ferry to St-Simeon on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, then drive to Tadoussac (the oldest village in Canada celebrated its 400th anniversary last year).
Movie buffs shouldn't miss the Hotel Tadoussac where the 1984 movie "Hotel New Hampshire" was filmed.
For whale worshippers, visit Le Centre d'Interpretation des Mammiferes Marins (Sea Mammals Interpretative Center). Director Patrice Corbeil and his staff conduct research on the beluga, blue and finback whales at the center. There are eight or nine blue whales, the Earth's largest mammal, in the St. Lawrence River.
Pointe-des-Monts lighthouse is our late-afternoon stop.
At the entrance of the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence, it was built in 1813 and last used in 1964. Today, its seven floors are a museum and offer a chronological study of the lives of the lightkeepers from 1830 to 1911.
The lightkeeper house has been transformed into a four-room inn and restaurant (there are also 13 cottages for rent). We spend the night in a cottage, rustic yet comfy.
Another day, another ferry, as we head to the resort community of Perce on the eastern tip of the Gaspe Peninsula. Along the way we stop at the Duthie Point lighthouse in the Gaspesian British Heritage Village in New Richmond, and then on to the Bonaventure and Cap-d-Espoir lighthouses.
Perce is a delightful seaside town, and home of the Parc national de L'ile Bonaventure, a sea bird sanctuary. A boat takes passengers past the massive Perce Rock with its 50-foot-high arch and out to Bonaventure Island, home to 30,000 breeding pairs of Northern gannets.
Matane is our early wake-up call, a four-hour drive along Gaspe Bay. At the tip is Cap-des-Rosiers lighthouse. At 121 feet, it's the tallest in Canada and the point where the St. Lawrence River transforms into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
An hour away, the all-red Pointe-a-la-Renommee lighthouse (returned home from Quebec City in 1997) is once again on the site of the first maritime radio station in North America, installed by Marconi in 1904. Don't miss the guided tour.
La Martre lighthouse is an operational lighthouse, built in 1906 in the tiny village of La Martre, population 227. The barn-red octagonal wooden structure is the only wooden frame lighthouse on the coast and in stark contrast to most of the red and white lighthouses I'd seen on the trail.
Lightkeeper Yves Foucreault gives tours of his beloved lighthouse (automated in 1968), which he helped save from demolition.
Renovation of the historic lighthouse and keeper's house is ongoing, But there's one more lighthouse to see, the Pointe-au-Pere lighthouse, a National Historic Site since 1974. Shaped somewhat like a rocket ship, the 1909 structure's 128 steps give yet another expansive view of the mighty Saint Lawrence River.
Quebec's Sentinels of the Sea stand proud, no matter what shape or size.
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