Baie-Saint-Paul is a town of seven thousand on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, sitting where the Gouffre river meets the water, with high green hills rising behind it and the river broad enough to look like a sea. The town has long been an artists' town. The painters of the Group of Seven, including A. Y. Jackson, came here in the early twentieth century to paint the folded hills and the old farms, and the galleries on the main street, rue Saint-Jean-Baptiste, carry on the tradition, with studios, craft shops and cafes in old wooden houses. It was also the birthplace of the Cirque du Soleil, which grew from a troupe of street performers working in the town in the early 1980s.
There is a strange fact under the landscape. The whole region of Charlevoix lies inside the remains of a huge meteorite crater, nearly fifty-five kilometres across, formed some four hundred million years ago, and the odd, tumbled terrain of hills and valleys is partly the result. The area is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, protecting forests, tidal marshes and farmland.
The road, Route 138, is the point for riders. It climbs and falls in long hills along the river, with steep descents into the valleys and sudden views of the St. Lawrence over fields and spires. The stretch from Baie-Saint-Paul toward La Malbaie is among the most celebrated in Quebec, with gradients of ten per cent in places, bends that tighten, and farms and villages on every ledge. The surface is generally good. Traffic on weekends and in the foliage season, from late September to mid-October, can be heavy, with tour buses and cars, so a weekday morning is best.
Charlevoix is also a food region, with a marked route of farms, bakeries and cheese makers. The local cheeses, made from cow's milk, are among the best in the province, and the lamb that grazes on the salt marshes is a regional specialty. The town has fuel stations, supermarkets and a good choice of restaurants and cafes, and Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, to the southwest across the river, is the next large place. Summer evenings are mild and long, and fog sometimes drifts up from the river in the morning. Winter is long and cold, and the roads can be icy.