Gaspesie Route 132: Gaspe to Matapedia

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Gaspé

   Gaspé is a town of around fifteen thousand at the eastern end of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula, built around a deep bay where, in 1534, Jacques Cartier is said to have come ashore and planted a cross claiming the land for the French king. Mi'kmaq people and Iroquoians of the St Lawrence had long lived and fished here, and the name itself is a Mi'kmaq word for the end of the land. It is a good start for a ride around the peninsula on Route 132, which in this area means a loop of nearly a thousand kilometres right around the coast and back.

   Read the complete Gaspe write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Gaspé is where the day begins. Next is Perce.

2. 2. Percé

   The rock at Percé is one of the most photographed things in eastern Canada, an enormous limestone wall rising out of the Gulf of St Lawrence, hundreds of metres long, with a natural arch at one end cut by waves. Another arch collapsed in the nineteenth century, in 1845, leaving the stack known as the Obelisk beside it, and the whole structure continues to erode slowly. The name means pierced in French, and from the village you can walk across the sandbar at low tide to the foot of it, though checking the tide tables is not optional.

   Read the complete Perce write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Percé comes up about 69 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bonaventure.

3. 3. Bonaventure

   Bonaventure sits on the southern shore of the Gaspé Peninsula, on the Baie des Chaleurs, the Bay of Heat, whose waters are among the warmest in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and its sheltered beaches are popular for swimming in summer. The town was founded in 1760 by Acadian refugees, who had fled the British deportation of their people and found shelter in this quiet bay. The Musée acadien du Québec, in the town, tells the story with objects, documents and a gentle, human touch. The Acadian flag, a French tricolour with a yellow star, flies from many houses.

   Read the complete Bonaventure write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 200 km into the recorded legs you reach Bonaventure. Next is Matapedia.

4. 4. Matapédia

   Where the Matapédia river runs into the Restigouche, the Gaspé peninsula begins, and so does one of Canada's best salmon rivers. The village of Matapédia is a small place of a few hundred people squeezed between the water and forested Appalachian hills, right on the border between Quebec and New Brunswick, and for anyone riding Route 132 it is both a doorway and a full stop. The big loop around the Gaspésie, nearly nine hundred kilometres, is usually started here or finished here, and arriving after days of coast and cliff, you feel the road softening into river valley.

   Read the complete Matapedia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Matapédia closes the day.