Quebec's stunning Charlevoix region

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>Less than 30 metres offshore of our beachside campsite half a dozenfinback whales circled as they fed. The sound that had awakened mewas their heavy breathing, misty puffs of moist air shooting fromtheir blowholes in the cool of an early fall morning. Moments laterwe slid our kayaks into the frigid St. Lawrence River, paddledoffshore and drifted in anticipation of the next group.

We didn't have to wait long. Six whales travelling side by sidecruised toward our kayaks then dove beneath our boats, so close wecould see their speckled backs in the clear, calm water beneath us.When they had passed it was our turn to exhale loudly; we hadn'trealized we'd been holding our breaths in sheer excitement.

"In 15 years of marine mammal research at sea, that was my peakwhale experience," Moe said.

For years Moe and I had been coming to the small community ofTadoussac to kayak. We would head east from Montreal and zoom pastQuebec City through the Charlevoix region that stretches eastwardtoward the Saguenay River 150 kilometres away.

The Saguenay joins the icy Labrador Current sweeping up the St.Lawrence River to create krill-rich waters on which eight speciesof whales come to dine throughout summer and fall, among themfinback, blue, minke and belugas.

But we hadn't paid much attention to the Charlevoix's growingreputation as a gourmet mecca for us earthbound mammals as well.

Last fall, en route to our Labour Day paddling weekend, we decidedto take our time. We drove the Charlevoix's narrow roller-coasterroads through hilly pastures and past fieldstone houses, rusticbarns and silver church spires set in forests that plunge towardsthe St. Lawrence.

For more than a century, these pastoral landscapes have attractedsome of Canada's best artists, such as members of the Group ofSeven. Only Montreal and Quebec City make more appearances in theNational Gallery than Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix's charming maintown that's 100 kilometres east of Quebec City.

We poked through artists' studios and Baie-Saint-Paul's galleries.And in this beautiful rural region where restaurants and countryinns serve award-winning cuisine, we ate and ate and ate.

"Are you here to eat lamb?" Guy Thibodeau asks when he appearsbeside our table at Les Saveurs Oubliees.

We'd been staring out the window of the sunny restaurant acrossfields dotted with daisies and grazing sheep, and at a silo with asign for La Ferme Eboulmontaise.

Thibodeau followed our gaze.

"It doesn't get any fresher than this," he said. No kidding -- therestaurant is set at the edge of the pasture where the lamb graze.

The evening's lamb parade began with an amuse-bouche of lamb tongueand heart in tomato sauce followed by an appetizer of divine lambtartare. Thibodeau laid out a selection of homemade condimentsincluding jellies made from cedar, pine and crab apple as well asan onion confit and fruit ketchup. By the time the main course ofnoisettes d'agneau in a light tarragon sauce arrived we were inlamb heaven.

The specialty in Charlevoix is what is known in Quebec as"forgotten flavours" -- the name of Thibodeau's lamb restaurant.Fresh, local products are bought straight from the producer orenjoyed in farm-to-table meals served in cafes, restaurants or innsnext door to where they were grown.

Quebec's agritourism has become a model for the rest of the countryand the mould was set in the Charlevoix in 1995 when a group oflocal chefs and specialty food producers got together with theregional tourist folks to showcase their products. They created abilingual culinary guide called the Circuit de la Route des Saveursor The Flavour Trail. A handy map and guide, it's a culinarycircuit that includes 14 specialty producers of everything fromcider to foie gras where visitors can drop in for a tour and buythe goodies. It also includes 22 inns, hotels and restaurants wherethe local products are served a la table. The establishments areidentified along the way with a wooden sign bearing the symbol ofan orange chef's hat.

Being certified organic is less of a big deal in Quebec than inother parts of North America, say chefs, since cooks and diners aremore concerned with serving and eating fresh, local products. AsGuy Thibodeau of Les Saveurs Oubliees points out, he knows thepeople who supply the restaurant's venison as well as those at LaFerme Basque, who supply him with duck and foie gras.

"I already know they don't use chemicals or antibiotics andcertification is expensive," he says. "We don't feel it'snecessary."

If restaurateurs have one complaint, it's that producers are toosmall.

"Often they can't supply the quantity this restaurant requires,"said Valerie Andree Authier of La Pinsonniere, a Relais &Chateaux property at Cap-a-l'Aigle. This he told us over a plate ofQuebec cheeses which are, happily, available in quantity.

Several of those cheeses were from the Charlevoix and one of thecheese makers was our first stop on the Flavour Trail.

On a country road near the town of Baie-Saint-Paul, La Maisond'Affinage Maurice Dufour produces Le Migneron, one of Quebec'ssoft cheeses that has won national and international awards. Likethe other producers, Dufour offers tours to visitors as well astables for a light lunch that includes a cheese sampling plate withsalad as well as a port menu. A dinner restaurant attached to thetasting room is where Italian chef Patrick Fregni creates a soufflemade with Migneron perfumed with Calvados. His menu, like many inthis area, credits the local producers he relies upon.

Farther up that same country road are fields with rustic barns,grazing dairy cows and ... emus. For five years the Centre de Emeu,Quebec's biggest emu farm, has been producing a vast array ofproducts from the low fat, tasty Aussie birds. The cooler at thefarm shop is stuffed with ground emu, emu kebabs, emu chateaubriandand even smoked emu and terrine d'emeu au poivre rose. The shopalso carries a line of skin- and hair-care products made with emuoil.

Baie-Saint-Paul is a charming, Old-World jumble of narrow streetslined in Mansard-roofed shops, houses and a remarkable number ofsmall galleries. This is a town that takes art seriously and whereoriginal paintings appear on the walls of restaurants, grocerystores and even take-away food outlets.

Each August, Baie St. Paul blossoms with an international artsymposium and workshop that brings artists from Europe and acrossCanada. Bruno Cote is one of Quebec's foremost landscape artists, abear of a man enthusiastic as a child about this picture perfectcorner of Quebec.

"I love Charlevoix," he told us at Baie-Saint-Paul's Centre d'Art."It is many regions -- tiny villages, islands, mountains, fiords,lakes and wilderness all rolled into one small area."

Along the same line as the Flavour Trail, a Painter's Trail offersdirections to artists' galleries and home studios throughout theregion.

The Laurentian Mountains plunge steeply into the St. Lawrence alongthis coast where centuries-old French hamlets ride high onwindswept ridges or huddle, like tiny St-Joseph-de-la-Rive, on theriverbank. At the Papeterie St-Gilles, a non-profit organizationstarted by Quebec author Felix-Antoine Savard, craftsmen createhandmade paper that includes fine artists' parchment and luxuriousstationery flecked with dried local wildflowers made using a17th-century Japanese process.

From St-Joseph, we boarded a free ferry for a 20-minute crossing toIsle aux Coudres, a romantic little island in the St. Lawrencedotted with stone windmills and country inns renowned for theirold-time Quebec hospitality. Jacques Cartier named the island in1535 for its thick stands of wild hazelnut trees and it was thesite of the first mass celebrated on Canadian soil. Peat moss,eight metres thick in places, is still "mined" on low-lying Isleaux Coudres.

On the island, you can pick your own apples in fall at CidrerieVerger Pedneault, a third-generation cider maker who grows 26varieties of apples that go into a wide range of ciders includingsparkling, still, light and strong. Pedneault also produces an icedapple mistelle -- with alcohol added to bring it to 20 per cent andserved frosty, it's Quebec's version of ice wine -- and is oftenpaired on local menus with foie gras.

The Charlevoix has long been a popular holiday spot, dating back tothe days in the 1880s when the White Ships of Canada SteamshipLines brought passengers from the Great Lakes to the chateau-likeManoir Richelieu at La Malbaie. When well-heeled Britons and theirfamilies fled England for the safety of Canada during Second WorldWar, many encamped at the Manoir, but the grand old building soresembled a castle that management took down the Union Jack andcovered ornamental antique cannons out front lest a stray Germansubmarine mistake the hotel for an armed fortress. The Manoir hassince been lavishly refurbished and is now part of the Fairmonthotel chain, with a dining room specializing in regional cuisine.

Americans, too, built summer mansions overlooking the river aroundLa Malbaie in the '20s and '30s. President Hoover spent so muchtime at his Pointe-au-Pic summer home it was nicknamed "White HouseNorth". Many former American summer retreats have been converted toinns, most furnished with country antiques, fireplaces and Jacuzzisand including breakfast and a multi-course dinner in their roomrate.

At one of these, the Auberge des Peupliers, we dined on a tabled'hote created by chef Dominique Truchon that included Mr.Dallaire's Smoked Sturgeon, Cream of Fava Bean Soup from Jardins duCentre and Crusted Salmon with Butter of Verger Pedneault's IceCider -- all made with ingredients from farms and producers we hadvisited that day.

At the far eastern end of Charlevoix, the Saguenay River Valley wascarved by glaciers during the last ice age into the only true fiordon North America's east coast. It's the site of the most seriousrock climbing east of the Rockies; the Canadian Everest expeditiontrained on the sheer 200-metre wall of Mont du Gros Bras.

The small towns of Baie St. Catherine and Tadoussac offerexpeditions for some of the best whale watching in Eastern Canada.

At the Les Escoumins campground near Tadoussac, we once againpitched our tents on the shore of the St. Lawrence. After paddlingwith the whales in dawn we were hungry for lunch, but after allthat quality cuisine we craved something simple.

We searched out one of the Charlevoix's ubiquitous roadside diners,simple affairs with names like Le Roi de la Patate (The King of thePotatoes), that cook up Quebec-style traditional fast food. Then wetucked into the province's signature dine-and-dash food -- poutinemade with dark French fries slathered in local cheddar cheese curdsand topped with gravy.

"Reminds me of krill," Moe joked as we tucked into the awfullooking -- but absolutely delicious -- concoction.

Margo Pfeiff is a Montreal-based writer and photographer.

IF YOU GO

Where to eat:

- Restaurant Le Saint-Pub: 2, rue Racine Baie-Saint-Paul.1-418-240-2332 or www.microbrasserie.com

- Les Saveurs Oubliees: 350, rang Saint-Godefroy (route 362) andLes Eboulements: 1-418-635-9888 or www.agneausaveurscharlevoix.com

Where to stay (and eat):

- Auberge des Trois Canard: 115, Cote Bellevue La Malbaie. 1-418-665-3761 or 1-800-461-3761 or www.auberge3canards.com/anglais/pages/welcome.html

- Auberge des Peupliers: 381, rue Saint-Raphael La Malbaie (SecteurCap-a-l'Aigle). 1-418-665-4423 or 1-888-282-3743 or www.aubergedespeupliers.com

- La Pinsonniere: 124, rue Saint-Raphael La Malbaie (SecteurCap-a-l'Aigle). 1-418-665-4431 or 1-800-387-4431 or www.lapinsonniere.com

Flavour trail guide: The free booklet can be picked up in Montrealat Infotouriste, 1001 Dorchester Square, 1-514-873-2015 or1-877-266-5687 or at the regional tourist offices in theCharlevoix.