Gaspésie

This morning, I had my double sitting on the terrace. The air was fresh, a smell of iodine and the sea filled my nostrils. The sun shone softly to my left and on the mountains in front of me. Each sip of coffee pinned me to the bench and forced me to take the time to look around. Because it is in the absence of a defined framework that we come to forget that we remain in a postcard. And as our humble roasting workshop operates at breakneck speed during the summer, we have to take time to watch time pass through the landscape. In short, summer is good here, we don't say it enough. Perhaps we are missing an author like Pagnol who left, in the minds of those who read him, an almost magical summer image of Provence. Because Gaspésie is a bit like the Provence of Quebec. Except that instead of being bordered by the Mediterranean to the south, we have Baie-des-Chaleurs and to the west, instead of Italy, we have New Brunswick. And in the same vein, if Moustaki gave me a taste for the Mediterranean, the Baie-des-Chaleurs is an extraordinary body of water whose praises have perhaps not been sung enough. Ah the poets! There will never be enough!

I now suggest, simply, directly, that you bring your butt to Gaspésie. The stop at the Brûlerie du Quai being obligatory, see it as a pilgrimage.

Carleton-Montreal = 900 km, let’s assume a 10-12 hour drive. You leave in the morning, and you're here for dinner!

Carleton-Quebec = 600 km

In addition, National Geographic, in its article on the 20 essential travel destinations , suggests the Gaspésie. Article published in 2011 in its publication “Traveler”, places Gaspésie as a destination alongside the fjords in Norway, the Kootenay/Yoho national parks in British Columbia, the state parks of Tasmania, etc.

Sometimes it takes an external evaluation to make us realize that what we have before our eyes is extraordinary. Not that we don't notice it, but sometimes everyday life has a tendency to trivialize our perception.

This is where New France began, in 1534 with Jacques Cartier and it is also here that it ended with the Battle of the Restigouche in 1760. And if I may venture a prediction, it is also here that it will start again. Identity wandering will come to an end. Félix Leclerc predicted it before me.

Gaspésie , the inner country of each of us. The cry that will scare everyone is where it will come from. » — Félix Leclerc

Without forgetting the Rebel and Insoumise Gaspésie of my friend Sylvain Rivière, poet, who grows lavender in row 2, he calls it lavender , don't tell me we are far from Provence.

The ride in Baie-Des-Chaleurs by Guillaume Asrsenault

Or the Gaspésie of Kevin Parent

Because in Gaspésie, beyond the landscapes, there is poetry. Everywhere. Everyone is a poet. Some less than others I admit but know that it is contagious. We arrive in Ste-Flavie and we feel it, we taste it, we become it.

There's even some in coffee!