It’s a foggy summer morning when the excited group climbs into wetsuits and then a rubber raft to launch an adventure in tandem with some very big fish. After an hour’s float, there’s a sudden payoff: A humpback whale leaps from the waters nearby, to the unanimous awe of all. Where are we? Alaska, the Baja…maybe Hawaii?
Try the mighty St. Lawrence River of Quebec’s Charlevoix region. This shaft of nature resembles a river near the cities of Montreal and Quebec City, looks like an ocean farther north, and carries majestic scenery all along its flow into the Atlantic Ocean. Armies fought over it for centuries, and generations have used it as a route to civilization, trade and recreation, and Charlevoix artists continue their attempts to capture its mesmerizing character.
Cetacean wildlife may inhabit the waters, but all is serene topside. Boreal forests, pure air and wide-open vistas back up charming villages and remnants of an era when Charlevoix was a summer enclave for socialites from New York, Toronto and Montreal.
The elegance of that gilded era lingers on in the stately Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu Hotel, a group favorite for meetings and retreats along the St. Lawrence. Among its attributes: a “tee-to-sea” golf course that presents wondrous vistas from every hole, and a perched clubhouse of wood and stone. Back at the hotel, guests enjoy land-based whale watching from hotel terraces and restaurants, gaming in the adjacent Le Casino de Charlevoix, and spa sojourns inside 22 treatment rooms.
Out on the surrounding Flavour Trail, there’s adventure that’s more gastronomic in nature. A network of country inns, such as Auberge des Falaises and Auberge des Peupliers, offer palate-pleasing dishes, resulting from collaborations between local chefs and producers who cultivate the fertile soil. The complete Charlevoix cultural experience combines local gourmet with concerts produced in a hall of exceptional acoustics at Domaine Forget, the riverview dance and music academy.
Decidedly lower-brow diversions can be found inside La Maison du Bootlegger. Dating to the mid-19th century, this architectural hodgepodge has a shady past filled with assorted functions: part brewery, part restaurant, part brothel. The Bootlegger was established back when the locals were forbidden by their priests to drink alcohol.
No amusement park funhouse ever offered a better time, so the Bootlegger has lured a diverse parade of callers. President Richard Nixon once arrived in his chauffeured limousine for a tour, so they say. Elvis came, too, and left his signature on one of its wooden walls. Today, groups can tour the unique premises—and sample some of what Bootlegger offers—without the constraints of clerical oversight.
