This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
Discovering the Magdalen Islands on foot, slightly out of season, in the company of a Madelinot hiking guide, this is a winning recipe for visiting this coveted archipelago.
At the exit of the ferry in Cap-aux-Meules, we join our group in a pretty house in Havre-aux-Maisons. On site, the hiking guide of the tour operator Karavaniers Jean-Philippe Leblanc awaits us. Originally from the Magdalen Islands, he gets his hands on kilos of very fresh lobster to make us homemade pizzas. As an aperitif, we were even treated to lobster powder — a spread made from liver, eggs and lobster meat — from his aunt Monique. The holidays are off to a good start!
The Islands on foot
Our stay begins at Grande-Entrée, on the Sentier entre vents et tides — a marked circuit totaling 230 km promoting environmental protection — towards Île Boudreau, a peninsula surrounding the oyster basin. From the top of the cliff, the wind from the Islands makes the hike more comfortable.
Every day, it is good to eat on the Islands. Like this evening, after a long hike to the Dune du Nord, Jean-Philippe’s father, Jean-Louis, brings 4 kilos of chanterelles that he picked for us. In the evening, our guide cooks them for us in forest pâté garnished with Pied-de-vent cheese. What a delight !
Another evening, after the hike on the beach in Le Havre to Bout du Banc, he served us the famous pot-en-pot, a generous seafood pâté typical of the Islands. And the culinary pleasures don’t stop there! For our rest day, we visit the essentials, Le Fumoir d’antan and the Fromagerie du Pied-de-Vent.
Protecting the know-how of the islands
At the Smokehouse of yesteryear, Économusée de la Boucanerie, we meet the Arseneau family, more precisely Éloi to Ben (his father) to Ben (his grandfather) to Fabien (his great-grandfather) — the way of naming the people in the Islands to find out which family it is exactly. At the helm of the artisanal smokehouse since 1942, the Arseneau family owned one of the forty smokehouses of the time. The fish was then sent to the West Indies, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
“At the end of the 1970s, my grandfather decided to close the smokehouse because of overfishing by countries like Portugal, Spain and France,” says Éloi Arseneau. It was not until the late 1990s that Le Fumoir d’antan revived and diversified its product offering, such as smoked scallops and trout. Unfortunately this year, spring herring fishing is prohibited in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. It will therefore be necessary to wait at least two years before seeing smoked herring again at the Fumoir d’antan.
At the Économusée de la Fromagerie du Pied-de-Vent, we meet their herd of Canadian cows — the only dairy cow farm in the Magdalen Islands, and one of the last ten farms of this heritage breed. in the country. “We try to promote the breed as much as possible,” explains Dominic Arseneau, co-owner of the cheese dairy. In our case, we think that cheese processing, given the hardiness and milk richer in fat and protein from Canadian cows compared to milk from Holstein cows [la race dominante dans le monde], is the best way to put it back on an interesting pedestal. »
In fact, Canadian cow’s cheese has the designation of specificity (AS) from the Council for Reserved Designations and Enhanced Terms (CARTV).
Nice surprises
At the time of our visit, the diver and cameraman Mario Cyr gave lectures almost every evening at his bistro, Plongée Alpha, in Grande-Entrée. We were treated to a memorable evening in his company, during which he passed on to us with passion his singular journey through the polar waters, which few people dare to frequent.
Then, there is this day at Entry Island, which now only has 50 permanent inhabitants. This is definitely a highlight of the stay. The ascent of Big Hill (174 m) makes you think about all these small isolated villages, almost ghosts on Quebec territory. It’s precious to be here, to tread this end of the world, while there is still time to discuss with its inhabitants to know their history very different from ours.
Our journalist was the guest of Karavaniers.