Charlevoix

The "discoverer" of Canada, Jacques Cartier, is believed to have set foot in the area in 1535. More certain is a visit 73 years later by Samuel de Champlain.

New France's first historian, the Jesuit priest François-Xavier de Charlevoix (pronounced shar-le-vwah), is the region's namesake. The area's first white inhabitants arrived in the early 1700s. Among other things, they developed a small shipbuilding industry that specialized in sturdy schooners called goélettes, which were used to haul everything from logs to lobsters up and down the coast in the days before rail and paved roads. In the 19th century, as steamships plied the St. Lawrence, Charlevoix became a popular tourist destination for well-to-do English Canadians and British colonial administrators from Montréal and Québec City. Since then, tourism—and hospitality—has become Charlevoix's trademark.

The region has attracted and inspired generations of painters, poets, writers, and musicians from across Québec and Canada, and became a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 1989. In summer, hiking, fishing, picnicking, sightseeing, and whale-watching are the area's main attractions. Winter activities include downhill and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, dogsledding, and snowshoeing.