Exposition Maritime (Maritime Museum)

Exposition Maritime (Maritime Museum) Review

This small exhibit, housed in an old, still-active shipyard, commemorates the days of the St. Lawrence goélettes, the feisty little wooden freighters that were the chief means of transporting goods along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River well into the 1960s. In the mid-20th century the roads through Charlevoix were little more than rugged tracks. (Indeed, they are still narrow and winding.) Very large families lived in cramped conditions aboard the boats. To modern eyes, it doesn't look like it was a comfortable existence, but the folklore of the goélettes, celebrated in poetry, paintings, and song, is part of the region's strong cultural identity.