Regions in Brief

Baie-St-Paul & Isle-aux-Coudres

The first town of any size in Charlevoix via Route 138, Baie-St-Paul is an attractive, funky community of about 7,400 that continues to earn its century-old reputation as an artists' retreat. Some two dozen boutiques and galleries and a couple of small museums show the works of local painters and artisans. Given the setting, it isn't surprising that many of the artists are landscapists, but other styles and subjects are represented, too. Work runs the gamut from hobbyist to highly professional. Options include the Maison de René-Richard, at 58 rue St-Jean-Baptiste (tel. 418/435-5571).

For bicycling, pop off the mainland by taking the free 15-minute car ferry to the small island of Isle-aux-Coudres. Popular paths offer a 24km (16-mile) loop around the island. From May to September, single bikes, tandems, and quadricycles for up to six adults and two small children can be rented from Vélo-Coudres (tel. 877/438-2118 or 418/438-2118; www.charlevoix.qc.ca/velocoudres). The island also has a smattering of boutiques and hotels. The ferry leaves from the town of St. Joseph-de-la-Rive, along Route 362 just east of Baie-St-Paul.

Many of Canada's elite skiers train at Le Massif (tel. 877/536-2774 or 418/632-5876; www.lemassif.com), the area's largest ski mountain. It has a network of 45 trails, many of which give skiers the illusion that they're heading directly into the adjacent St. Lawrence.

There are rumblings of a major project for the area: Daniel Gauthier, a founder of the Cirque du Soleil has been working for years to further develop Le Massif by adding housing and a 150-room hotel. He also has talked about refurbishing a train line to allow travelers to get to the area without driving. A June 2007 fire at the planned downtown location set back plans, but they are reportedly continuing.

St-Irenee

From Baie-St-Paul, take Route 362 northeast toward La Malbaie. The air is scented with sea salt and punctured with gulls' shrieks, and Route 362 roller-coasters over bluffs above the river, with wooded hills and well-kept villages. This stretch of the road, from Baie-St-Paul to La Malbaie, is one of the most scenic in the entire region and is dubbed the route du fleuve, which means "river route." (It can be treacherous in icy weather, though, so in colder months, opt for the flatter Rte. 138.)

In 32km (about 20 miles) is St-Irénée, a cliff-top hamlet of just 694 year-round residents. Apart from the setting, the best reason for dawdling here is the 60-hectare (148-acre) property and estate of Domaine Forget (tel. 888/336-7438 or 418/452-3535; www.domaineforget.com). The facility is a performing-arts center for music and dance and offers an International Festival from late June through August. Concerts are staged in a 604-seat concert hall, with Sunday musical brunches on an outdoor terrace that has spectacular views of the river. The program emphasizes classical music with solo instrumentalists and chamber groups, but is peppered with jazz and dance. Most tickets are C$20 to C$40 (£10-£20).

From September to May, Domaine rents its student dorms to the general public. They're clean and well-appointed studios, with cooking areas and beds for two to five people. They start at C$70 (£35) for double occupancy, with discounts for longer stays, and they include access to studio work areas.

Sea-kayaking ecotours from a half-day to 4 days can be arranged through several companies in the area. Katabatik (tel. 800/453-4850 or 418/665-2332; www.katabatik.ca), based in La Malbaie, offers trips that combine kayaking with information about the bays of the St-Lawrence estuary. A half-day tour costs C$50 (£25) for adults, C$40 (£20) for children 14 to 17, and C$30 (£15) for children 13 and younger. Tours start in St-Irénée as well as other spots along the coast and run from March through October.

La Malbaie

From St-Irénée, Route 362 starts to bend west after 10km (6 1/4 miles), as the mouth of the Malbaie River starts to form. La Malbaie (or "Murray Bay," as it was called by the wealthy Anglophones who made this their resort of choice from the Gilded Age through the 1950s) is the collective name of five former municipalities: Pointe-au-Pic, Cap-à-l'Aigle, Rivière-Malbaie, Sainte-Agnès, and Saint-Fidèle. At its center is a small, scenic bay. Inhabitants of the region justifiably wax poetic about their wildlife and hills and trees, the place where the sea meets the sky. They also have something quite different to preen about these days: a casino.

St-Simeon

To get to the ferry that crosses the St. Lawrence, follow the signs directing cars and trucks to the terminal. Capacity is 100 cars and boarding is on a first-come, first-served basis. The daily number and times of departures vary substantially from month to month, so check at tel. 418/638-2856 or www.traverserdl.com for the schedule. One-way fares are C$38 (£19) for a car, C$15(£7.50) for each passenger age 12 to 64 years, slightly less for folks 65 and older and children 5 to 11, and free for children younger than 5. Arrive at least 90 minutes before departure in summer and on holidays. Voyages take about 1 hour.

Even though this isn't a whale-watching cruise, passengers may enjoy a sighting on the passage from late June to September, when whales are most active. The ferry steams through the area they most enjoy, making sightings an ever-present possibility.

Baie Ste-Catherine & Tadoussac

The teeny Baie-Ste-Catherine (pop. 260) sits alongside the Saguenay River's estuary. Tadoussac (pop. 913), just across the Saguenay, is the southernmost point of the Manicouagan tourist region.

Tadoussac is known as "the Cradle of New France." Established in the 1600s, it's the oldest permanent European settlement north of Florida and became a stop on the fur-trading route. Missionaries stayed until the middle of the 19th century. The hamlet might have vanished soon after, had a resort hotel, now called Hôtel Tadoussac, not been built in 1864. Thanks to it, a steamship line brought wealthy vacationers from Montréal and points farther west and deposited them here for stays that often lasted all summer.

Apart from the hotel, just a few small businesses, a whaling educational center, a beach and boardwalk, and some dozen small motels and B&Bs constitute the town. This is raw country, where the sight of a beaver waddling up the hill from the ferry terminal in broad daylight is met with only mild interest. Still, Tadoussac has more to offer than Baie Ste-Catherine for visitors and is the recommended choice for a stopover.

There's golfing at the public, well-maintained, 9-hole, 31-par Club de Golf Tadoussac (tel. 418/235-4306), which has been in operation since 1890. For 4 days in June, Tadoussac swells to nearly 20,000 when it hosts the annual Festival de la Chanson, a festival of French song; check www.chansontadoussac.com.

Route 138 dead-ends at the Saguenay River and picks up again on the other side. Passage in between is courtesy of a free 10-minute car ferry (tel. 877/787-7483). Departure times vary according to season and demand, but figure every 15 minutes from 8am to 8pm in summer, and less frequently the other 12 hours and in low season. (The ferry is the reason that trucks travel in convoys on the highway, pouring out in groups after each ferry crossing.)

The vista on the crossing is dramatic and nearly worth a trip to Tadoussac on its own: Palisades with evergreens poking out of rock walls rise sharply from both shores. So extreme is the natural architecture, in fact, that the area is often referred to as a fjord.