llllilllillll[ililil] ll uilill - Accueil

1 Llllilllillll[ililil] ll uilill /T\h" Saguenay Fiord was at a nasty, rolling boil, a chaotic mess of blackI and white and silver foam lacking any discernible pattern. Looking overI -y shoulder, I could see three- and four-foot waves rolling down thefjord behind us at a 45-degree angle, but our kayaks were getting hit by wavesreflecting off the rock wall less than 200 metres to our had been warned of the dangers of surfing by our guide, Martin-Fr d ricBerthiaume, and it took real concentration not to let the waves simply take us downthe fjord-which was, after all, where we were heading.

2 While surfing would haverequired much less effort than kayaking, we would run the risk of being turnedsideways and driven into the frothy mess, which is one of the ways an adventurecan morph into an this was not supposed to be an ordeal. In fact, artisan cheeses, and free-rangepheasant and local beers bursting with character and flavour, were supposed to playa big part in our trip to the Saguenay and Lac SaintJean in Quebec. The plan was tokayak the Saguenay Fjord, explore its southern shore, then head northward to finishour trip with a three-day paddle of the northern and eastern shores of Lac the way we were hoping to see some of what makes Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jeanso famous: stunning scenery, great food and people who know how to enjoy both.

3 Assoon as the rough outlines of the trip started to emerge I called my friends Sean andMarion-Sean knows how to paddle and can navigate in French, and Marion will forgctmore about food than most of us could ever learn about now, out on the fjord in 1S-knot winds, food was the last thing, on my looked at Martin-Fr d ric, just'l 0 metres aheacl,.lncl inmrerliately ielt reassured:he did not look concerned. Those who are often afraid, like me, are experts atrecognizing concern in people's faces, especially those of doctors or guides or ac-countants, and ldidn't see anything: he looked like he was peeling potatoes andlistening to CBC's Q on the radio.

4 Martin-Fr d ric is a level-three paddler with morethan 10 years'experience guiding on the fjord, and everything he did reflected ahigh degree of skill and professionalism. I felt sure he would get us to dinner, andwherr he did. it would not be of the Kraft dinner kind, ''. I rr',c'ft;.-'Having the benef it of a seasoncd guicleis critical on the ijord, where rveatlrerancl paclclling conditions can cl'rangequickly, and where there are few placesto get out of the water when thesurface isn't so polishecl. Thc ticles closerto the enci of the tjorcl, whcre it narrows,reach r-rp to nine knots, makestravel by kayak one way only.

5 Ancleven further north, tides of four or fivenretres arc common, nraking tide tablesessential for nrulti-day padclles. Martin-Fr cl ric told us that kayaks hacl beenrvashecl away by the waves created ltvthe largcr tour ltoats that run up anddown the fjord to Tadoussac, and sometlrrned up B0 kilometrcs away on thcsouth shore of the St. Lawrence is not only an exltertpaclcllcr with a cleelt thoroughkrrowlcclgc of the fjorcl, l)ut it turns outlre's also a vcry altle ancl enthr-rsiasticchef. What he and Organisaction (or-rrhost outfitter) irr is aclventurcc|r-rring thc clay, then fine ioocl ancl lteacr-tiful vicws as evening, rcwarcls, and tlreyreally clclivcr on all fjorcl itself provicles thc views, butits is nrorc than sl<irr clecp: it'salso a eeological rvoncler that is trip al<;ne (aboirt iivc hoLrrs fron'r\lontreal).

6 Lt startecl fornring, altor-rt iourbillion vears ago, which is an I can't vouch for or cxltlainor cven graslt rcally, ltr-rt 's thc assertecl at thc Mus eclu Fjorcl in La Baie. The fjorcl is nowa .100-kilonretre-lon l trench, alnrost275 nretres cleelt in ltlaces, left ltehinclafterr .r mile cleep slalt oi ice 20,000 years ago. The ice sheetsi'r-rt clcclt into Sagr-rerray Cralten, aportion <tf the earth's crust, gor-rgingrlrc iirtrcl in the ltrocess. What was leftirchincl is .r str-rnning, dynanric ' tlrat inclr-rcles steep cliffs rising 400".

7 "r's up out of the water, and'. ,, sharks ( llose no ".ns, patrolling the frigid clepths.',.r1(,rs of the fjord-a layer of'rrl) .lr)cl saltwater below-and", runcl it have been teeming' tlrousancls of years since,',r1, ancl Native people,'''.r, thc Algoncluin ,cl ancl cliecl here for- rrcirtre the Europeans,,:i1"1T,:'i ':].]El-rrEl +Uon it, I strugglecl kr grasp lrou, the errtirere'gion, stretching r,vest ltel,oncl Ottar,r,.rand south to Maine, had been unckrr salt-water as recently as 10,000 ve(rrs Champlain , which rvas rerallva saltlater inlert of thc Atlantic ()cean,was constantlv rccecling l) (eertthis) the earth's crLlst \\'.

8 Ls relror-rnclingand rising oncc it relievecl oi theweight of all tlrat ice. So the lnnu Native pcoplcs of the region wereliving in , ancl thenative narrc tor thc lancl-locked is still iouncl in Saint-jean tocla,vis "poor littli' lost oner."Wc hacl clrivcn north from Montrt,.rthroLreh QLrcbcc City, and then Carticr Park, alonq .ipe riecllr snrooth highway tl'rat unfrrrlt,r jin front oi us lil<c a giant riltlton. Thlhislrrr'.rv itscli was a surprisc, ltul rllt, , had in storlior Lrs rr'.rs ertraorclinary: natural lteaLrtrrvilhout crorvcls, clrarnring towns, \,cr\goorl loocl.

9 Rncl u, 'r, frienclly 1teo1tlc.\\1r' .rrrivecl at Baic, near the nortlr-('nmrost cncl o[ thc fjorcl, and chccl<crlirrto ALrlrcrsc clcs . Thc lticturescprchotcl is knou n lor its outstanding its .rrriablc on,nur ancl heacl chci,Marcel Boucharcl. LLrcky for us, hc's .rstrong belicver in thc value clf l<tcalfoocl, ancl even thc hcrlts usecl in thc:restaLrrant are all locally the nrorning we macle time to heaclup to Les Bergeries du Fjclrcl,about l0 nrinutes fronr La Baie. I that the area around Lac Saint-Jean had sorne very good < I wanted to see ancl taste for pulled into thc driveway of a neatfarnr witlr a sizealtle outbuilcling hous-ing the fromagerie.)]

10 We were greetecl byMartin Cilbert, who runs the farm andthe cheese operation together with hisbrother and his wife, Jos e though they rvere busy getting hayoff the field that clay ("faire les foirrs," asthey say), Martin was eager to usaround and to have us sample sonre oftheir raw milk cheese is nrade from one herd ofsheep and one herd of jersey cows, and,t, .:'rr.,,,;a :," . ;.. " ' .:;;;'"":;,',-z-_2,' ).",** a,-r/",r* / ,'r ,-7 :" , ._rlrionly the milk from the morning milkingis used (owing to its higher fat content).We are conditioned to think of milk aseither raw or pasteurized, but for Martinit's really a question of "dead or alive"(processed vs.