GASPÉSIE TOUR
Gaspésie Tour, Québec One doesn’t need to hop on a plane and fly all the way to Paris so they can experience a taste of the French lifestyle. In fact, the entire Gaspé Peninsula is a mer- veilleux sampling of francophone delights along its entire 800+ kilometre route. Jutting out like a sore thumb from Quebec’s Matapedia Valley into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Gaspésie is actually larger than the entirety of Belgium. Alert readers will have noticed two different spellings of this region in the previous paragraph — and stick- ing in the craw of editors and spellcheck programs around the world — both of them are correct. The name comes from the Mi'kmaq word gespe'g which means "end," referring to and end of the land. As for the bucket list drive, you’ll be searching for Route 132, tarmac which splits at Mont Joli and wraps around the 885-kilometre spit of beauty spearing eastward. Beautiful rivers and clear waters put an ex- clamation point on the marine environment, yet there are also foothills and majestic cliffs present along the way. Be sure to take in the UNESCO Percé World Geopark, located about halfway through the journey, with its trails and a glass viewing platform suspended 200 metres above the forest floor. Road to the Shore, Newfoundland and Labrador The island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador contains many superlatives, including the most east- erly spit of land that’s part of the North American con- tinent. Along the isle’s northeast coast runs one of the greatest driving roads Canada has to offer, manag- ing to combine jaw-dropping seaside vistas with wide sweeping curves and the type of local hospitality for which the locals are famous. And, oh yeah – did we mention there are also sandy beaches rivalling what one would find along the Gulf of Mexico? It's true. The government-run tourism board has dubbed this ribbon of tarmac as the Road to the Shore; but locals simply call it The Loop, thanks to the route’s start-and-end point at the Trans-Canada Highway. In other words, a jaunt out here doesn’t require covering the same road twice. Provincial Route 320 rolls seam- lessly into Route 330 along the Kittiwake Coast, with the 50-km stretch between Wesleyville and Musgrave Harbour skirting right along the Atlantic Ocean. If you’re alert, you might see a glimpse of breaching humpback whale or 10,000-year-old iceberg. Without the need to retrace one’s path, The Loop is a great day drive from a place like Gander, a town known in the Broadway musical Come From Away. Be sure to stop at homegrown businesses such as the Spindrift Motel for a feed of fish and chips prepared by local cooks who likely know the fishermen who caught
ROAD TO THE SHORE
ICEFIELDS PARKWAY
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