JUST NORTHWEST of the outer fringe of Montreal’s suburbs, this historic little town on the Mille-Iles River was founded in 1673, but a fire in 1922 engulfed many of its original buildings. However, some graceful 19th-century homes remain, on rue Saint-François-Xavier and rue Sainte-Marie, many of them converted into restaurants and bistros.

TWO CATHOLIC PRIESTS are responsible for turning the industrial town of Joliette on the Assomption River into a cultural center. In the 1920s, Father Wilfrid Corbeil founded the Musée d’Art de Joliette, whose permanent collection ranges from medieval religious art to modern works.

QUEBEC IS one of the major paper producers in North America, and Trois-Rivières, a pulp and paper town, is a main center of that industry in the province. This fact often hides the rich historical interest that Trois-Rivières has to offer.

CAMPERS, HIKERS, canoeists, and cross-country skiers love this 536-sq km (207-sq mile) stretch of forest, lakes, and pink Precambrian granite. The park includes part of the Laurentian Mountains, which are part of the Canadian Shield, and were formed between 950 and 1,400 million years ago. La Mauricie’s rugged beauty is also accessible to motorists, who [...]

THIS FERTILE VALLEY follows the 130-km (80-mile) Richelieu River north from Chambly to Saint-Denis. Fort Chambly, also known as Fort St. Louis, in the industrial town of Chambly along the valley on the Montreal Plain, is the best preserved of a series of ancient buildings that the French erected to defend this vital waterway from [...]

A CHARMING, wooden manor house with bold sweeping front steps, pillars, and carved curlicues is the grandest old house in this pretty riverside town. It is the centerpiece of Domaine Joly-De-Lotbinière, a stunning estate built in 1851 by the local squire (seigneur). The house is surrounded by banks of geraniums and terraces of walnut trees [...]

THE SELF-STYLED “Queen of the Eastern Townships,’’ Sherbrooke is indeed this region’s industrial, commercial, and cultural center. The city lies in a steep-sided valley, with the historic quarter delightfully situated among the rolling farmlands of the Saint- François and Magog Rivers. The first settlers were British Loyalists from the New England states.

THIS AREA belongs to the Eastern Townships, or the “Garden of Quebec” that stretches from the Richelieu River valley to the Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont borders in the US. Set among rolling hills, farmland, woods, and lakes in a landscape similar to the Appalachians, the Townships are among Canada’s top maple syrup producers.

THE VAST AREA of land that stretches across Quebec from the Ontario boundary to historic Quebec City is rewarding in its diversity. In the south, the rich hilly farmland of the Appalachians and scarlet forests of maple trees attract many visitors each year, while the stark beauty of Nunavik’s icy northern coniferous forests bursts into [...]

POPULARLY KNOWN as La Gaspésie, the Gaspé Peninsula stretches out north of New Brunswick to offer Quebec’s wildest and most appealing scenery. As the peninsula spreads east, clumps of trees become dense pine forests, and the landscape becomes rough and rocky; cliffs along the northern coast reach 500 m (1,500 ft).

THE FEW FISHING families who make their homes on this remote archipelago in the middle of the huge gulf of St. Lawrence have taken to painting their cottages in an assortment of mauves, yellows, and reds. The river gives striking views of the little communities on their low-lying, windswept islands, but the islands themselves have [...]

COMMUNITIES here can trace their roots back to the old 18th-century settlers of New France. Dotted along the flat, fertile farmland of the south shore of the St. Lawrence River west of Gaspé and inland toward Montreal, the villages cover the area between the region’s largest towns of Montmagny and Rimouski. Rivière-du-Loup, a seemingly unremarkable [...]

BARELY VISITED until recently, this unspoiled and unsettled area is fast gaining in popularity for its harsh landscape, rich wildlife, and untouched ecosystems. In 1984, the Mingan Archipelago islands became Canada’s first insular national park. Puffins, terns, and several gull species find refuge in the Mingan Archipelago Wildlife Park, which comprises all 40 of the [...]

UNTIL THE 1950S, Sept-Iles led a quiet existence as a historic, sleepy fishing village. However, after World War II, the little settlement, set on the shores of a large, circular bay, drew the attention of large companies to use as a base for expanding the iron mining industry in northern Quebec.

THIS SMALL town owes its entire existence to the US newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, which in 1936 built a mill near the mouth of the Manicougan River to supply its newspaper presses with paper. Declared a historic district in 1985, Baie-Comeau’s oldest area is the Quartier Amélie, with rows of fine homes and an impressive [...]

IN THE MIDST OF THE ROCKY, spruce-covered wilderness that characterizes central Quebec, Lac-Saint-Jean is an oasis of tranquility. Dairy farms, charming villages such as Chambord, and warm sandy beaches border the lake itself, which covers 1,350 sq km (520 sq miles).

SNUG IN THE crook of mountains on the western shore of the Saguenay, Chicoutimi is one of northern Quebec’s most expansive towns, despite its modest population. The cultural and economic center of the Saguenay region, Chicoutimi’s waterfront district has now been restored. A stroll along the riverside offers good views of the surrounding mountains and [...]

THE SAGUENAY River flows through the world’s southernmost natural fjord. This was formed from a retreating glacier splitting a deep crack in the Earth’s crust during the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago.

LINED WITH boutiques, the old streets of this little town make a gentle start to exploring the local stretch of the St. Lawrence River. In 1600, French traders picked the village as the site of the first fur-trading post in Canada, noticing that for generations native Indians had held meetings here to trade and parley.

THE CHARLEVOIX coast runs 200 km (130 miles) along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, from Sainte-Annede-Beaupré in the west to the mouth of the Saguenay. A UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve because of its fine examples of boreal forest, the area is a slim band of flowery rural beauty on the southern edge [...]