Life and Times

An island with a hole at the end of the Gaspe. Seemingly quite remote but there is quite a large tourist crowd in Percé. In midtown it is pay parking only. The first two nights we stayed at a motel just outside the midtown so we got to know where the free parking was and it's really only a 5 minute walk to go to the wharf.

The boat tour to Bonadventure Island is really worthwhile. The Northern Gannet nesting grounds are amazing. I've never seen so many birds in one place and none of them are vacating. In fact, I'm sure if you got too close by crossing a barrier they would attack to hold their nesting area.

The third night we spent in Motel de La Cote Surprise. The view of the islands from the balcony were well worth the extra cost. It really helped that we had sunny weather and beautiful sunset illumination. Sunrise is behind the rock. Nice but the islands are back-lit until the sun is quite high in the sky.

We successfully walked out to the Perce rock. Right to the hole in the rock (island) although they try to discourage this, there are hundreds that seem to go each day. They removed the staircase at Mont Joli but if you go further down the shore (corner before Mt. Joli Road with Spaghetteria), you can park and walk down the stairs to the beach. The best time to go is when the waves aren't high and during a first or last quarter moon (neap tide). I had always known the full and new moon gives the widest swing in tide but it also means a shorter period of time to get out and back plus more tidal current. A local resident said the best time is during a neap tide which worked well with us. You should probably check the tidal tables for the area by the time we got back to the little bit of water you have to cross the stepping stones were almost covered.