MINGAN ARCHIPELAGO NATIONAL PARK RESERVE

Along the coast, less than 4 kilometers from it, the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve spreads its thirty or so limestone islands and more than a thousand granite islands and islets over nearly 100 kilometers. Havre-Saint-Pierre faces Havre Island, with its rocky cliffs topped with conifers. Not far from there, you can see the two Marteau islands, the big one and the small one, where there is a lighthouse and a few houses now abandoned. The Mingan Islands present a geological curiosity: giant monoliths or "flowerpots" 5 to 10 meters high, strangely sculpted by the sea and which owe their shape to an upper layer of limestone more resistant than their friable foot. Roland Jomphe, the old poet of Havre-Saint-Pierre, gave a name to each of them according to its shape. In addition to the spectacular cliffs and monoliths sculpted by the sea - there is the largest concentration of erosion monoliths in the world - the archipelago is home to a rich and diversified fauna and flora. Some islands are inhabited by moose or black bear and in the surrounding seas, many birds and cetaceans can be observed. The seabirds (the puffin with parrot's beak and orange legs, emblem of the park, but also the eider, the black guillemot or the Arctic tern) are not the only ones to fish, it is also the activity of the osprey, a common raptor in the islands. The archipelago also has a remarkably diverse flora: ferns, orchids, mosses and lichens, some species of which are only found in the Arctic or Alpine climate. We can also find rare plants such as the Minganie thistle, listed in 1924 by Brother Marie-Victorin, founder of the Montreal Botanical Garden. In any case, the landscapes are absolutely sublime!

Services and activities: wilderness camping, oTENTik tents and Ôasis lodging (ready-to-camp), hiking, sea kayaking, paddleboarding, diving, cruises, interpretation activities on the islands and in the two reception centers (Havre-Saint-Pierre and Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan).

To discover on Île aux Perroquets: lodging in the janitor's house, fine local cuisine and Quebec wines, outdoor interpretation tour and exhibition in the Creeard à Brume building, packages available (for more information: www.ileauxperroquets.ca).