Our first day took us from central Massachusetts straight up through Sherbrooke to Quebec City. We decided to stay mostly in auberges, or country inns, although camping is very popular and youth hostels can be found along the way.

From Québec City, our journey began on the Chemin du Roi(route 138 East), an excellent road, at least until the subarctic segment Agonish'Natashquan, which consists of tire-eating gravel, though not quite as sharp as that covering the road on Anticosti Island. Spectacular fjord-like vistas and sheer open spaces of tourbière(peat bog) begin soon after Baie-Saint-Paul, known for its artists' colony and art galleries, where the Saint Lawrence opens up quite wide, appearing like a sea.

We decided to save money by buying much of our food in the Provigo and Metro supermarkets that dot the coast. Further up when they became far and few between, we depended on the dépanneursor convenience stores. We'd stock up on fèves au lard(Canadian beans), fromage en graines(specialty Québec cheese in curd clumps) and roast chicken. Sometimes we'd order take-out poutines(Québec's national dish of fries, melted cheese and chicken broth). The aubergesoften offer forfaitarrangements, which include breakfast, sometimes dinner and even an excursion.

Our drive took us past the imposing Manoir Richelieu, the old Canadian Pacific railroad hotel-casino overhanging the cliffs of the Saint Lawrence to La Malbaie, a quaint town with a 50's ambiance of pastel blue, green and orange wooden houses covered with the typical Québec bright red (and even light blue) sheet-metal roofs.

We crossed the Saguenay River, a veritable fjord that feeds into the Saint Lawrence. The ferry is free and quite efficient. With the third addition several years ago to the fleet, there is virtually no more waiting behind long lines of cars and trucks.

Once on the other side, we checked into the red roofed Hôtel Tadoussac, site of the film "Hotel New Hampshire".

The town is small and contains the oldest church in Quebec, scores of whale-watching billboards and a number of native artisanat(handicraft) shops. Loup-marin(seal) was on the menu, but we ordered the truite de mer(sea trout) instead. The hotel offered a forfait cruise down the Saguenay fjord, which we took and appreciated for we saw several schools of white beluga whales.

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Further up the highway, past Les Escoumins, Forestville and Betsiamites, an Indian village, we drove through Baie-Comeau, past the malls, the billowing white smoke of the paper-mills and the huge sprawling Reynold's aluminum factory, then finally back into nature and solitude. At this point, much of the highway is inland, though we caught plenty of beautiful glimpses of the river. Past Godbout, we turned off the main road and headed towards the river, 11 km past fields of wild blueberries and not a single house in site.

We stayed at the Pointe-des-Monts lighthouse and saw a couple of large rorquals(humpback whales) surprisingly close to shore. The next day we picked wild blueberries and headed out for Sept-Iles (formerly Clarke City), a mining town of 25,000 people, sprawling and flat with the last malls on the north coast, including the Galeries Montagnaises(Uashat Mani-Utenam), the first native-run mall in Québec. We visited the Vieux Poste de Traitetrading post in the Indian section of town, where young guides were dressed in 17th century garb and little santon figurines depicted different aspects of Montagnais Indian life.

It takes about three and a half hours from Sept-Iles past enormous expanses of desolate peat bog to Havre St-Pierre, which was the end of the road, until several years ago. Now the road reaches Natashquan. At this point we passed into the subarctic zone, where there are no deciduous trees. Beautiful bright red quatre-saisons or quatre-temps berries speckle the sides of the road. Before we took the ferry to Anticosti Island, we spent several days at an auberge in Mingan-Longue-Pointe to explore the bizarre limestone formations on the archipelago islands' national park. The area is also known for its macareuxor puffins. The weather was quite chilly with temperatures down to the upper thirties at times.

At Havre-St-Pierre, we had soupe à l'oignon, sole à l'amandine and, for dessert, tarte à la plaquebière at Chez Julie. Plaquebièreor chicouté(cloudberry) is the gold colored raspberry-like fruit that grows in the sub-arctic peat bogs located north of Havre-St-Pierre. The Quebec government has recently been marketing Chicoutai, a liqueur made from it.

The cruise takes nearly six hours to Anticosti, despite the fact the island is only 30 km away and the Nordik Passeur, quite swift. During much of the trip, we sailed along the island's coast, spotted dolphin and humpbacks. We arrived in Port-Menier at about 12:30 in the afternoon. The dock is the longest in Canada (1 km) because the littorals surrounding the island are very shallow and extensive. We drove off the ferry and began our search for the Auberge Port-Menier, which was not hard to find, considering the size of the village (only 600 people on the entire island!), which contains one wooden church and a dépanneur, tiny post office, city hall and grocery store, all housed in a large barn-like building made of green sheet metal.

The Transanticosti is 255 km long and made of sharp, penetrating limestone gravel. We proceeded, as if at the start of a race. One sign reads 0 km. Next to it, another reads 255 km. The Centre Culturel advises not to exceed 50 km (30 mph) and to stay in the tracks left by other vehicles. The drive to the end of the road is about four hours and much of it akin to driving in a roofless tunnel, for the shrub spruce hug the sides of the road.

Pristine glens of prehistoric dimension with supernatural-looking tree skeletons, twisted and shaped, some like faces or animals made the journey more than worthwhile.

There were virtually no cars on the highway but ours. We stopped to walk in a ghost town of three houses and witnessed at dusk scores of deer suddenly appear. The island is known for its herd of 125,000, which have chewed the spruce into strange forms the inhabitants call ballerinas. We also explored several shipwrecks. Four days separate ferry departures, but there is plenty to do. In fact, we had wished we'd stayed for a full week to explore the island's less accessible southern coast.

We took the ferry back to Havre-St-Pierre, then further up the river to Baie-Johan-Beetz, where we arrived at one in the morning. The town of only 200 souls is quite beautiful perched upon a granite sheet. We stayed in the Château, as the inhabitants call the former home of the Belgian who founded the town now owned by Americans from Pennsylvania. There is not much at all to do in town except strolling on the spongy peat bogs. The inn-keeper was very interested in our conversation, having just survived a long, lonely northern winter. We talked for hours in French. She wanted to know what things were like down south.

The next day we drove three hours to the end of the road at Natashquan, home of Quebec's famous poet-chansonnier, Gilles Vigneault. We explored the Indian village, Pointe-Parent, where we purchased mukluks in the home of a Montagnais family busily watching French television. We assumed they couldn't understand the words because only one woman spoke French and not very well at that. We walked the desolate beach and explored the famous galet fishing houses on the shore.


Information: Croisières Nordik 800) 692-8002. For ferry schedules and prices. Info-Anticosti (418) 535-0250

Tilden (418) 535-0157. Rents specially equipped trucks. We ruined our tires on the gravel on Anticosti and strongly advise renting one of these trucks. Some people bike the island, but distances are long and lonesome.

Hotel Tadoussac1-800-463-5250. For the Saguenay fjord. Auberge Port-Menier(418) 535-0122. For Anticosti Island. Auberge La Cache(418) 726-3347. For Natashquan. Gîte La Bécassine(418) 949-2434. For Mingan-Longue-Pointe Phare de Pointe-des-Monts (418) 939-2332 Guide Touristique Côte-Nord. An excellent guide of the area, free at tourist offices.