Six Star Magazine Six Star Magazine Fall 2018 | Page 15

if there is a problem. Over the next 45 minutes or so, my
daughter checks in an average of once every minute. (Yes,
she’s garrulous.) “No problems,” she reports. “Lots of trees
and birds.”
establishing a beachhead for New France.
An hour after they return, while we’re at the pool, three
black bears, a mother and her two cubs, roam across our
campsite. We only discover this when our neighbours at the
park show us a video of the incident later. Then and there,
my wife and I agree to rethink a few of our more laissez-
faire parenting strategies. We determine that stories of young
children walking alone in a forest full of bears would not go
over well at the next PTA meeting. The origin of the word “Gaspé” is disputed. Studies have
traced it to the Mi’kmaq, a First Nations people who inhabited
our Atlantic Provinces, including the Gaspé Peninsula, as
well as the northeastern region of Maine. In this version, the
word means “gathering place”, according to scholars. Others
claim it’s a translation of the Basque word Geizpe, meaning
“shelter” or “place of refuge,” which follows, given that the
town of Gaspé is in a natural harbour. Still others believe
that the word is a deformed version of the first name of the
Portuguese explorer Gaspar de Corte-Real, who explored
nearby Labrador in 1500.
Close calls with wildlife confined to the rearview mirror,
we set out for the next stop on our road trip, the town of
Gaspé itself, the putative landing place of French explorer
Jacques Cartier. It’s said that, in 1534, Cartier planted a
cross at the mouth of Gaspé Bay, claiming the land for
his king and country. Within a year, Cartier was back and
travelling all the way up the St. Lawrence River, eventually
landing at Hochelaga (now known as Montréal) and We arrive in Gaspé during one of the town’s many music
festivals. In one crowded and boisterous street, I strike up
a conversation with an older, English-speaking woman.
Her family had resided in the town since the 18th century,
remnants of the settlers left there by James Wolfe after he
arrived on the coast in 1758. Wolfe allegedly sacked French
homes and sent many of the town’s early settlers back to
France. Several managed to hide in the woods, continuing
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