EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

The south shore of the island was once the domain of sailors and navigators, with the village of ST-LAURENT being the island's supplier of "chaloupes", the long rowing boats that were the islanders' only means of getting to the mainland before the bridge was built. At the Parc maritime de St-Laurent interpretive centre , 120 chemin de la Chalouperie (May to mid-June & early Sept to mid-Oct Sat & Sun 10am-5pm; mid-June to early Sept daily 10am-5pm; $2), you can get info on attractions like La Forge à Pique-Assaut , 2200 ave Royale (June to mid-Oct daily 9am-5pm; mid-Oct to May Mon-Fri 9am-noon & 1.30-5pm; free), which features a blacksmith's shop and an eighteenth-century bellows.

ST-JEAN , on the east side of the island, was similarly nautical; the cemetery of its red-roofed local church contains gravestones of numerous mariners. In the prettiest village on the island, most of the mid-eighteenth-century mariners' homes have dormer windows and wide porches, with Victorian-inspired filigree. St-Jean's museum of antique furniture and domestic objects, housed in the stately Manoir Mauvide-Genest , 1451 Royal (tel 829-2630), has been undergoing restoration. At this one-time home of Louis XV's surgeon, the metre-thick walls withstood the impact from Wolfe's bombardment - you can still see dents in the wall. Nearby, up the hill at no. 1477, La Maison sur la Côte (tel 829-2971; $40-60) is a friendly B&B .