Those who think that small town and rural life in North America is a little rough around the edges, lacking the finer things in life perhaps, have never journeyed up the St. Lawrence River east of Quebec City, where the scenery is pastoral, the lifestyle genial and urbane. The Charlevoix region is the kind of place where visiting queer couples might find themselves nurturing fantasies of opening a boutique selling handcrafted chocolates or launching a made-for-Instagram guesthouse, though they’d also resolve to close early on Fridays for long walks along the sandy shores of the St. Lawrence, followed by a custom cocktail, made with local ingredients, at a cosy watering hole.
Just an hour and a half drive east of the Quebec capital, Baie-Saint-Paul, population 7,744, is the epitome of a huggable town in the Charlevoix region, which is known for its whale watching, skiing, culinary scene and serene views of the St. Lawrence River. The river is about a half hour stroll from downtown following the smaller Gouffre River. BSP has had an artsy bent since the 1800s, but that reputation was driven home when the troupe that grew to be the live-performance empire Cirque du Soleil began here in the early 1980s, when a group of jugglers, dancers, fire breathers and musicians joined in with a local festival. BSP learned a big lesson as the birthplace of Cirque du Soleil: there’s value in being ingeniously quirky. There’s never a reason, really, to not throw an unexpected ingredient into a recipe or paint a windowframe a vivid colour.
The Cirque du Soleil heritage has left some other marks on BSP and the surrounding Charlevoix region. Cirque co-founder Daniel Gauthier was the brains behind the early 2000s redevelopment of Le Massif de Charlevoix, a ski resort just outside BSP, which underwent a further $230 million redevelopment in 2013. Meanwhile, Gauthier and fellow Cirque co-founder (and famed billionaire and poker player) Guy Laliberté launched another resort complex that, after a change of ownership, was rebranded in 2015 as the Hotel & Spa Le Germain Charlevoix (50 Rue de la Ferme, Baie-Saint-Paul). The hotel sits just outside the BSP train station, the end of the line for the 70-kilometre journey from the outskirts of Quebec City. Sadly, the route, which had been managed by Le Massif, shut down in December 2024, although the community is looking for ways to reboot the service.
But it’s not just Cirque money that’s helped build Charlevoix’s reputation as a cool place to commune with nature, enjoy winter sports and nibble on artisanal crudités. Club Med (1 rue de la Montagne-Secrète, Petite-Rivière-Saint-François) opened its first North American mountain resort here in 2021. BSP is also known for the surprisingly large music festival Le Festif!, which will next showcase local and international talent in many genres of music in its 16th edition July 17 to 20, 2025.
Those familiar with Québécois culture know that it can be flamboyant without being queer, and as over-the-top as Cirque can be, it’s worth noting that Gauthier, Laliberté and the third founder, Gilles Ste-Croix, are straight dudes. But they’re cool straight dudes, and Quebeckers remain some of the most relaxed people in North America when it comes to sexual orientation and flexible definitions of family, though research indicates the province has the lowest proportion of people who identify as nonbinary.
Certainly there are fewer rainbow flags in the Quebec countryside than you’d see in the LGBTQ2S+ mecca of Montreal. But that low-key visibility seems to be merely a sign of how well integrated the queer community is here, how widely LGBTQ2S+-friendly most of the region is. Twinkly, butch and gender nonconforming servers can be spotted at Charlevoix’s eateries, bars and boutiques. The region is home to an active Pride organization that hosts festivities each May (2025 details TBA). With their toques, flannel and an abundance of beards, many straight Charlevoix residents would pass as queer urban hipsters.
Hotel & Spa Le Germain Charlevoix, the largest hotel in BSP proper, seems to be sitting in the middle of fields between Baie-Saint-Paul and the Charlevoix mountains. Indeed, the property was once a historic farm, and the hotel’s arrangement of modern buildings echoes what was there before. Le Germain also has its own farm for growing ingredients for its kitchens, as well as cows, chickens and other farm animals that seem not to mind hanging out with humans. (The image of a big-horned Highland bull is on some of the hotel’s merch.) The architectural vibe is a modern take on rustic: rocking chairs and wooden beams softening the hard-edged energy-efficient architecture. The indoor-outdoor spa area has a view of the little farm and the surrounding fields and the mountains beyond—it’s a place that feels far from civilization, yet it’s not wilderness, either.
From the hotel and train station, it’s a short walk to downtown BSP, the silver steeple of the Église de Baie-Saint-Paul peaking up beyond trees and cute homes and commercial spaces, some of them brick, some wood. Rounding the property of the church, visitors arrive on Rue St. Jean Baptiste, BSP’s main commercial drag. The pageant of artisanal food and beverages is interrupted only by boutiques selling art and tchotchkes. How idiosyncratic does it get? There are Canadian towns the size of BSP that can’t sustain a Tim Hortons. Some can manage a microbrewery. But BSP’s Hydromel Charlevoix (49 Rue St. Jean Baptiste, Baie-Saint-Paul), produces wines and spirits made from local honey, flavoured with regional fruits and herbs. Yes, that medieval favourite, mead. But of course, there’s a microbrewery, too, at Le Saint-Pub (2 Rue Racine, Baie-Saint-Paul). A local told me that several of the cute businesses are run by same-gender couples, but I couldn’t verify that any of them were out, so I was left guessing what was LGBTQ2S+-run and what was simply adorable.
Aside from the private galleries selling art that’s perfect for the den, there’s the Baie-Saint-Paul Museum of Contemporary Art (23 Rue Ambroise Fafard, Baie-Saint-Paul), which shows works from its permanent collection as well as special exhibitions that are more cutting edge.
Charlevoix proves that sophisticated and thought-out doesn’t always mean urbane. The restaurant Faux Bergers (1339 Boulevard Mgr de Laval, Baie-Saint-Paul), “False shepherds,” is as rustic as it gets, its dining room resembling a farmhouse kitchen. Each dish of the seven-course tasting menu is served to the whole dining room at the same time, and introduced by a host who shares stories and musings about the local ingredients and their twists on traditional recipes. So there’s chatter, then a little speech, then silence as everyone simultaneously digs into that night’s seasonal surprises. The night I went, one of the head chefs, Sylvain Dervieux, had the night off to dine with his family, who were visiting from France. Dervieux was dressed so casual, a diner could have mistaken him for a farm hand.
Travellers who prefer rugged to cute can head northeast out of BSP, to La Malbaie, near the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord, aka Rivière Saguenay. The intersection of the Saguenay and the St. Lawrence is an ideal feeding ground for whales and other aquatic species, making the area world famous for whale watching. We hopped on one of the multi-deck vessels of Croisières AML (159 QC-138, Baie-Sainte-Catherine) to do some whale spotting. Though larger-boat cruises take longer than the Zodiac cruises, they are warmer and drier. All cruises have to follow strict rules about keeping their distance from the whales and not following them (it’s apparently easy to distract them from what they should be doing), so one mode can’t promise better views than another. In fact, it’s possible to spot whales from the cliffs of Pointe-Noire Interpretation and Observation Centre, partway between the cruise dock and the ferry across the Saguenay to Tadoussac.
That far east, the St. Lawrence River seems more like a sea than a river, and the natural beauty can feel like a visitor has arrived at the edge of the known world. But never fear. With St. Lawrence’s history as the entrypoint to the heart of North America—a water artery of colonialism, commerce and transportation for hundreds of years—there’s always comfort nearby. A short drive from the Saguenay is the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu (181 Rue Richelieu, La Malbaie), a grand dame of a hotel, built at the end of the 19th century in traditional French-chateau style. With stellar views of the St. Lawrence out front and a 27-hole golf course in its backyard, Le Manoir Richelieu is a local landmark, worth stopping by for a drink if not a stay.
Miss the sound of traffic and the flicker of streetlights? Quebec City, about an hour and a half away, doesn’t have much urban chaos—it’s too charming for that. (Read our guide to Quebec City here.) But it does have more LGBTQ2S+-oriented stuff to do and an international airport, so it pairs very well with Charlevoix. The super gay city of Montreal is about a four-and-a-half-hour drive away.
The writer was a guest of Bonjour Québec; the hosts of the trip did not direct or review coverage. The views expressed are the writer’s own.
