Port au Choix

We returned to the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast and proceeded towards Port au Choix.

There was so much to see in this area that we decided to stay for a couple of days.

You follow the road with the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the drivers side providing great photo opportunities.

Our first stop was Point Rich Lighthouse where a resident herd of Caribou is know to roam the area.

Port au Choix is regarded as one of the richest archeological finds in North America. Burial sites uncovered in the town provide evidence of its earliest settlers – from the Maritime Archaic Indians to the Groswater and Dorset Palaeo-Eskimos to the Recent Indians, ancestors of the Beothuks.

Next to the lighthouse there is a monument called the Dorset Doorway. It a a sculpture representing an artistic conception of a Dorset house. The arches represent the whale ribs used as framing that were covered with seal skins protecting the interior part of the house.

The fog would come and go and highlighted the importance of the lighthouse used for navigation in the area.

Permanent settlement by Europeans in the town of Port au Choix was prohibited under the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. France was given exclusive rights to fish in this area of Newfoundland referred to as the “French Shore”. French fishermen were allowed here to catch and dry their fish, but had to return to Europe each fall.

The nearby French Rooms Cultural Center (that was closed when we visited) and the French Bread Oven they tell the story of the French fishermen who frequented the area.

For lunch we sampled freshly baked bread from the oven, topped with local jams and served with tea.

The weather cleared and we decided to go back to the lighthouse in search of the Caribou herd.

We proceed to find a camping spot for the night since so we could return next morning to visit the Port aux Choix Visitor Center. On the left of the road I caught a glimpse of a couple of young foxes. One a red fox and the other a cross fox.