The Old Road/ Le Vieux Chemin [English]

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Following the edge of the Gaspé Peninsula, Route 6, known as “the Old Road” (1925–1929), was built to accommodate the growing use of automobiles¹ and provide the peninsula with an opportunity for economic development tied to the advent of mass tourism. This road, which ran along the coastline, was replaced by Route 132—not quite as picturesque, but more direct². In Shigawake, there are at least two sections of the old road remaining. Memories persist, like the houses that were moved to make way for the new road: “My vines were still attached to the house, and they survived.”³ We took an excavator to the landscape; life took root again in efficiency; the view remains in some memories. Efficiency cannot erase poetry: “I heard it through the grapevine.”

DÉCOUVRIR > tous les lieux-dits de cette ville

AUDIO

Interview with Lois Hayes, April 9, 2025.

Walking along the Old Road to get to school and church.

Interview with Shelly Duguay and Freda Huntington, April 8, 2025.

Possibility of leaving the old paving stones in front of the house.

Who moved when the new road was built?

[FRENCH] Interview with Joël Parisé, April 7, 2025.

The efficiency of the new road and its symbolic significance.

NOTES

¹ Musées numériques Canada, « Construire un réseau routier pour favoriser le tourisme », Histoires de chez nous, accessed on January 26, 2026, histoiresdecheznous.ca/v2/tour-de-la-gaspesie-90ans-decouverte_90years-discovery/histoire/construire-un-reseau-routier-pour-developper-le-tourisme/.

² Joël Parisé, story collected by the artist, April 7, 2025.

³ Lois Hayes, story collected by the artist, April 9, 2025.

IMAGES

1. to 5. Archives of Gloria Hayes.