The Charlevoix district runs from Baie Ste-Paul to Tadoussac. It is all spectacular and charming and full of places to visit or just gaze upon. The guidebook's focus, however, is on the town of Malbaie and -- since the Mendel Guide's interests always emphasize architecture -- the remarkable resort homes built around Malbaie in the nineteenth and early twentieth century by wealthy Americans and English-Canadians. One regular was the historian George Wrong, who wrote a big book nearly a century ago about the Scottish-Canadian seigneurs of the region.
As it happened, the little auberge we stayed at stood in the midst of these stately mansions, and I learned a lot about them from the Mendel guide and its superb photography.
