Percé and Bonaventure Island

Rocher Percé is a wall of limestone standing in the sea off the Gaspé coast, some four hundred metres long and pierced by a natural arch that gives it its name, and at low tide you can walk out to its base on a sandbar. Just beyond it lies Île Bonaventure, and on the island's far cliffs sits a colony of northern gannets numbering in the tens of thousands of pairs, among the largest and by some distance the most approachable anywhere: a walking trail crosses the island and ends a few metres from the birds, with no barrier but a rope, in a wall of noise and smell. Boats circle the rock and the island before landing. The Gaspé coast around it is a long, empty and beautiful drive.

What you actually see

• Rocher Percé - the pierced limestone rock, walkable to at low tide.
• The gannet colony - tens of thousands of pairs a few metres from the trail.
• The boat circuit - the trip round the rock and island before landing.
• The Gaspé coast - the long empty drive around the peninsula.

When to go

June to September is the season, with boats running and the gannets on the cliffs; the birds arrive in spring and most leave by October, and the island closes for the winter. The colony is at its fullest and noisiest in July.

Honest expectations

It is a very long drive from Montréal, the best part of ten hours, and most people build it into a full loop of the Gaspé rather than a direct trip. Boats are cancelled in swell and fog. The colony is genuinely pungent, and the walk across the island to reach it takes about an hour each way. The rock is reached at low tide only, and people get caught out.

Nearby

Forillon National Park is an hour north; the Gaspé loop continues around the peninsula.