Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-de-Pointe-Navarre
In a peaceful setting several kilometres (miles) outside the town centre, Our Lady of Pointe-Navarre has been a place of retreat and pilgrimage for the local Catholic community since its founding in 1940 by Father Jean-Marie Watier. The complex consists of a spacious church building that's replete with breathtaking works of religious art and hosts novena recitals, personal visitations, and a Tuesday evening Mass every week at 7PM; the smaller Chapel of Remembrance, open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for private prayer and meditation at the site of Father Watier's tomb; and a verdant hillside hermitage out back whose pleasant paths and grottoes offer a peaceful setting for spiritual reflection (not to mention spectacular views over Gaspé Bay). Website in French only.
Church open daily 8AM-7PM; gift shop Mon-Sat 9AM-4:30P & Sun 1PM-4PM
Site d'interprétation micmac de Gespeg
The Gespeg Mi'kmaq Interpretive Site's goal is to expose visitors to the culture of the Mi'kmaq people, who inhabited the Gaspé Peninsula and adjacent lands for centuries before the arrival of Europeans, as well as chronicling more recent chapters of local First Nations history since the 17th century. Volunteers are on hand to lead folks on guided tours through a reconstructed village, interpretive exhibits and artifacts detail Mi'kmaq history, cosmology, and everyday life, and there's even a display of medicinal herbs and plants used in traditional Mi'kmaq culture. As well, in the gift shop you'll find a range of authentic handicrafts produced by local artisans.
Daily 9AM-5PM, mid-Jun through mid-Oct·$11, seniors (65+) $9.50, children 7-15 and students with ID $8.50, children 6 and under free, $32 for families of two adults and two children
Cathédrale du Christ-Roi
The only wood-framed Roman Catholic cathedral in North America, Christ the King Cathedral is the seat of the Diocese of Gaspé, whose territory covers most of the peninsula. Erected in 1969, this is the third church to be situated on this site; its striking design — wherein the fundamentals of traditional Christian religious architecture are totally subverted and reinvented along modernist lines — is the handiwork of Montreal-based architect Gérard Notebaert, working here in the "Shed Style" that had been pioneered only a few years earlier by Charles Moore with his Sea Ranch condominium community on the North Coast of California. Faced monochromatically in glue-laminated slats of red cedar, the sleek lines and angular geometric forms of this vaguely boat-shaped building certainly set it apart from the prototypical Gaspesian church. The interior is no less impressive, austere yet handsome and lit by a quintet of glass skylights built into the slopes of the roof. Bishop Gaétan Proulx delivers the Sunday Mass weekly at 11AM.
You'll find books of all kinds, on all subjects, and for all age levels on the shelves at this über-friendly independent bookstore in downtown Gaspé — but, being a proud member of the Quebec Bookstore Association (Association des librairies du Québec), those in search of works by local authors speaking from local perspectives can be assured they'll find more than their share of options here. Librairie Alpha also has a good selection of board games. Website in French only.
Mon-Wed 9AM-5:30PM, Thu-Fri 9AM-9PM, Sat 9AM-5PM, Sun noon-5PM