The 430-kilometre Véloroute de la Péninsule acadienne is a new network of bike routes that criss-cross New Brunswick's Acadian peninsula.Tourism NB
My family has Acadian roots going back several generations, but today I don’t quite feel like I fit in. I’m walking through the Acadian Historical Village in Bertrand, New Brunswick, a fluorescent yellow dot moving through the sprawling recreation of rural Acadian life from 1770 to 1949.
I biked 60 kilometres in the pouring rain from the town of Paquetville to get here, thankful for my obnoxious high-visibility jacket and pants as the storm blurred the sea, sky and road into an opaque grey monochrome.
Now the downpour has quieted to a drizzle and I feel a little, well, bright as I wander from the old general store to the cod-drying shack, the forge, and in and out of homes of generations past. I swear the barkeep in the dusty, low-lit tavern shields his eyes as I walk through the door.
I’m on the Acadian peninsula for a five-day, 430-kilometre tour on the Véloroute de la Péninsule acadienne, a new network of bike routes that criss-cross the region.
The Chateau Albert in Acadian Historical Village in Bertrand. The site recreates rural Acadian life from 1770 to 1949.Tourism NB
The Acadian peninsula is located in the northeastern section of New Brunswick. It’s been the heartland of Acadian culture for more than 400 years, home to descendants of French settlers who survived the Great Upheaval of the mid-18th century when the British forcibly removed thousands of Acadians from their homes.
I’ve been looking forward to exploring the area at the speed of a bike, happy for the chance to steep in a side of my heritage that often feels too remote, rich and alive here but existing on the margins of mainstream Canadian culture.
The chance for immersive discovery is exactly what the creators of the Véloroute had in mind. “We want to build a tourism industry around the Véloroute that will make cyclists want to stay for a few days to take in the sights, the culture, the food,” says Serge Dugas, co-founder and executive director of the Véloroute. “We want to give people a reason to slow down and really discover the area.”
Most of the Véloroute runs on quiet country roads or main roads with wide, paved shoulders. The crown jewel is a 70-kilometre paved off-road trail that runs on an old rail corridor between the towns of Bertrand, Caraquet, Lamèque, Shippagan and Tracadie. Dugas and colleagues have mapped 22 itineraries that give cyclists a chance to explore different parts of the peninsula and encounter rustic lighthouses and churches, expansive beaches, working harbours, oyster farms and Acadian communities.
The Miscou Island Lighthouse marks the eastern tip of the peninsula.Tourism NB
Signs provide helpful directions to cyclists travelling the Véloroute Péninsule Acadienne.Matt Hewitson/Tourism NB
I began my journey in Neguac, the official starting point of the Véloroute, and spent two days heading northeast on heavily treed and moose-trodden inland roads, stopping in Saint-Isidore and Paquetville for guédilles (lobster rolls), pets de soeurs (“nun farts” – a dessert made from leftover pie dough, butter and sugar), and soft serve at family restaurants that hum with conversations in the chiac dialect, a flowing and sometimes rowdy jig between French and English in which French leads the dance.
Most of the people I met in my first couple of days were in their 60s and 70s. The peninsula’s population has been declining in recent years as boomers age and younger generations choose bigger urban centres. The more ground I covered, the more it felt like Acadian culture is at once deep-rooted and also shifting and changing. It’s the thought I carried with me as I walked into the Acadian Historical Village.
“Hey!” The greeting makes me jump. I whirl around to see the village blacksmith running up to me in his wool cap and suspenders, hammer in hand. “Did you come here on the Véloroute?” he asks, morphing from a 19th-century iron worker into a present-day cycling enthusiast. I nod and smile. “Isn’t it great?” he beams. “It’s always the south of the province that gets everything but this time we got it!”
The Véloroute was inaugurated in 2019 with funding from the province, the Congrès mondial Acadien (Acadian World Congress) and private donations. It was a major win for the area. Dugas and others note that investment in economic and tourist development has been slow to flow. They’re trying to show that when you build it, people really do come. Dugas and team counted 80,000 Véloroute uses in 2021, up from 60,000 in 2020. And last year, The Amazing Race Canada contestants raced through the Acadian Historical Village and nearby towns.
“It’s impressive how many people are using the Véloroute,” says Daniel Landry, a Caraquet resident and cyclist. “The Véloroute is the best thing to happen to the area since the Village Historique Acadien. I’ve met Quebeckers, Ontarians, Americans, Europeans on the trail.”
On day three, I pedal along the shore of Chaleur Bay and into Caraquet and its Quai des Artistes, which is dotted with colourful shops, restaurants, bars and art installations. I grab a pint of Lady Chaga IPA from Bar La Chope, and take in the Les sentinelles, an exhibit of brightly painted wooden seagulls designed by different area artists.
Caraquet is the peninsula’s cultural capital and makes a good home base for day expeditions east to Lamèque and Miscou Islands. That’s where I go on day four, riding on rural roads where almost every house proudly flies the Acadian flag – it’s blue, white and red vertical bars lit up by the yellow Acadian star, there to seek protection from the Virgin Mary, patron saint of the Acadians.
Dishes from Pinokkio, in Shippagan, N.B. The region's restaurants tap into its wealth of foods from the sea.Tourism NB
I cap off my 70-kilometre ride to the Miscou Lighthouse, one of the oldest in the province, with a soak at Miscou Beach and a heaping plate of scallops at La Terrasse à Steve – which, as far as I can tell, is in fact owned by a guy named Steve – while listening to Acadian singer-songwriter Lisa Leblanc’s Polaris Prize–winning album, Chiac Disco, one of a handful of artists who are bringing Acadian culture to the rest of Canada.
It feels like everyone is on a first-name basis here on the peninsula. Many of the same fishing and farming families have been living here for generations. But just as some aspects of Acadian culture are seeping through the cracks of mainstream Anglo-Canadian culture, there are changes happening on the peninsula as well.
Cielo’s four-season glamping domes are attracting a younger set of vacationers to its seaside location.Tourism NB
Shippagan, a thriving peat moss and seafood production centre, elected New Brunswick’s first Black mayor, Kassim Doumbia, a native of the Ivory Coast, in 2021. The town has also been drawing in more and more international students and workers.
Nearby, Cielo’s four-season glamping domes are attracting a younger set of vacationers to its seaside location. In Paquetville, home of singer-songwriter and Acadian icon Édith Butler, the Roy family is brewing and distilling everything from that Lady Chaga IPA I had in Caraquet to absinthe and rum made from N.B. molasses at their Distillerie Les Fils du Roy, creating new employment opportunities and giving tourists a reason to stop and visit.
Even in imagining their future, Acadians are always trying to maintain a connection to their past.
As I pedal back into Neguac, I think Dugas is right: learning about the ways Acadian culture is cherished and celebrated on the peninsula – and also how it’s changing – is best experienced at the speed of two wheels.
If you go
Plan to visit between June to September. The Festival Acadien de Caraquet happens in early August each year. Bring your own bike if you are cycling for several days. Day rentals are available in Caraquet, Bertrand and Tracadie.
There are several modest motels, bed and breakfasts and campsites. In Shippagan, try the Cielo – Glamping Maritime, which immerses visitors in nature in its four-season dome tents. In Tracadie-Sheila, try the Centre de Villégiature Deux Rivières Resort.
The writer travelled as a guest of Tourism New Brunswick. The agency did not review or approve the story before publication.
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