L'Étape (English: ''The Halt'') is a

rest area A rest area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a motorway, expressway, or highway, at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary roads. Other names include motorway servi ...

and a

campground A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for camping, overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight u ...

located on route 175 at km 135, on the shores on

Jacques-Cartier Lake The lac Jacques-Cartier, main source of the Jacques-Cartier River, is a glacial lake located in the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve, about 90 km to the north of the city of Quebec, in the unorganized territory of Lac-Jacques-Cartier, in the La ...

, halfway between

Québec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is the ...

and Saguenay. In the heart of the

Laurentides Wildlife Reserve Réserve faunique des Laurentides (), also known by its former name of parc des Laurentides, is a wildlife reserve in Quebec, Canada, located between Quebec City and the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region. This reserve is part of the network of ...

, where about 1.7 million pass through on a yearly basis.

History

A first relay was built on this location in 1869. It was at that time only a wooden shack containing a bread oven. This type of relay was frequent in the region. Between the two world wars, L'Étape became the end of road 54 (now road 175) and a forest protection outpost was installed there. In 1951, the road was completed to Saguenay and the

Quebec Government Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

decided to build a hostel, a restaurant and a gas station to provide services to motorists and promote sport fishing the area. The hostel was later demolished in 1973 but the restaurant and gas station remain in operation to this day. In 1967, the Notre-Dame-de-L'Assomption chapel open its registers only to be abandoned shortly after in 1989. L'Étape was completely burned down by a violent fire on 5 September 2003. Following the disaster, it was replaced by small

dépanneur A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

and rebuilt anew in 2006. On the night of 12 December 2007, the gas station was entirely destroyed by a fire. The main building housing the restaurant was not affected.

Today

Currently, l'Étape provides motorists with such services as a restaurant, a depanneur, a

Petro-Canada Petro-Canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, with Suncor shareholders rece ...

gas station that offers towing and boarding for workers. During the summer and fall season, the Sépaq's

La Loutre registration center and campground is opened to visitors. Tesla plans to build a

Supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

station in 2020.

Climate

Due to the high elevation, L'Étape experiences a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Dfc'') with long, snowy winters and short summers. Since 1993, temperatures have ranged from on 2 July 2002 to on 4 February 1996. The weather station is located at an elevation of .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:L'Etape, Quebec Rest areas in Canada Campsites in Canada Laurentides Wildlife Reserve