Grosse Ile Travel Guide

Welcome to Grosse Ile!

Out of all of the Îles de la Madeleine, Grosse Île is said to have remained truest to its original form. A large part of its landscape is protected by the East Point Wildlife Reserve, where 684 hectares (1,690 acres) of the singular vegetation, wildlife, limestone cliffs and white beaches characteristic of the islands are accessible by interpretive nature trails. Beneath the surface, extensive salt deposits are currently being mined as one of Grosse Île's major economic resources, assets of which are supplemented by the catches of local fishermen, often descendants of original settlers from Scotland.

Winds have whipped the Dune du Nord's sands into a series of hills rooted with delicate grasses leading southward to the tiny Pointe-aux-Loups. The now uninhabited Île Brion, the first of the islands to be spotted by Jacques Cartier in 1534, is located north of Grosse Île, and has been an important ecological reserve since 1993. The nearby rocky Rocher aux Oiseaux is another solitary island, and is a significant breeding ground for more than a dozen species of seabirds.