Paspébiac

Paspébiac stands on Chaleur Bay, where a long sandbar shelters a harbour and provides beaches for drying fish. Its shores became a centre of the cod trade linking the Gaspé coast to markets across the Atlantic. The fishing bank offered both a protected anchorage and space to cure the catch brought in from the gulf.

In 1766 Charles Robin, a merchant from Jersey in the Channel Islands, surveyed the bay and chose Paspébiac for a fishing post. The following year he erected a dwelling and store; after the interruption caused by war, he returned in 1783 to direct a new company. By the early nineteenth century the Robin establishment included warehouses, workshops and a wharf, supporting the preparation and export of dried cod.