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Quebec's true north is a mighty, inhospitable tundra inhabited only by mining communities, groups of Inuits, and the hardy characters who staff the hydroelectric installations with which so many of the rivers are dammed. The only readily accessible region, along the north shore of the St Lawrence and its main tributary, the Saguenay, covers an area that changes from trim farmland to a seemingly never-ending forest bordering the barren seashore of the St Lawrence. Immediately northeast of Quebec City is the beautiful Charlevoix region of peaceful villages and towns that bear the marks of Quebec's rural beginnings - both in the architecture of the seigneurial regime and in the layout of the land. Often the winding highways and back roads pass through a virtually continuous village, where the only interruptions in the chain of low-slung houses are the tin-roofed churches. The beguiling hills and valleys give way to dramatic ravaged rock just beyond the Charlevoix borders, where the Saguenay River crashes into the immense fjord that opens into the St Lawrence at the resort of Tadoussac . Inland, Lac Saint-Jean - source of the Saguenay - is an oasis of fertile land in a predominantly rocky region, and its peripheral villages offer glimpses of native as well as Quebecois life. Adventurous types following the St Lawrence can head beyond Tadoussac to Havre-St-Pierre through a desolate, sparsely populated region where the original livelihoods of fishing and lumber have largely given way to ambitious mining and hydroelectric projects. The remoteness of Gulf of St Lawrence islands such as the Ile d'Anticosti and the sculptured terrain of the Mingan archipelago - a national park, well served by boats from Havre-St-Pierre - is matched by the isolation of the unmodernized fishing communities along the Lower North Shore , where no roads penetrate and visits are possible only by supply ship, plane or snowmobile.
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