Les Éboulements

Les Éboulements is a municipality in the Capitale-Nationale region of Quebec, Canada.Its population centres include Les Éboulements (located along Route 362 on the plateau overlooking the Saint Lawrence River), Éboulements-Est (at the feet of Mount Éboulements), Cap-aux-Oies, Sainte-Marie-de-Charlevoix, and Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive. Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive, formerly known as Les Éboulements-en-Bas and Quai-des-Éboulements, is the departure point for ferries to L'Isle-aux-Coudres.The municipality is member of the Association of Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec due to its country heritage and to the beautiful architecture and character of its houses.GeographyLes Éboulements is located in the centre of the Charlevoix crater. Mount Éboulements (Mont des Éboulements), in the eastern part of the municipality, is considered the central rebound of the earth's crust following moments after the meteor impact some 350 million years ago. This mountain, appearing on a map in 1837 by H. W. Bayfield as "Mt Eboulemens", has an altitude of 770m.Rivers within the municipality include the Boudreault and Seigneur Rivers, both small tributaries of the Saint Lawrence River.HistoryIn February 1663, a strong earthquake shook the Charlevoix region and triggered a large landslide down the slopes that characterize the hills of the area to the Saint Lawrence coast. Among the many eyewitnesses that testified to the significance of the event, priest Lalement wrote: "near the Bay called St. Paul, there was a small mountain alongside the river, a quarter of a league in circumference, which was abyssed, and as if it had not done that dive, it came out of the bottom to change into an islet." Thereafter the area was known as les Éboulements (French for "the landslides").