Diversion of the main road at St-Pierre

In 1898, the citizens of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets were worried about the frequent landslides eating away at the cliff opposite the stone hotel (171 route Marie-Victorin), also known as the Windsor Hotel; on a map of 1897 one can see that the main road (today Route 132) was badly damaged and dangerous.

Faced with the urgency of the situation, the municipal council met on 28 April 1898 under the chairmanship of Mayor Rézenne Pepin; councillors Léopold Brisson, Onésime Paquin, Éloi and Jeffrey Lebeuf, together with Wilbrod Laquerre, were present; the road inspector Napoléon Tousignant explained that the properties of the navigator Joseph-Charles Marchildon and his wife Adeline Monpas, that of Télesphore Monpas (Adeline’s brother), and that of Yves de Moras would be affected by the change in the line of the road, which, instead of following the edge of the cliff, would from then on pass to the south of those houses; matters were complicated by the farm buildings, cowsheds, stables and barns that the new road would cut off from them. The detailed description of the new route can be read, running “from du poteau sud-ouest de la barrière du parterre de la propriété de Dame Adeline Monpas Marchildon, passera dans le dit parterre se dirigeant vers le coin nord-ouest de la sched à fumier…” [from the south-west post of the gate of the garden of the property of Dame Adeline Monpas Marchildon, it shall pass through the said garden heading towards the north-west corner of the manure shed]. Quite the poetry! And this poetry stretches over more than three pages!

No matter! The plan was adopted unanimously and the work scheduled for the days ahead. The costs were to be shared among all the ratepayers of the municipality, as required by the municipal code then in force. At 10 cents an hour of labour, the bill would be reasonable.

The council was then met with strong opposition from Dame Adeline Monpas, wife of J-Charles Marchildon, who asked for a change to the route so as to preserve some of her buildings; at the council sitting of 2 May, that change was accepted unanimously.

Both routes can be seen on the village maps of 1897 and 1905.

Later the road returned to its original line, through major works filling in the edge of the cliff on several occasions during the twentieth century; the authorities remain watchful, for the risk of landslides is still very real.

The diversion of the road is now no more than a memory.