Rivière-au-Tonnerre

Rivière-au-Tonnerre is a picturesque municipality of the region of Minganie, on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River, in Quebec. It is in on the Route des Baleines and the Route Nature aux mille délices (gourmet route).

It is a member of the Fédération des Villages-relais du Québec. It's a great place to just hang out and enjoy nature, especially since there's no cell reception.

Understand
The municipality of Rivière-au-Tonnerre is actually made up of two villages on the North Shore: Sheldrake and Rivière-au-Tonnerre. The place, meaning "Thunder River" is so called because of a series of waterfalls of about 50 m on a tributary of the St. Lawrence whose crash recalls the sound of thunder. Together, in 2016, the villages had a total population of less than 300 inhabitants.

History
The first settlers to settle permanently in this place arrived around 1853 or 1854 and founded Sheldrake and Rivière-au-Tonnerre as fishing villages. In 1875 more settlers arrived. They came mainly from Paspébiac in Gaspésie. In 1890, the post office opened in Rivière-au-Tonnerre, but it was called Thunder River. The name was Frenchified in 1933.

Get in
It is 1 km north of l'Île du Havre and is the closest mainland point to Anticosti by ship or aeroplane.

By bus

 * Operates a bus route several days per week between Havre-Saint-Pierre and Sept-Îles. Travel time to Havre-Saint-Pierre from Sept-Îles is 2.75 hours.

By car
The route 138 from Quebec City, Baie-Comeau and Sept-Îles, take Route 138 east; it goes directly to Rivière-au-Tonnerre. From Quebec, it is a journey of approximately nine hours (non stop) by road.

The route 172 and route 138 from Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, take route 172 east to its intersection with wheel 138 near of Tadoussac. Continue on Route 138 east to Rivière-au-Tonnerre. From city of Saguenay, it is about a 7:15 hours (non stop) drive.

Languages
According to Statistics Canada's 2011 census, 98.4% of the inhabitants of the municipality are French-speaking and 1.6% are English-speaking.

Recreational vehicles
There is a dump station for recreational vehicles on Rue du Ruisseau.

Connect
There is no cellular network in Rivière-au-Tonnerre. Nevertheless, since 2021, the municipality has set up three Wi-fi access zones: in Sheldrake (in the middle of the village), near the Saint-Hyppolite church and at the seaport. There is a telephone booth in front of the general store.