La chasse galerie: Légendes Canadiennes

In the frozen depths of a 1858 logging camp along the Saint‑Lawrence, a ragged handful of workers huddle around a crackling pine fire. The air is thick with pipe smoke, cheap rum, and the scent of simmering molasses, while snow piles high on the cabin roof. Their burly cook, a twenty‑year veteran known as “the hunchback,” spins tales that blend gruff humor with the fierce superstition of the woodsmen.

When midnight strikes, the men speak of a daring, forbidden venture: a night‑long journey in a hollow bark canoe, propelled not by oars but by a pact with the devil himself. They hope the cursed flight will carry them across the icy rivers to Lavaltrie, where each longing heart awaits a beloved. The story captures the raw camaraderie, the lure of folklore, and the thin line the laborers walk between survival and the supernatural.