“My father spent seven years of his life in hospital”

A native of Rimouski, the explorer Bernard Woyer achieved many achievements, crossing the North Pole and the South Pole, climbing Everest, and not forgetting the world tour through the highest peaks.

However, he always refused to visit Île Saint-Barnabé, opposite Rimouski, which he believed was full of hidden treasures. To this day, he has never seen the north side of the island, even on the plane, he looks away without seeing.

Saint-Barnabe Island remained for him the first trip he could have made with his eyes closed, but he never did. This moment, he is surely enshrined in his memory.

Your parents Louis-Philippe and Claudine met in a sanatorium.

For seven years, my father was in the hospital with tuberculosis, in the same place as my mother, who had only one lung. It was the beginning of a long relationship. Despite their respiratory problems, this did not prevent abnormal lung breathing.

On Christmas Eve, you are sitting on the steps of a cathedral.

I mean I’m five years old and it’s very hot inside. After the second of three midnight masses, my parents let me sit alone on the cathedral steps for a few minutes to cool off in the strong wind. This tradition continued for many years.

Summer vacations were spent at Rocher-Blanc.

My parents, my brothers, Pierre and Frédéric, my sister, Sophie, and I spent our summers on the banks of the St. Lawrence River at Rocher-Blanc, a few miles from Rimouski. Today it is a suburb of Rimouski.

Has Rocher-Blanc influenced your life choice?

No need, because the younger,…