The Gilles Villeneuve Museum in the F1 driver’s home town of Berthierville has received almost 300,000 visitors since it opened in 1988. Pictured here with a 2019 Nissan Pathfinder. Story and photos by Sarah Staples, Insta: @itravelnwriteSarah Staples Skiers are finishing their last runs of the afternoon when my husband calls to say his flight to Mont Tremblant International Airport has touched down. I’ve driven up with the kids from Montreal, and we meet in the pedestrian square of Tremblant, an all-season sun/ski resort in Quebec’s Laurentian Highlands. I’ve organized a Gilles Villeneuve Tribute Road Trip: we’re visiting three rural towns rich in Villeneuve lore – Mont-Tremblant, Berthierville and Trois-Rivières – on a deep-dive into the life and legend of Quebec’s Formula One hero. My ride, a 2019 Nissan Pathfinder, ticks several must-haves for family road-tripping, starting with a roomy interior to really stretch out in. Its 3-row/7-passenger configuration with a flat-floor design yields a ton of trunk space (enough to fit my two big Yeti coolers, plus duffel after duffel of clothing, outdoor layers, pillows, boots, camera gear, you name it). In mid-April, the weather’s warm yet there’s still plenty of snow. It’s nearly après-ski hour so we join the crowds clicking out of bindings and filling outdoor patios of the resort’s restaurants and bars. Classic rock pipes from loudspeakers, and families lounge on Muskoka chairs in the sunshine. It’s a perfect time for a relaxed ski vacation – and motorsport fans will appreciate the area’s rich racing history and events. But of course, every winter trip to Tremblant starts with skiing or snowboarding in mind. At Snow School early Saturday morning, Louise Dalbec, our instructor, takes it slowly and patiently. I haven’t skied since I was a kid and it’s my children’s first lesson. In just two hours, my 10-year-old, Tyler, feels ready to leave the bunny hills so we head up to the Nansen, Tremblant’s longest and oldest run, open since 1938. He’s tentative at first, falls a bit, but quickly gains confidence. A light snow is falling, too, licking our faces. My son is having a blast on the first ski day of his life and I get to share that memory with him. Priceless. Sunday, our family takes a guided snowmobile tour along Le P’tit Train du Nord, an old network of train tracks whose rail ties were removed, converting it into 232-km of all-season trails. Snowmobiling was invented in Quebec, and in the early 1970s, Gilles Villeneuve was winning races across North America. One of his sleds, a red, souped-up Alouette, was painted lucky Number 13 like his Ferrari would be. With each win, he’d earn enough prize and sponsorship money to sign up for the next race – Villeneuve was truly betting on himself with every chip he had to pursue his passion for speed. He’d later credit his preternatural car-control skills to those early years cornering on ice at 115 km/h. Monday morning, it’s time to load up again. The 2019 Pathfinder is fully kitted out with conveniences to make long drives more enjoyable – like a remote starter that can be activated by mobile app or smartwatch, and a nifty button on the driver-side door handle that locks the vehicle so you don’t need to fumble for a key-fob. It takes no time or effort to sync my smartphone to a well-equipped infotainment console. There’s also iPod integration, and six standard USB type-C and type-A ports in various locations. This mid-size crossover yields the spaciousness and comfort of a larger SUV – yet for all its size, it’s still remarkably easy to park. Something else I’ve noticed is smooth steering. On Mont-Tremblant’s hilly, winding roads, it proves crisp and highly responsive. There’s no chasing the turn with this Pathfinder. We drive past Circuit Mont-Tremblant – where Villeneuve earned his road-racing license and entered Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic series events – on the way to Berthierville, population 4,700, where the racer grew up. It’s the location of the Gilles Villeneuve Museum, which opened six years after his death on May 8, 1982, during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. “We wanted his museum to be simple, like Gilles was,” explains director-general Alain Bellehumeur, and indeed, the collection feels very intimate. Along with Villeneuve’s snowmobiles and early race cars, there are oil-stained racing gloves, hand-painted helmets and rare posters, family and trackside photos, and dozens of trophies on display. The museum has welcomed 300,000 visitors from at least 30 countries, and a $750,000 expansion is planned to accommodate more memorabilia that fans and family members have been dropping off for years. Once, a Ferrari mechanic came and pointed to himself in a rare photo taken with Villeneuve in the pits at Zolder. The Quebecer would die moments later after colliding with Jochen Mass’s car at 225 km/h. Bellehumeur’s favourite museum pieces include an F1 trophy used as a
Origin: Road Trip: Touring Quebec ski country in a Nissan Pathfinder