His storm carried him: a brand was found 800 kilometers away

Eight year old boy It was discovered last month on a beach in Chandler, in the Gaspésie, brand Confiturerie Tejedo from the Île d’Orléans who was swept away by the violent storm that hit Quebec last December.

This poster was transported across the St. Lawrence River for about nine months, then made a long journey of about 800 kilometers, depending on bad weather, before it was found by Thalia Pinot and her son Alec in September.

The approximate path taken by the brand

M^I Pinot was able to decipher the inscription on the label, which was slightly damaged during its journey.

The head of the jam factory, Vincent Paris, was surprised when the good Samaritan told him the news.

“I was really happy because it’s more than just a brand. When we started ten years ago, we didn’t give much of our skin. This sign is actually a symbol of our persistence and belief in our dreams,” explains the man who founded the jam factory in 2013.

The original sign for Confiturerie Tigidou before it was washed away by a storm in December.

Photo by Genevieve Lesieur

Adventure is timeless

Some time after the discovery, young Alec’s grandfather, Jean-Marie Pinot, was responsible for making the round trip from Lac-Beauport to hand-deliver the signal to Vincent Paris.

“The brand has come a long way and is really impressive. It could have ended up somewhere else or been in pieces, but it’s still there and I was happy to be able to return it to its owner,” he says.

Now that his label has returned home, the master jam maker plans to display it inside the store to tell visitors about this unique adventure.

“It’s important to explain to people the full story behind this sign, so it can be displayed in the store, and this time we’ll make sure it no longer moves,” Mr Paris explains.

The story is repeated

In 2020, a poster belonging to the Au jardin de mon père camp in La Baie in Saguenay was found on a beach in Percé, in Gaspésie.

During the historic flood of 1996, the overflow of the Rivière-à-Mars River caused severe damage to the camp site.

The most plausible hypothesis is that the mark was brought by water to Gaspésie, a journey of just over 650 kilometers and thus may have taken 24 years.