There they are, one in front of the other. One is human, the other plant. This is THE meeting between the botanist, Brother Marie-Victorin and the Mingan thistle, a rare and threatened species.

The plant was there, isolated from everything, dancing in the coastal winds on sunny days, vulnerable to the threat of powerful waves on stormy days. Its journey, along the glaciers of western Canada to northern Quebec, 10,000 years ago, is a technical and botanical feat. The thistle held on until the day the stubborn and hardened botanist reached it, in 1924. As if the Brother knew that by venturing into uncharted territory, the improbable would happen. A meeting as mythical as it was historic! Their destinies will be forever linked by the richness of a territory, the Mingan Archipelago, and the aridity of a shortened life.

The parallel between the lives of these two beings is striking. The thistle will develop for 9 years. It will produce a unique and spectacular flowering. Weakened, the plant will die afterwards! The botanist will have lived only 59 years. Who knows how many other plants wanted him to come to them?

Thanks to the botanist, the survival of Cirsium scariosum, the Latin name he gave it, is now in good hands. Its reintroduction is progressive and strewn with obstacles, but the Brother watches over the colony! He is there, pushing with all his strength, sowing his fruits here and there. Our botanist, synonymous with floral freshness, will glide over your body, reminding you that every trickle of water has its path. At the crossroads of these two existences, a nursery for Life is born!