The Rivière du Petit Pré flows south, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence river, entirely in the municipality of L'Ange-Gardien, in the of La Côte-de-Beaupré Regional County Municipality, in the administrative region of Capitale-Nationale, in province of Quebec, in Canada. The lower part of this small valley is served by Avenue Royale and the route 138 which runs along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. The upper part is accessible by the Lucien-Lefrançois road. Forestry, in particular the exploitation of sugar factories, constitutes the main economic activity in this valley; agriculture second. The surface of the Petit Pré river is generally frozen from the beginning of December until the end of March; however, safe traffic on the ice is generally from mid-December to mid-March. The water level of the river varies with the seasons and the precipitation; the spring flood occurs in March or April.
Geography
The Petit Pré river originates in Lake La Retenue in the hinterland of Côte-de-Beaupré; a dam is built at its mouth. This lake has two outlets: the Petit Pré river and the outlet of the rivière la Retenue which turns out to be a tributary of the Ferrée River. From Lac la Retenue, the course of the Petit Pré river descends on, with a drop of, according to the following segments:
towards the south-east crossing an agricultural zone and a small hamlet, until the confluence of the Queen river ;
generally in the forest area south to a bend in the river, then east, crossing a small unidentified lake and the hamlet Petit-Pré. This confluence is located north of the village center of L'Ange-Gardien, of the northwest shore of Île d'Orléans and north of the bridge linking Île d'Orléans to L'Ange-Gardien. The segment of upward from the mouth, constitutes the limit of the municipalities of L'Ange-Gardien and Château-Richer.
Toponymy
This toponym has a descriptive origin, because natural meadows supplying shore hay generally encouraged the formation of the first stands on the Côte-de-Beaupré. At the beginning of the XXth century, thanks to the arrival of the railway, the agglomeration formed around the railway station which has disappeared today characterized the establishment of the current hamlet. This watercourse, identified in 1652 as "Rivière du Petit-Pré", has also been designated otherwise. In the 17th century, this watercourse was designated "Lothainville", sometimes spelled "Lotinville"; this designation evokes that in 1652 this watercourse crossed a stretch of land behind the fiefdom under the name of Lotinville or Lothainville, in memory of Isabelle Lotin, mother of the governor of Lauson. In the 20th century, part of the local population also designated this watercourse: "Rivière du Moulin" and "Rivière à Richard". The toponym "Rivière du Petit Pré" was formalized on December 5, 1968 at the Place Names Bank of the Commission de toponymie du Québec.
