Grenville-sur-la-Rouge is a charming municipality nestled in the Laurentides region of Quebec, Canada. This predominantly Francophone community is strategically located along the southern border of Quebec, between Montreal and Ottawa. With a population of just over 2,800, most residents enjoy a tranquil rural setting, with the villages of Calumet and Pointe-au-Chêne housing under 1,000 residents in total.
Grenville-sur-la-Rouge stretches along the shore of the Ottawa River and extends northward into the foothills of the Laurentian Mountains. The neighboring village of Grenville is located on the Ottawa River. The territory of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge encompasses several smaller neighborhoods and communities, including Avoca, Bell Falls, Grenville Bay, Kilmar, Marelan, and Pointe-au-Chêne.
Despite being settled for over 200 years, Grenville-sur-la-Rouge is a relatively new creation. It was formed in 2002 by the merger of the village municipality of Calumet with the township municipality of Grenville. Each of the two components, Calumet and Grenville, acquired the status of boroughs within the new municipality.
The name "Grenville" is a tribute to William Wyndham Grenville, a British statesman who served briefly as British prime minister (1806–1807). The Grenville Canal, built by the military to bypass a series of rapids in the Ottawa River, and the settlement that arose in the region were named in Lord Grenville's honor. The name "Rouge" derives from the municipality's location on the Rouge River, which runs from north to south roughly through the center of the municipality. In English, Grenville-sur-la-Rouge means "Grenville-on-the-Rouge".
In April 2019, record high water levels on the Rouge River led authorities to order evacuation of parts of the community as a precaution in case the Bell Falls, or Chute-Bell, hydroelectric dam collapsed. In 2021, the mayor of Grenville renewed calls for a beaver cull after nearly 200 beaver dams caused extensive flooding.
The community is linguistically diverse, with 34% of residents speaking English as a first language, 64% speaking French, and 1.5% speaking other languages. The population density is 8.5 people per square km. The religious affiliation is predominantly Catholic (62.9%), followed by Protestant (26.2%), with 9.7% of residents having no religious affiliation.
Route 148 and Route 344 are east–west highways that traverse the southern region of the municipality. Autoroute 50, another east–west highway, has three interchanges in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge. The primary north–south access roads are the Rouge River Road, the Scotch Road, and Avoca Road. These secondary roads provide access to the communities of Avoca, Kilmar, and Bell Falls.
In the late 1960s, Alfred Joseph Casson, a member of the famous Group of Seven, spent some time in what is now known as Grenville-sur-la-Rouge capturing the beautiful scenery on the lower Ottawa Valley. Casson's paintings from the region include "Rain at Grenville, Quebec" (1967), "Grenville, Quebec" (1968), and "Farm Near Grenville, Quebec", which sold for $106,000 CAD in 2005.
