Petite Riviere Bridge, Nova Scotia

Petite Rivière is a rural community on Route 331 in Lunenburg County on the South Shore of Nova Scotia in Canada.

Petite Rivière's year-round population of about 200 swells during the summer when occupants of vacation houses, cottage renters, and campers arrive.

Samuel de Champlain arrived in the area in 1604 and mapped the offshore islands which are still sparsely settled despite their beauty and proximity to the mainland.

When the English had control of Nova Scotia in the mid-eighteenth century, they brought in many Palatine Germans to settle the area around today's Lunenburg.

By the nineteenth century tourists began flocking to Petite to enjoy its beaches and scenery Today the center of the village is at the crossroad of Route 331 and Green Bay Road.

For the earliest native inhabitants the river provided fish and shellfish, fresh water, and a pleasant place to spend the summer.

When tourists discovered the village, they found abundant Atlantic salmon in the river, white sand beaches for swimming, waters for canoes and rowboats, and oceanside scenery for viewing, photographing or painting.

Later in the twentieth century John Cook and Joan Dewar added to the list of professional artists working in Petite Rivière.

Resident professional artists include Tom Alway and Peter Blais who own the Maritime Painted Saltbox gallery.