On our Gaspe jaunt last summer, it took about 2 weeks for us to go around, we found our very limited knowledge of French was sufficient.
Most times our feeble attempts were greeted with a very friendly smile and the person would switch to English, if they could not it was loads of fun trying to communicate.
Many people were happy to switch to English for practice for themselves.
A simple greeting phrase and a goodbye were all we needed.
Effort spent on learning the road signs would be time well spent as your safety may depend on that....
It was a fun trip around for us..nice people everywhere.