(Eastman) Sophie Bureau’s cottage shed doesn’t just contain tools and bikes. This old French fry shack also contains memories of her long teenage summers spent on the shores of Lac d’Argent in Eastman, Estrie.
“It’s not a room in the chalet, but almost, because I spend a lot of time there. It’s my favourite room,” confides the fifty-year-old, her eyes shining, in the middle of the small outbuilding made of boards and old beams.
“It was originally the village restaurant. The Brunelle family built it, not far from here, to sell fries and hot dogs during the summer. For us, it’s not a shed. We still call it ‘the cabin’,” she continues, showing a delightful photo from the 1950s. It shows the “Restaurant du Lac” plastered with Coca-Cola and 7 Up ads. Under its pretty awning, women and children in swimsuits wait at the window, chatting nonchalantly with the cashier and the cook. Nearby, two bare-chested men seem to have come straight from the beach.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SOPHIE BUREAU
Archival photo from the 1950s of the old restaurant
How long did this restaurant bring joy to local vacationers? “I don’t know. The building had already been moved here when my parents bought the cottage in the late 1970s, before they separated,” says the woman who grew up with her mother and brother in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. “My mother raised us,” she continues. “I’m part of the ‘every other weekend’ generation. But I spent the summers here, since my father was a school principal.”
Summers spent playing outside, she remembers happily. You could just cross the street and dive into the lake. The cottage, but especially the cabin, was the rallying point for friends from the village and the countryside, she says.
This is where my father tinkered, but also where we came with friends to get the boat engine, our tennis rackets or our baseball gloves. And these friends, they are still part of my life.
Sophie Bureau
Time capsule
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Sophie Bureau’s shed contains a host of objects that belonged to her father.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
A workbench, built by Sophie Bureau’s great-grandfather, occupies pride of place in the shed.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The walls of the shed are covered with neatly lined up screwdrivers and pliers; there is also an old radio receiver with big buttons and a long antenna.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The smell, both unique and evocative, is striking as soon as you push open the door of the old potato shed.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The former 1950s “fry potato shack” in the village of Eastman has become a cottage shed filled with memories for the Bureau family.
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The smell, striking as soon as you push open the door, is both unique and evocative. “A mixture of humidity, oil and sweat,” says Mme Desk, smirk. All around her, we notice the old carpenter’s apron, with a pencil in the pocket, the walls filled with screwdrivers and pliers neatly aligned, as well as an old receiver with big buttons and a long antenna.
A workbench, built by a great-grandfather, occupies a prominent place. Still sturdy, firmly anchored to a cement floor, it accumulates multiple layers of paint in the different colours that have adorned the chalet’s shutters over the years. Its somewhat recalcitrant drawers overflow with pliers, adhesive tape, gloves and sandpaper, but they also hide squirrel nests made of branches and tissue paper.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Sophie Bureau’s father spent hours in his cabin repairing everything, a habit that his daughter is now repeating.
A drill is permanently attached to it to make it easier to use or to insert a piece of wood into a vice while waiting for the glue to harden. “My father was a man of his time. He didn’t do any housework,” says Mme Office. He spent his time here fixing everything and maintaining the chalet while listening to Joël Le Bigot and smoking King Sizes!”
Now a senior advisor to the Ordre des CPA du Québec, she takes Highway 10 whenever possible to unwind in the shade of Mount Orford, but also to watch over the cottage like her father did so well. “I realize over time that I’m doing what he did: painting, renovating furniture, maintaining the flowerbeds and tapping the generator. My friends say I’m the man of the house,” she adds with a mixture of pride, happiness and self-mockery, glancing at the rakes on the wall and the fishing rods above her head.
Summer joys
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Sophie Bureau worked at the Théâtre de Marjolaine during her adolescence.
Hanging from the ceiling of the cabin is one of Sophie Bureau’s most precious souvenirs: a car plate from the “Théâtre de Marjolaine”. This famous summer theater founded in 1960 by Marjolaine Hébert, located nearby, marked her life.
All the teenagers in the village worked at this theater. During the day, we went swimming, water skiing or fishing. In the evening, we all went to work at the theater.
Sophie Bureau
“I started as an usher before moving to the ticket office. My brother directed the cars in the parking lot.”
“It was a dream job for a teenager,” she adds. “We would get told off by Marjolaine if we made too much noise backstage during the show, but she would give us Smarties and fudge.”
From those summers, there also remained an unwavering camaraderie. “Those friends are still part of my life. We still hang out, like we did at the cabin,” she confides.
Unwavering friendships, one might add, like the cabin.