Yves Courtemanche has been the Village Barber in Outremont for 35 years. He’s a real institution in the neighborhood: he knows everyone and he’s aware of everything that’s going on in the borough.
Posted yesterday at 7:00 p.m.
From his delightfully retro-style living room, Yves greets passing customers, children and families from the neighborhood through the window. “Hi, Yves, see you next week! says a customer, opening the salon door. “Do you do women’s hair now?” he said (seeing me) and bursting out laughing.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
A living room that looks like Ali Baba’s cave
“There is life, it’s joyful, I love my job which I have been practicing for 55 years. I’m lucky, I’m so good here, avenue Bernard, I have space, I have 12 ft high ceilings, a real castle! “says Yves. His living room is a bit like Ali Baba’s cave. “I have memories of trips to Europe, photos and trinkets of all kinds, Steve McQueen, Charlie Chaplin and a cash register, in bronze, which I have had since 1968.”
He has clients who have been loyal to him for 50 years, professors, engineers, lawyers.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Yves with his period cash register, in bronze, which still works and which he still uses
Celebrities
He also has a few famous clients, including former prime ministers.
I did Robert Bourassa’s hair for 11 years, until the end of his life in 1996. I went to his house, he lived in the neighborhood. He came to the living room a few times, but as soon as he was in the chair, people came in to shake his hand.
Yves Courtemanche, barber
Bernard Landry also sat in his chair for 10 years. “He was very nice, we laughed a lot,” said the barber. And he did René Lévesque’s hair only once, in 1974, when he had a salon at the corner of Saint-Hubert and Villeray streets. “What incredible charisma! “recalls Yves. ” He was reading The diplomatic world and we both smoked! What an era! I had the looks by John Lennon! »
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Yves Courtemanche with René Lévesque, in 1974. He did his hair only once.
Human contact
What he prefers in his job is the human contact, because Yves, always in a good mood, is warm. “People really need to talk, a lot more than before, and that’s certainly the effect of the pandemic,” notes the man who started working as a barber at 17. “All of a sudden, I burst like a peony in the spring, I had found my vocation,” he recalls.
He thinks to continue for a few more years. “I had surgery, I have two new hips, I look like a new man at 72! I live just above my living room, it’s really the good life! »