(Saint-Élie-de-Caxton) Take the time to walk in the small streets of the village. Buy your bread at the Croûte que croûte bakery. Chat with the world, quite simply, at the Café brocante Victor.
In the summer of 2020, singer-songwriter Tire le coyote, Benoit Pinette, whose real name is Benoit Pinette, felt the urgent need to get away from the city to breathe the country air.
“We were in the middle of a pandemic. My girlfriend [Émilie Perreault] and me, we said to ourselves: “It’s time!” We needed to get into the land, we wanted wide open spaces. ”
But they had to find a place halfway, “a kind of compromise”, to take into account their respective geographic realities.
“We were looking somewhere between Quebec and Montreal,” he explains. We ended up renting a row house in Charette [en Mauricie]. ”
As luck does things well, Benoit Pinette was quickly “spotted” by Jeannot Bournival, a faithful accomplice of Fred Pellerin, while he was with his children at the snack bar in the neighboring village of Saint-Élie-de-Caxton. .
“Jeannot was jogging,” he remembers. He sent me a text message asking me why I was there. We knew each other a little, we do the same job. ”
From that moment on, a strong friendship developed between us. He invited us to take part in several happy hour parties in his yard. I was discovering a village, I liked the contact with people, the good vibrations.
Benoit Pinette
Chez Méo’s house
PHOTO STÉPHANE LESSARD, THE NEWS
Benoit Pinette, in Principale Street, in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton
And what had to happen happened. A few months later, in January 2021, still with his girlfriend, he bought one of the oldest houses in the village. We give it to you in a thousand: the property built in 1880 had already belonged to the legendary barber Méo Bellemare, central character of the tale Of comb and misery, by Fred Pellerin.
“We liked the idea that the house [qui avait changé de vocation en 2015 pour devenir le magasin général Chez Méo] have a history and be located in the heart of the village, ”explains the 40-year-old singer.
We can guess that the arrival of an “artist” from elsewhere, in this community which has nearly a hundred “creators”, aroused the curiosity of residents. Benoit Pinette is well aware of this. And he insists on the importance of integrating and not of imposing oneself.
“Again last summer, two men aged between 75 and 80 made a conversation with me while I was on my gallery,” he recalls, amused. They said to me like that: “You know, us, we had our hair cut here by Méo, back in the day!” ”
A memory of a past that seems so distant: in the salon, we find a barber’s chair, a nod to Méo, who cut the hair of his male clients while trying to change the world.
Jeannot’s studio
PHOTO STÉPHANE LESSARD, THE NEWS
Over the years, the artist says he appreciates life in the region more and more.
By his own admission, Tire the coyote feels “appeased, calmed” as soon as he “drops off” in the village and opens the front door of his house wide after driving between Quebec – where he owns a condo in the Limoilou neighborhood – and his adopted Saint-Élie-de-Caxton.
I didn’t think it would give me such an effect [bénéfique], from the point of view of creation. Yet that is what happened. Since I got there, I’ve written all the songs for my next album. My house, my village, it has become an inspiring place.
Benoit Pinette
You have to understand, too, that he spent – and still spends a lot of time – at the recording studio of his friend Jeannot Bournival, located less than two minutes walk from his home.
“I’ve never had so much fun working on an album,” he says enthusiastically. Everything is done in simplicity and spontaneity. If I don’t feel in my element, it’s okay, I’ll put it off until the next day. ”
Benoit Pinette does not hide it: over the years, he appreciates more and more life in the region, preferably in a village “where people help each other”, in a place “where people have a sense of community. “.
“Honestly,” he summarizes, “I had the impression that the pandemic was easier to live with here. Nothing to do with what happened in the bigger cities. ”
No wonder he intends, one day, to settle there permanently. “We want to do renovations,” he announces. We feel good at home. We have plans. ”
PHOTO STÉPHANE LESSARD, THE NEWS
The house acquired in January 2021 has already housed the barber shop run by the legendary Méo Bellemare.
Realistically, with the return to a normal form of life, he knows however that he will spend more and more time on the road, touring Quebec. As a result, he won’t go to his house on rue Principale as often, just like Émilie, who just posted Essential services, an essay on the importance of having good cultural health. One of the chapters is devoted to Fred Pellerin, a great defender of the regions, just like his friend Jeannot Bournival.
About the famous storyteller, he likes to recall that Fred had turned into a real estate broker when he learned that the village could be enriched by two newcomers.
“He told us: ‘Yes, yes, yes! I’ll send you some falling houses for sale. You are good prospects for Saint-Élie! ” ”
He still laughs about it.
“When he learned that we had finally bought the house from Chez Méo, he said incredulously: ‘I still can’t believe you’re here!’ ”
We have to believe that his enthusiasm is contagious since one of his friends, a bassist, originally from the Gaspé, and who lives in Montreal, would consider settling in the region as well.
“Like many other musicians, self-employed workers,” he argues, “he understood that houses cannot be bought in Montreal. We can very well live in the region and go to town from time to time for work. ”
The succession is assured.