The family home frozen in time | Michel Barrette’s crazy project

He was called crazy. He himself recognizes the slightly cracked side of the thing. But the nostalgia was too strong. Michel Barrette tells how he bought his grandparents’ house, where he was raised, to remodel it exactly as it was in the 1950s. A story opening the door to both joy and tears.

Some have a visceral attachment to their childhood home. For the comedian, this intense love is felt as soon as he evokes the home in Chicoutimi where he grew up. Within these walls, he still hears the voices of his grandparents, Jean-Marie Barrette and Rose-Hélène Asselin, who watched over him during his young years. A household where Grandpa liked things to be exactly in their place. “If an ashtray was slightly out of place, he would notice and put it back right away. He was the type of man who changed nothing,” explains Michel Barrette.

This spirit of place frozen in time guided him when the building returned to his fold, years after he left the nest.

Sold !

It all starts with a tragedy. In 1977, his grandfather crossed the threshold of the house for an outing “without knowing that he would never return there”, says the artist, aged 20 at the time. A terrible road accident takes several lives and shatters that of Jean-Marie, leaving him crippled and confined to a home for the elderly.

The two-storey house then leaves the family heritage and will be inhabited by other occupants for two decades. Let’s speed up the tape of time to 1996: Michel Barrette is on the set of Bye annual, in Chicoutimi. At his side, Yvon Deschamps, knowing his friend’s crush on his childhood home, asks the driver of the car taking them home after their day’s work to take a detour, just to pass in front. As the vehicle drives along the property, Michel’s memories swirl like a snow globe. Enter Guy A. Lepage.

A few days later, the latter and Michel found themselves in front of the famous address while taking a walk. The yellow curtains in the garage, once installed by Grandma Asselin, are still there. “Guy asked me if I had ever been in the house since I left. No, not since 1977. He said, “Here we go.” I didn’t want to disturb people,” says the comedian. But Lepage and his big mouth are already heading towards the landing, saying: “Well, they’ll have two stars for the price of one! »

Two ladies open the door for them and invite them in. The prodigal son is caught up in a whirlwind: “I was going crazy. Apart from the furniture, everything was the same, they hadn’t knocked down any walls,” he recalls, even finding the marks left by his bicycle near the stairs.

1997. Michel Barrette receives a call from his sister who tells him that their grandparents’ house is for sale. The host’s blood boils, he rushes to his receiver. “Hello, ma’am? Sold ! The house is sold! » To his confused interlocutor who tries to temper him, he sends a second salvo: “I don’t want to know the price. Sold, sold, sold! “, he insists.

Between relic and replica

With a heavy heart, he finds his teenage bedroom in the basement, his childhood bedroom upstairs, as well as the common rooms where so many family skits had taken place. But the biggest surprise is behind the garage door, which the two former occupants, without a car, had not opened for 20 years! Despite the light filtered by the layer of dust accumulated on the globe, Michel can see some vestiges. His grandfather’s hammer. His watering can. And many other elements unearthed from the past.

This is where the story takes a special turn. “For two years, I collected my old photos from the 1950s and those of the family showing the rooms of the house. I looked at each object, on each piece of furniture, to put them back in exactly the same place. I put everything back in its place, as if I had to reproduce the scene of the Kennedy assassination,” confides the comedian.

No one had access to the premises during this time. Except his father. “When he saw that, he told me I was crazy. I needed him to tell me how high Grandpa’s clock was. “Michel, we don’t care,” but I held my ground: “No, we don’t care. I want everything to be in the same place as before.” He then asked me to hit the wall. What ? He insists. I hit. He said to me: “Louder!” »

Under his blows, two pieces of plaster, which had been used to plug the holes where the clock was formerly placed, fell to the ground. There it is, the location. “I started knocking all over the house,” he laughs.

Once the decor of the past has been resurrected, the family is invited to discover the house put back together, on the occasion of a Christmas evening where the guests were asked to dress in the fashion of the 1950s. Michel Barrette adorns himself with Jean-Marie’s outfit, his glasses, and presents himself in the arms of his grandmother. “It was a bit creepy ! », admits the host. On a daily basis, he spends his days on the gallery, or daydreams while listening to his old LPs in his room. “One day, I was filming in Montreal with Gildor Roy and I told him that I would go back to my grandfather’s house that evening. He couldn’t believe it: “Are you going to make the Montreal-Chicoutimi round trip and show up tomorrow morning for the shoot?” And I did it! »

According to regrets

However, like carpenter ants slowly chipping away at beams, ghosts begin to gnaw at the new occupant of the premises, 15 years after the purchase. The fear of a fire, theft… The good times spent there are gradually eclipsed by rampant anxiety. “My wife told me that I was less happy than worried. She suggested that I sell the house,” he reports. After careful consideration, he sold it to a family friend. Seeing the house empty, his heart bleeds. “Do this as quickly as possible. Don’t talk to Michel, if he grabs your arm, get away,” his wife told the movers.

In the bare house, he sits down one last time, waiting for the approval of his late grandfather. “I felt he told me it was okay. And I left. But I regret having sold it. I regret so much…” he says, emotionally.

One fine day, while passing the famous Chicoutimi residence, Michel Barrette saw a couple moving in there. He calls out sharply: “You are in my house, here. » Faced with the incomprehension of the new buyers, he explains himself, by sitting with them on the gallery and telling them this same story.

If you see a “For Sale” sign on the grounds of Grandma Asselin and Grandpa Barrette’s house, don’t hesitate to point it out to their grandson. It is not excluded that he will once again exclaim: “Sold, sold, sold!” »