The owner’s tour | The choice of self-sufficiency

Owners open the doors of their exceptional homes to us, offered on the resale market.

During the pandemic, many Quebecers left the city, the noise and the promiscuity to settle in the countryside. This is the case of Alexandra de Launière and Matt Desjardins, who, in 2021, left Charlesbourg to settle on the banks of the Palmer River, in a bucolic and immense territory of Saint-Jacques-de-Leeds, near Thetford Mines.

The couple – he a director of animated films, she a social worker – fell in love with a 30 hectare estate (the equivalent of 42 American football fields!) in order to realize their aspiration for self-sufficiency. A dream come true with goats, pigs, the cultivation of vegetables, the planting of fruit trees (including around a hundred raspberry bushes) and the production of maple syrup thanks to a large maple grove. “We also cut our wood for heating,” says Alexandra de Launière. “And we hunt deer and wild turkey on our property,” adds his partner.

Their land includes no less than ten buildings: the main house, two chicken coops, a workshop, a garage, a guest house, three sheds, a log cabin and an old school! Because this area has a historical character. It is located on the old Craig Road which linked Boston to Quebec. The main building is made up of a stone house from the beginning of the 19th century.^e century and a section added in 2000, in the French-Canadian style with its gallery and its small-paned windows.

Preserved, an old wooden panel testifies that the house housed a post office, then run by the Wilson family. There was also a mill on the property (destroyed by fire in 1917) and a small village school. In the 1960s, the premises were used as a campsite. At the beginning of the 2000s, the house was extended and restored by the former owners, Raymond Gaudry and Guylaine Hénault, who created a renowned country restaurant on site, Au hollow du temps passé, “famous for its delicious duck recipes”, said Matt Desjardins.

“The renovation that Raymond Gaudry and Guylaine Hénault did was carried out with care,” says Matt Desjardins. They are two seasoned restaurateurs. They favored noble materials. Thanks to them, the house is splendid. »

According to real estate broker Dominic Lejeune, it is one of the most beautiful farmhouses in Quebec, an elegant ancestral house. Nothing was left to chance. The property has been taken care of. The roof of the house was redone in 2021. Lovers of rustic style are served with the windows and furniture. Wood and stone dominate and the passage from the old house to the new part is done naturally with a stylish arch. An ideal place for a large family aspiring to the calm of the Appalachians or for a lodging project.

Matt Desjardins, Alexandra de Launière and their two daughters aged 2 and 5 unfortunately have to leave this property, because their careers force them to move closer to Montreal. They plan to continue their self-sufficiency project on similar wooded land. But they will miss the place. “I’m going to miss the river,” says Alexandra de Launière. I had a good time there. There is a place where there is enough water to swim laps. And you only hear the birds singing. I will also miss the house, with its unique and beautiful woodwork. »