A tour of the straight-out-of-the-19thcentury Manoir Papineau National Historic Site in Montebello, Que.
The historic home of Quebec politician Louis-joseph Papineau
“LOUIS-JOSEPH PAPINEAU died sitting here in 1871,” says Parks Canada visitor experience t eam leader Nathalie Bouchard on a tour of Manoir Papineau, “surrounded by his family and 14 favourite books.” It was a fitting end for the famed Quebec politician, who built the luxurious Montebello manor next to the Ottawa River for his wife, children, grandchildren and 3,500-volume library on seigneurial land he’d purchased from his father in 1817. Now a national historic site next to the Fairmont Le Château Montebello, Papineau’s dream home is somewhat symbolically suspended between Montreal and Ottawa — a quiet retreat for a complex man who helped French Canada make a stand during a highly volatile period. No one was better suited to lead the French-canadian nationalist movement that was calling for massive democratic reform and independence from Britain by the early 1800s. Speaker of the legislative assembly of Lower Canada and leader of t he new Parti patriote, Papineau commanded the first phase of the 1837-38 Lower Canada Rebellion against British rule, fleeing the country for seven years when the uprising was crushed and a bounty placed on his head. Yet Papineau’s support for liberal American- and French-revolutioninspired goals was at philosophical odds with his lordship over the land tenants on La Petite-nation, his 625-square-kilometre Montebello seigneury, and he managed his lands this way until the practice was abolished in the 1850s. (Seigneuries were a holdover from feudal Europe introduced to New France in the 1600s and, as was often pointed out, did not jibe with Patriote ideals.) In 1929, the Papineau family sold their land to investors who formed the Seigniory Club — a holiday destination for elites — and imported 3,500 mostly northern European craftsmen and labourers. Château Montebello went up in three months; the manor became a clubhouse. “The club removed many things, including ornate wallpaper from France and the ingenious dumbwaiter designed by Papineau himself,” says Bouchard, who also plays Madame Papineau for visitor receptions and the “Tea at the Manor” and “Feasting with the Papineaus” events, which feature menus concocted by the chateau’s chef. “But they were also responsible for positive transformations: electricity, hot water and a heating system.” By the 1970s, like the hotel properties at Banff and Lake Louise, the chateau and manor belonged to the Canadian Pacific Railway and were open to the public, but the residence was in disrepair. Parks Canada has managed the estate for 25 years, having signed a lease with the Canadian Pacific Hotel Corporation obliging the restoration of the property. The manor and its gardens — from the sumptuous, yellow grand salon to the landmark 350-year-old red oak Papineau liked to dance around with his grandchildren — have been returned to a state the original owner would be proud of, and to this day, not a single person has even sat in his favourite chair.