Winter activities bloom at Auberge le Florès
A fter
more than 30 years operating i n the snowy, rugged countryside of Mauricie, Auberge le Florès is encouraging its guests to discover winter with a new slate of outdoor activities.
Florès is a comfortable, 34-room inn that dishes out the good life in an unlikely location. It’s on the outskirts of the industrial town of Shawinigan in the district of Ste. Flore de Grand-mère, a rural community of farmers’ fields and bushy forests. And, although it has been operating year-round all this time, it has focused on such indoor pleasures as gastronomy and spa treatments.
This season, Florès is hoping to attract new clients with winter sports. Way out in back of the inn is a beautiful stretch of almost untouched woods. It’s here that Florès has carved trails for sleigh rides, dogsledding and snowmobiling that are also used for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
It’s all part of a master plan by proprietor Carole Charles. At the core of Auberge le Florès is a rambling stone house that was her family’s home when she was growing up. She eventually turned the house into a restaurant that attracted not only locals, but also executives from such companies as Abitibi-price and Alcan who were visiting the resourcerich region of Mauricie. Soon, they requested guest rooms so they could get away from the smokestacks and lumberyards and stay overnight in the countryside.
Florès has evolved since then into a small hotel. With thick stone walls on the outside and dressed-up common rooms on the inside, it has an Old World look. An off-the-lobby lounge is a warm and cosy corner with a fireplace and leather seating. It’s a gently cluttered place, with statuettes and other collectibles from the owner’s travels through the Middle East and Europe and a display by local craftsmen of leather bags, beaded bracelets and metalwork. The corridors double as galleries of the landscape paintings of Grand-mère artist Madeleine Garceau, who has captured the forests, rivers and mountains of Mauricie.
Rooms come in two styles in two different wings. Some have dark paisley bed covers and classic carved writing desks and headboards – the Old World look. A fine example is No. 41 – a spacious corner room with soaking tub and a serene view of the farmers’ fields across the street. Another set of rooms, more basic, is decorated with simpler furniture and white duvet covers. In this section, No. 18 and its neighbours look out onto the garden which, in summer, has a gazebo and a footbridge.
Florès started as a family home and it is still a family business, with Carole as manager and her brother, Roney, the executive chef.
“I have a grown son who is a lawyer, but the auberge is my other baby,” said Carole. “I love people, I want to make them feel at home.”
And her clients love her. A vivacious blond who jingles with jewellery and wears jeans and high heels, she is on the job greeting regulars who have been coming for years for business breakfasts, languid lunches and special-occasion evenings.
Auberge le Florès still has one of the best tables in the region. Even though it is in a rural area, the dining room has a formal look – consistently Old World. The walls are covered in patterned silk, the lacy curtains are fringed and the chairs are covered in cream-coloured damask. This is the place for traditional anniversaries, weddings and birthdays.
Roney Charles, who has worked in Paris and Alsace-lorraine, calls his cuisine French-global “because we have Asian and Italian influences.” His presentations are modern and his specialties include braised leg of lamb, salmon poached with beurre blanc, slow-roasted veal cheeks, red snapper with salsa and osso bucco, with classic desserts like crème brûlée.
A gutsy innovator, Carole Charles brought spa life to Shawinigan 20 years ago with one of the first wellness centres in Quebec. Inspired by her travels in Europe, she wanted to offer massages, facials and other beauty and body treatments as well as the creams and lotions that go with it all.
A large warren of rooms in the hotel’s basement, the spa is quite comprehensive, with massages and services for body and face. The skin products by a company from Trois Rivières, Soins corporels Aster, are intriguing. Plant-based and allnatural, they are produced from the essence of flowers and herbal oils, without artificial perfumes or alcohol, so the skin breathes better and stays hydrated. Some effective spa combinations are: a paraffin treatment to soften hands and feet, with a manicure and pedicure for good grooming; or a skin-smoothing body scrub using sea crystals followed by a hydrating massage.
For a small, quiet community, Ste. Flore de Grand-mère will have a few exciting things going on during summer: Florès is negotiating to present Varia, a Cavalia-style equestrian spectacle.
And an art show, the 10th annual Rendez-vous des Peintres, will be held Aug. 17-19 around the village: Auberge Le Florès, l’église de Sainte-flore and Galerie Lumière au pinceau. Nearly 50 artists and sculptors from throughout Quebec, including Garceau, will exhibit.
rochelle@rochellelash.com