‘Fugitive’ Quaids enjoy their lives in Quebec
Actor and his wife look at properties, including $2.4-million country estate
Hollywood exile Randy Quaid and his wife spent the summer in a rented home just outside Wakefield and were so drawn they enlisted a real estate broker to tour estates, including a $2.4-million château in Montebello, with the hope of putting down roots and finally ending their life on the run.
The Quaids also spent nights at a roadside motel about 15 kilometres away, where they loved the food so much they ordered steak — medium rare — for Doji, their Australian cattle dog.
They were among the best customers ever to set foot in La Vallée Motel on Highway 105 in Chelsea.
Quaid, 62, raved about the club caesar salad and ordered the restaurant’s special for breakfast.
That’s two eggs, over easy, with sausage, bacon, ham and homemade beans (no substitutes).
And character actor Quaid always makes a point, just as he did two weeks ago, of ordering a side order bagel. And by all accounts, he loved the café au lait, the soup bowl-sized coffee, which goes for $5.
Nominated for an Oscar at age 21, Quaid lets his wife, Evi, do the driving (they have a Prius), and she is generally in charge of their affairs, while Randy is so low key that he would only step up to the motel bar when the place was empty. He drank Alexander Keith’s and rosé. Their favourite room was No. 3, the room with two double-sized beds.
James Strate is not your regular real estate broker. His listings are in the million-dollar-plus range, and he showed the Quaids a $2.4-million châ- teau in Montebello.
It is set on 40-plus acres and has a tennis court, library, bunker, reflecting pools (with goldfish), a stone-walled exterior, copper roof, an inground pool and chapel.
“When Evi walked into the chapel, she told me, ‘Sharon Stone would love this place. She’s an ordained minister.’ ” (She is, according to Universal Life Church; so is one of the guitarists from ZZ Top.)
The estate also includes a sugar shack.
The Quaids have not yet made an offer on the château, which was built by a European family in 1947 as a reproduction of their original estate, sacked by the Nazis.
“They seem to like the lowkey Quebec village life where nobody really pays too much attention to anybody,” said Strate, a representative of Sotheby’s Realty.
“I spent about four hours with them. They were wonderful and it was like being in an episode of Million Dollar Listing (a TV reality show),” Strate said. “They are fantastic people.”
The couple has been em- braced by everyone they have met in the Gatineau Hills. The Quaids have been hanging out in Quebec for the past year.
The couple made nasty headlines in the United States, accused of skipping out on hotel and inn bills. There are warrants for their arrest if they set foot back in that country. But in Quebec, the extremely close couple has either paid cash at the motel or flipped out a credit card.
A one-time Hollywood It-Girl, Evi Quaid always took care of the bills at the motel.
The Quaids haven’t stayed at the storied motel in two weeks. All seven rooms have been booked, mostly with Quebec construction men working on a new highway. They leave their muddy boots outside their motel doors. The family-run motel is for sale. It is a 1950s-style motel that has a wide range of regulars, from retired journalists to insurance company executives, to carpenters who do wonders with trees — especially Bird’s Eye Maple — and lately, Quaid, who has worked on more than 90 movies.
The Quaids believe a group they call Hollywood Star Whackers are behind the mysterious deaths of several of their friends, including Heath Ledger. They found themselves on the other side of the law a few years ago after being arrested for allegedly skipping out on an innkeeper’s bill and later vandalism after they were accused of squatting in a California home they once owned.
They have made Canada their home, with Evi, whose father was born in Canada, sponsoring her husband.
They have not publicly announced any film plans, but have told several people in western Quebec they are working on films. And everybody who has crossed paths with the Quaids hopes they get to soon see their work on the big screen.