FAMILY AFFAIR
Parents, three children put roots down in spacious Vieux-Rosemont duplex, Helga Loverseed writes.
Marie-Ève Lépine describes herself as a “super busy mom of three” (her children are 10, eight and six) who spends much of her time ferrying them around to various sports activities. The kids skate and play soccer, while the athletic Lépine likes to run.
The super busy mom also holds a full-time job. She is the coordinator at the School of International Management (ESG) at UQÀM. Her spouse, Frédéric Bastien, is a journalist, author and historian. Best known for his book La Bataille de Londres: Dessous, secrets et coulisses du rapatriement constitutionnel, he sometimes works at home, but also teaches history at Dawson College.
(Bastien’s book was translated into English in 2014 as The Battle of London: Trudeau, Thatcher and the Fight for Canada’s Constitution. Due to its controversial subject matter, it caused quite a stir.)
When talking to Lépine, a slim, energetic woman who laughs easily, it is clear she has always led a busy (and somewhat peripatetic) life. Before settling down and having kids, she spent her younger years studying graphic design at a CEGEP in Sherbrooke, then came to Montreal where she earned a bachelor’s degree in tourism management. After that, she went off to Mexico for three years. (Lépine speaks fluent Spanish, as well as English and is “working on” her Italian.) She came back to Sherbrooke to do her master’s degree in international business, followed by an internship at the United Nations in New York.
For the past 10 years, however, Vieux Rosemont has been her home. She and Bastien live in a duplex they bought in 2008. The couple occupy the main floor. The children’s bedrooms are downstairs and Lépine’s motherin-law rents a separate apartment upstairs.
Q So now you’re staying put?
A (Laughs.) Yes. Though I have to admit, I’ve moved around a lot.
Q What prompted you to buy a duplex?
A Frédéric and I were living in the Plateau, but we were renting and we figured it was time to buy. At that point, we had only the one boy. Sacha was eight months old, but we knew our apartment would eventually be too small for a growing child.
Q You didn’t think of buying something in the Plateau?
Q You didn’t think of buying something in the Plateau?
A It’s very expensive and you don’t get much for your money. We started looking around neighbourhoods where property prices were lower, like Verdun and Ahuntsic, but we came to the conclusion that they were too far from our places of work. From here, in Vieux Rosemont, Frédéric and I can catch the métro downtown. Door to door, takes us about 30 minutes.
Q Apart from the neighbourhood what did you like about the duplex itself ?
A It was a good size. Our half has four bedrooms, a dining room, a living room, a laundry room, two bathrooms and a backyard, plus an extension. That’s the room Frédérik uses as his home office. In fact, he wrote his book there.
(She walks me to the room that has been added to what would at one time have been the outside wall. Opposite the wall, which is made of fieldstone, is a large double window that let in lots of light and to the right of that, a couple bookshelves, crammed with books and documents.)
Frédéric can shut himself off in here even when the kids are playing or I’m preparing food in the kitchen.
Q Speaking of the kitchen, I love the French doors separating it from the dining room. Did you install them?
A No. They were here when we moved in. I’m always afraid one of the kids might break the glass, but so far that hasn’t happened.
Q Where did you get your burgundy leather sofas in the living room?
A Brault & Martineau. They’re pretty old. We’ve had them for years.
Q I see your rocking chair is the same shade as the sofas. The seating area and your patterned burgundy rug make a really nice contrast with your primrose walls. A Apparently this colour is called “frosty melon.” (Laughs.)
Q Hmm. That’s quite a title, but it does describe the walls pretty well.
(The frosty melon shade continues in the dining room which is open, but separate from the living room. Down the hallway is the couple’s bedroom. This room has startling peach walls.)
Q What a bright room! This definitely isn’t “frosty melon.”
A (Laughs again.) We painted all the walls when we moved in. I just love colour!
Q Did you do anything else to the interior?
A We fixed up the basement. It has a separate entrance and had been rented out for years, so it was a bit of a mess. Because of the state it was in, the basement and our floor looked like two separate houses!
Q Meaning the rest of the building was in pretty good shape?
A Exactly.