The Laurentians area north of Quebec in Canada is a great place for winter and summer holidays, with its skiing, kayaking and French chic and cuisine, writes Frances O'Rourke
THE ROAD north from Montreal starts out as an autoroute, becomes a two-lane highway - then, as you near the cottage, you're on a smooth, winding, wide, dirt road. The houses are set far apart, deep among trees, the lakes which they surround a glimpsed flash of sun on water.
This is the Laurentians, the mountain area two hours north of Montreal in Quebec, Canada: in winter, it is the home of popular ski resorts like Mont Tremblant (eastern Canada's most famous); in summer, it is quintessential North American cottage country (think Dirty Dancing). With a Gallic twist, of course, because Quebec is a French-speaking province, with excellent restaurants and an added dash of style.
In Mont Blanc, a Laurentian holiday resort near Mont Tremblant, local developer Jimmy Perrault is building La Seigneurie, a scheme of 70 four- and five-bedroom homes on 150 acres, which include a private lake.
The timber homes planned could be called country cottages but the rustic style will be combined with modern luxuries, including "smart home" remote control technology. They're big, too: the houses will range in size from 284sq m (3,060sq ft) on a one-acre plot to 497sq m (5,348sq ft) on three acres. Prices range from €314,000 to €594,000.
The development will have a clubhouse for owners with a spa, restaurant, bar, business centre, cinema and concierge. It will also have a rental management programme for owners who aim to help cover costs by renting.
There should be good rental prospects, because the Laurentians really are a year-round holiday area. Mont Blanc is 15 minutes' drive south of Tremblant, a ski resort popular with visitors from eastern Canada and the US because of the great variety and challenge of its ski runs. In spring and autumn, there's hiking and biking - Quebec has an extensive network of trails for mountain biking and regular cycling - and the autumn scenery of blazing red and yellow trees is truly spectacular.
There's also canoeing, kayaking, sailing and, inevitably, golf (there are some 15 good inexpensive golf courses in the Tremblant area).
Summer - from May to September - is warm to hot, with temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees and clean lakes to swim in. And there's plenty of wildlife: birds, beavers, squirrels, deer, racoons and groundhogs as well as rarely-seen bear, moose and wolves. (Google Mont Tremblant National Park for an idea of what the landscape is like).
The area combines all of this with excellent cuisine - Quebec, like France, has a long tradition of fine food and wine - and sophisticated shopping and nightlife at the Mont Tremblant resort. This is the Quebecois/ European-style ski village built on the lower slopes of the mountain, which has hotels, apartments, spas, designer shops, good restaurants, European-style coffee shops and bakeries. In spring and summer there is open-air entertainment. You can also visit the real thing in the surrounding rural Quebec towns and villages like Tremblant, St Sauveur, Ste Agathe and more.
La Seigneurie is one of the newest resorts planned for the area. There are still properties for sale in other developments through agent Pure International, whose managing director, Sean Collins, reports property price rises of around 15 per cent a year.
They include Fraternite-sur-Lac, at Tremblant, a development of 100 three-, four- and five-bedroom luxury log cabins being built by Michel Beaulieu, Mont Tremblant's former ski director-turned-developer, on a lakeside site near the Mont Tremblant resort. They cost from €315,000 and are being offered with 5 per cent rental guarantees.
Lac Desmarais, at Tremblant, is an exclusive resort surrounded by a 1,000-acre wilderness. Lakefront and mountain plots of a minimum of 1.5 acres cost from €300,000. The average houses being built here are 465sq m (5,000sq ft) and cost around €1 million.
If you're looking for joie de vivre with a Canadian flavour, the Laurentians is the place to go.
The current rate of exchange between the euro and the Canadian dollar - €1 buys $1.60 Cdn - is good for Irish buyers.
Aer Transat flies from Dublin to Montreal's Trudeau airport between May and October 16th. Air Canada also flies to Montreal from Ireland. There is also an airport at Mont Tremblant, with flights via London.
Pure International Property is at www.pureintl.com
