Since his children were young, retired pharmacist Jean-Paul Morneau has been heading out to the country on weekends to get away from the grind of his city job.

Once the owner of four Jean Coutu pharmacies, Morneau needed the fresh air and exercise that came with having a place in the Laurentians. So in 1990, after years of owning older places - one of them a cabin he renovated on Lac St. Francis Xavier that could only be accessed by boat or a long overland walk - he decided to build the home he had always wanted.

He had come across an ad for an area known as Territoire des Lacs, some 18 lakes and 6,000 acres of land under development as a country-style "gated community," with no motorboats, "just peace and quiet," he said. So he bought 56 acres on Lac Lemieux, including a peninsula with two kilometres of lakefront, just 20 minutes by car from Morin Heights.

This is where he set about building a country house in the style he had always wanted, designed inside and out by the log contractor who built the rustic terminal building at the Mont Tremblant airport. The house is made of massive white spruce logs in the Scandinavian style, with logs carved to fit at the joints, and a tin roof that is folded over in seams rather than nailed. With a huge cathedral ceiling housing the living room, dining room and kitchen and an upstairs loft containing three bedrooms, the place is a marriage of rustic living and contemporary comforts.

In addition to the living room fireplace made with pink granite from Lac Saguay, the house is heated with a wood/electric furnace and was built with a central vacuum system. The basement, finished with Gyprock and cedar walls, has radiant heating built under the floors.

Pink granite surfaces are found all over the property, thanks to the builder who was from the Lac Saguay region where the granite is quarried.

"The fireplace, the foundations, I even have a sidewalk around the house in pink granite, along with walls around my two gardens and a drystone wall at the entrance to the property," Morneau said.

Inside, they made a point of bringing light into the house.

"Often the problem with log houses is that they’re quite dark," Morneau said. "We’ve got two skylights in the living room and two in the loft, and the windows in all the rooms are quite big."

Once again blending old and new, the doors and casement windows are reproductions of an earlier century, while wide pine floors and mouldings keep the rustic look.

Although it can’t be seen from the main house, there’s a cottage on higher ground with a view of the lake. Built five years ago of square-cut logs, this house has four bedrooms, another stone fireplace and a soapstone furnace for heating.

A gazebo built years ago right on the edge of the lake - where it’s no longer legal to build - was erected, by poachers who would overnight there, Morneau says.

"My children loved playing there when they were young."

But this may be the last year the family gathers for Christmas at the house on the lake, enjoying the huge Christmas tree at the back of the house and the fairy lights strung around the patio. His wife would rather winter in Florida and none of Morneau’s four adult children are interested in the property, he says.

"It was big enough land to give them a cottage each, but it wasn’t working out." So he’s planning to sell the place, either as one package, for a cool $2.85 million, or in sections, like a 10-acre section with 1,000 feet of lakefront and the second house for $700,000.

Leaving won’t be easy.

"I love the winter here," he said. "It stays white and doesn’t get dirty like in the city. And I have fun pushing the snow with my tractor."

Montreal Gazette
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Property Report Address: 150 Chemin Morneau, Wentworth, Quebec, J8H 3W8
Size: Log house, 60 by36 feet
Log cottage, 40 by 30 feet
Valuation of house: Log house and 20 acres of land: $400,160
Taxes (2008): $3,891
Valuation of cottage: Log cottage and 36 acres: $344,100
Taxes (2008): $3,21
Asking prices:
Entire property: 56 acres, including two houses and about two kilometres of lakefront: $2.85 million
Main house plus 18 acres and 1,300 feet of lakefront: $1.7 million
Cottage plus 10 acres and 1,000 feet of lakefront: $700,000
Other lots between five and eight acres are also available.
Property to be sold by owner:
Jean-Paul Morneau, 514-735-6833, 450-533-5598