Hotel meshes Huron Wendat hospitality with modern amenities

By Katherine McIntyre

WENDAKE, QC—Huron Wendat First Nations own an exciting new hotel.

Shaped like an ancient Iroquois longhouse, but with four-star services, Le Hotel Musée Premières Nations has recently opened in Quebec City.

Hugging the wooded shoreline it curves alongside the St. Charles River, in the historic Village of Wendake district.

Built by the Huron Wendat Nation, the hotel subtly meshes Huron Wendat traditions of hospitality with the want list of 21st century tourism. South facing windows flood the building with light. Pale walls and honey oak trim and stone floors add to the clean airy feeling.

Hallways, substituting as extended art galleries, display paintings and art pieces of local indigenous artists.

The fifty-five rooms decorated in subtle pallets of forest colours include a balcony overlooking the woods and river.

A cosy Hudson Bay blanket and a beaver fur pillow on each bed are reminders of the Huron Wendat Nation’s history in the fur trade. Hand woven baskets go back to their historical routes. Rooms are equipped with 42-inch plasma TV’s, compact refrigerators and wireless Internet service.

In La Traite, the hotel’s upscale restaurant, with a terrace and picture window that overlooks a garden filled with wild flowers, chef Martin Gagne works his magic.

He enriches his menus with fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms, cheeses and maple syrup from the Laurentians, scallops or wild salmon from the Atlantic, deer and bison from the from the forests. He subtly flavours his original cuisine with herbs and berries gathered from the northern woodlands.

Room rates are $136 for a standard room for two including breakfast and a ticket to the museum. Children stay for free. Rates vary between low and high season.
Only fifteen minutes from Jean Lesage International airport and downtown Quebec City, the hotel is designed for travellers who crave a change from a big hotel and tourists on the lookout for a different hotel experience.

Its adjoining museum features artifacts that interpret the history of the Huron Wendat Nation from the time they lived on the shores of Lake Huron until they migrated to Wendake in the 17th century.

For hikers and bikers the Corridor des Cheminots, Quebec’s famous biking trail, runs right beside the hotel.

A two-minute walk, along a street of brightly painted Quebecois houses leads into the Village of Wendake, a National Historic Site, which has small stores that specialize in hand made deer skin moccasins, mitts, jackets and snowshoes. Guests can also hike beside the Kabir Kouba Waterfalls or take a tour of Onhoua Chetek8e, a recreated Huron Village.