A Gaspé Peninsula accommodation that is anything but ordinary
Don't be fooled: the innkeepers won't have you walking through a dark corridor behind a building to welcome you to La Ruelle in Saint-Siméon-de-Bonaventure. On the contrary, as soon as you set foot on the grounds of this tourist complex, created in 2013 by Marie-Josée Dugas and Serge Boulanger, you feel as though you're entering an estate where the beautiful ancestral and heritage Arsenault-Gallagher house stands in the foreground.
Initially, the couple decided to establish the La Ruelle fur workshop-boutique there, since Serge has been a fur craftsman since 1977. He offers exclusive clothing and accessories made from fur and other reclaimed materials. He chose to recreate an alleyway from Vieux-Québec as the décor, to set the right context for his products. That's how La Ruelle came to be.
Then in 2017, when the welcoming duo of entrepreneurs transformed a stable on their handsome property into two tourist apartments, and the following year also created a loft in their century-old house, the name La Ruelle was already well established.
As Marie-Josée explains, “I personally welcome every person or group who comes to stay here, and I give them all the information they need to feel welcome and at ease with our concept. I want them to feel at home.”
La Ruelle accommodations offer three beautiful tourist apartments for extended stays of at least 7 days during the high season. Aimed particularly at tourists and business travellers, the three units, offering one or two bedrooms, stand out for their chic yet rustic décor, featuring repurposed materials and works by Gaspé artists and artisans.
Outside, the splendid landscaping, with its pathways and vegetation dominated by large, mature trees, dates from the late 1970s and was enhanced by the current owners around 2010, heightening the natural beauty of the site near the sea. Guests can also enjoy a terrace with a barbecue and an outdoor fire pit in summer. The beach, on Chaleur Bay, is just a few minutes' walk away.
With the La Ruelle workshop-boutique housed in the ancestral home, you'll find a comfortable complex in a place steeped in art, nature, and heritage!” Worth noting: Serge Boulanger has just transferred ownership of his boutique and his expertise to Édith Dubuc and Caroline Hardy as part of a succession project. Since October 2022, they have been operating Les Loutres d’hiver – Récupération de fourrure, which can be visited by appointment.
Don't miss the chance to visit the ancestral home (1820) and its beautifully landscaped heritage trail, created in summer 2021. Featuring eight interpretive panels in French and English about the Arsenault-Gallagher ancestral home, it is open daily for self-guided visits from May 15 to October 15.
The panels reflect the architectural features of the house, as well as the families who lived there and their social and historical circumstances. More broadly, they invite you to explore over 200 years of history of Petit-Bonaventure (now Saint-Siméon-de-Bonaventure). Their content is drawn from information presented in a historical journal and an exhibition produced in 2020 and 2021.
La Ruelle
laruelle.ca
253, Boul. Perron Est
Saint-Siméon-de-Bonaventure, QC G0C 3A0
418.534.4143