L’Auberge de la Paix: How a Counterculture Hostel Became a Québec Classic Over 50 Years
Some places just stick around. They become the kind of spot where people gather for good times, where every corner has a story. L’Auberge de la Paix on Rue Couillard in Vieux-Québec is one of those places.
It opened in 1972 as a youth hostel, born from the free-spirited energy of the 1970s. Back then, it was a non-profit, created to give travelers a cheap place to stay while keeping the doors wide open to the world. The idea was simple: a community space where young people and wanderers could crash, share stories, and figure things out together.
The hostel sits in a building from around 1850, right inside Vieux-Québec’s old fortifications, a neighborhood that’s now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The architect was Charles Baillairgé, the city’s go-to guy for design and engineering back in the day. The building even had a carriage passageway so horses and wagons could pull straight into the back courtyard.
Then came COVID-19. The hostel shut down completely in 2020, and the non-profit couldn’t keep going. The team didn’t have the money or the manpower to keep the doors open, so they had to call it quits in March 2023.
That’s when the owners of the café next door, Chez Temporel, stepped in. Mélissa Spénard-Lefebvre and Louis-Charles Tremblay (photo) decided to take over. They swapped their café hats for innkeeper ones, keeping the hostel’s spirit alive but running it as a business now. Their background in real estate and their love for Vieux-Québec’s history made the leap feel right.
The hostel reopened in May 2023, just in time for tourist season, and just over 50 years after it first started. Since then, they’ve poured more than $300,000 into renovations, safety upgrades, and sprucing the place up.
Today, it sleeps about sixty people in a mix of dorms and private rooms. The vibe is still the same, friendly, easygoing, the way hostels should be. And don’t assume it’s just for backpackers. Families stop by for short stays, and a lot of the guests are retirees who like things simple and enjoy a good conversation.
The hostel has everything you’d expect: a shared kitchen, a big common room, a nice courtyard, free Wi-Fi, and underground parking just two minutes away.
It’s also in a great spot. There are cafés and restaurants all around, including Chez Temporel just two doors down, plus a grocery store right next door. The new owners have added modern touches like digital locks with unique codes, so everyone feels safe.
Auberge de la Paix
aubergedelapaix.com
31 Rue Couillard
Québec, QC, G1R 3T4
418-694-0735