They say it only took 4 months to finish the largest log cabin in the world. I have laundry tasks that have taken longer to finish, but in 1930, even after the markets crashed, an epic build took place in the woods 131 kilometers west of Montreal on a scale and speed not to be matched again. It wasn’t just a log cabin, either—it was an early days blueprint for development, a winter sports escape with high jumps, bobsleding, cross-country skiing, skating, even a strange Scottish sport called Curling. The investors were many and influential, hence the build going through even with the financial depression. It was to be a club, a private social playground, and it was for many years just that, initially called “Lucerne-in-Quebec”—it subsequently came to be known as the Seigniory Club. When it opened in 1930, the Seigniory Club was the largest ski resort in Canada, and possibly in North America. Some say it was what inspired ski resorts like Sun Valley. This was before downhill skiing became what it is now—the first public ski lift only came into operation in 1936, so it was more of a cross-country winter sports sort of place. It was owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway joining the ranks of the grand railway hotels of Canada from Halifax to Vancouver that have a specific Château-Grand Trunk style: Château Frontenac, Château Laurier, and what the Seigniory Club would later become, Le Château Montebello. In 1970, it shifted to become a public resort, and in 2001 went under the management of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.
My family and I have been coming here for a yearly pilgrimage. When most are fleeing winter south to the beach and warmth, we double down deep into winter by leaving Toronto and heading North and East, back into snow and ice. Perhaps it is because I am a convert, a dual citizen, I still have great wonder in the chill of winter. It is a winter wonderland, pure Canadiana—think lumberjack red and black plaid. Country and forested, a rustic cold chic the likes of which are throwbacks to an older more patinated definition of both luxury and style.
There are 210 rooms shooting out from a main hall, a footprint like a snow flake. The main hall is centered by a massive, six-sided stone fireplace that shoots 65 feet up to the roof, like some spiritual anchor. And the room is the center of gravity for this world of its own, each day as cocktail hour approaches patrons will come to cuddle up on a wood and flannel and pillow couch by the fireplace in a space well used by all, built when public spaces were part of the luxury cannon. If it were built today, there would be 210 private fireplaces spread out in private chalets throughout the estate, quiet and walled, but this was built in a time when people relaxed with each other and conversation was a form of entertainment, and somehow through the architecture, all continue to participate in revelry. By 5pm, the place is full and the fires roaring, cocktails and cheese plates and boardgames and books. It is closest to the merging of your best friend’s basement playroom and a grand old train station. It is vaulted like a church, yet dark and cozy like a Buddhist shrine. It lives like a worn Chesterfield.
Our days are spent curling or skiing or swimming. There are two pools, one seasonal outdoor pool for summers (which is closed on our yearly trip) and one indoor pool connected via underground tunnel from the main Chalet to save you from walking outdoors with all your pool kit. The ceiling of the 75-foot indoor pool is wooden and woven and wonderful with paintings of sacred totems in the middle of diamond-shaped log structures, creating a cathedral of both spa and pool. There are two hot tubs, which are always peopled and where French and English conversations mix and mingle. The hot tub shape, being circular, lends itself to conversation, unlike an elevator or taxi. No, in these hot tubs you sit and look into each other’s eyes and to not say hello would seem strange.
With all its vaulted space and grandness, there is something in the log-cabiness of it all that bleeds into the atmosphere. You can’t help but feel a part of humanity, instead of above it or away from it, but unlike standing on a subway platform, in this space you feel the love, you feel the want to be welcoming, neighborly, communal, a rare impulse in a time of separation and sterility.
Our children feel this communal comfort and wander freely in the main lobby playing chess for a while by the fire, or down into the lower floor where there are fresh maple taffy lollies being poured on piles of snow. The bedrooms are cozy and cottage-like—think 1920s cozy, exposed timber, wool blankets. An eloquent sufficiency, any more would be a superfluous redundancy.
The village of Montebello is boarded on the south side by the Ottawa River and otherwise is surrounded by the vast old estate of 65,000 acres complete with a golf course and trails. A large portion of the original estate land is now managed by Kenauk Nature, with luxury chalet rentals, year-round activities, and is a hand-in-hand conservation and hunting/fishing park, while the golf course and Chateau are managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. If coming by air, fly to Montreal or Ottawa, both cities worthy of a few days in their own rights.
The most recent owner of the hotel property was the Evergrande Group, the colossal real estate company that went from the largest in the world in 2018 to liquidation and default in 2024. The Fairmont continues management while a new buyer is sought out. It would be easy to think that the connectivity of a Chinese real estate company failing and its effect on a Canadian hotel in a small village between Ottawa and Montreal is a modern economic symptom, but that would be hubris. Even with the claim that this land is one of the last surviving land grants made by 17th-century French kings to early settlers of what was then La Nouvelle France (stolen land from the Oueskarinis), when this land was taken by the French, it was by the hands of the French East India Trading Company, a company well established in trade with China in the 17th century, its economic necessity being firmly locked in international markets. Then again, in the 1930’s, the Canadian Pacific Railway was mainly in the business of freight transport moving resources to and from Europe and Asia across Canada. The founding of modern geopolitical Canada is financially linked to the Hudson Bay company with its 1670 Charter, which was structured to facilitate global trade and aimed to find the Northwest Passage, and trade link from Asia to Europe. All of this to say it ain’t a new issue.
This is a place best unfolded over a few days, not a one night-er. It is the kind of place that stretches time, a flow like warm maple syrup, and you need 24 hours to settle into the pace of the landscape. There is a village close by with wonderful crafts and cafes, and for meals outside of the hotel, a family favourite is Le Bistro Montebello. In winter, one can cross country ski to and from the hotel, which helps after a few pints of the local brew beer at Le Bistro. In the warmer months, you can walk well-marked trails off the one road through town, over the creek and through the woods (a 15-minute saunter).
The architecture, the staff and management, the wooden vaulted sky of the indoor pool—these are all ornaments to the whole, the center being a peopled place lived and loved. You can feel that here and that is the draw—it feels like something lost these days, and that, to me, is a sort of luxury in and of itself. I plan on coming back over and over again to this dreamscape; it feels on the verge of an old fairy tale, and I want to keep it present and remember the simplicity of wood buildings and stone fireplaces.
Dates of stay… March 15-18, 2026
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