BELIEVE IT OR NOT...A GHOST STORY!
The story begins around 1900. Be it fact or fiction, it is certainly a very strange tale.
Over a century ago, the Joli Vent was a farmhouse where it is rumoured that the widow Greer was hacked to death with an axe by her very own son. A cruel end, and a frightfully gory story.
Even more astonishing is the fact, that for years it was believed that the widow's spirit roamed the premises, her invisible presence haunting the place, causing mysterious noises, sounds of footsteps on creaking floorboards and rusty hinges groaning as doors opened themselves at will...
This continued until 1990, when the owners of the inn at that time finally got so fed up with all of the ghostly gossip, that they actually called in a medium to hold a seance in order to get rid of the spirit. This event attracted the attention of the media and was even the subject of a television program on TQS. According to the medium, the ghost was not malicious, it was suffering in anguish and desperately seeking mortal help in order to get to the other side. With the medium's intervention, this was done, finally giving both the poor widow's ghost and the Auberge some peace at last.
AN HERITAGE
Establishing a highly respectable reputation in the finest tradition of innkeeping, the precursor of the Joli Vent entered a magical era upon the birth of the Brome Lake House. In 1911, as the bumpy old dirt road was enlarged and improved, John O'Hearn decided to build a holiday resort on a hill near Foster. The view was spectacular: one could see almost all of Brome Lake and many mountaintops for miles around.
Many pleasures awaited the guests: a large kitchen garden produced the freshest vegetables, horse carriages and buggies provided transportation to nearby Knowlton, boatrides were offered upon Brome Lake and in the evenings, people from miles around would come to join the guests in the dancing hall of the inn where popular local musicians and bands would play.
BROME LAKE LODGE
Unfortunately, the success of John O'Hearn's hostelry ended abruptly when a fire ravaged the place in 1923. Determined to continue, the O'Hearn family moved to the former Greer farmhouse and refurbished it in order to rent out rooms. This became the Brome Lake Lodge. Around 1930, the old barn was renovated and soon became a very popular local dance hall known as the Chick Wick, frequented by the young people of the area every summer.
In 1945, the inn was sold, and subsequently changed hands many times, becoming a private club in the 60's, then a slightly seedy rock bar and finally coming to be known as the Auberge du Joli Vent for the first time in 1988.
A FRESH START...
How on earth did Hans Christiner, a German-Swiss citizen, manage to meet Quebec-born Patricia Provencher in Australia, of all places?! It just so happened that they were both living in Melbourne in 1993: Patricia was completing her post-doctoral internship in endocrinology, while Hans was working as a chef at the Swiss Club. They were introduced by mutual friends, and it was love at first sight: they were married soon after.
For the first few years, they traveled the world, visiting master chefs, wine growers and cheese makers. Their dream was to open a restaurant and country inn of their own. Once finished with her internship, Patricia convinced Hans to move to Quebec and they patiently awaited the opportune moment to fulfil their dream.
It took five years, but they finally discovered and purchased the Joli Vent and commenced with the most pressing repairs and renovations, hoping to be open for business by the next summer. It's a real family enterprise, the exuberant and ever eccentric Hans presiding over the kitchen, charming and level-headed Patricia tending to business and making sure that everything is perfect, down to the smallest detail, for the comfort of the guests, who are always warmly received. And one could say that the ghost has been replaced by "little angels", namely, the couple's two young children, Felix and Thimothe.