Earth, Snow and Hospitality
Julia Murphy-Buske and William Jenneret made the move from Paris to the Outaouais just a couple of weeks before Quebec would begin pandemic lockdowns for the first time. Having searched for properties in Quebec before they made the move, Murphy-Buske and Jenneret were already keen on a particular property in Val-des-Monts and reached out to the seller. They landed in Canada on March 2, 2020 immediately went to visit the property, and fell in love with it. “We walked to the lake and we were amazed,” Jenneret says, “like, what a dream. We bought the property straightaway.”
The property was already home to a bed and breakfast and so was correctly zoned for their planned ecotourism venture, Terre & Neige, which opens this summer and offers cosy four-season cabin stays and local, seasonal cuisine. Murphy-Buske and Jenneret have built two cabins on the 83-acre property, and hope to eventually add two more, as well as a small restaurant to serve overnight guests and local residents as more and more people call Val-des-Monts home all year round.
Originally from the Montée Paiement area of Gatineau, for Murphy-Buske this was a move much closer to home. Jenneret, meanwhile, is from Grenoble, France. The couple met at a bike polo tournament in London in 2012, when Murphy-Buske was living in London and Jenneret in Paris. They spent the next two years cycling to and from Eurostar trains to visit each other in their respective cities, until Murphy-Buske made the move to Paris in 2014. They got married the following year. Murphy-Buske jokes that as a hockey enthusiast, Jenneret had always wanted to marry a Canadian and live in the country. The pair even built a lovely little outdoor rink in their Val-des-Monts yard last winter.
When she moved to London in 2005, Murphy-Buske told her parents she’d likely be back in six months, but ended up living across the pond for 15 years. Starting as a barista, she eventually began working in pastry and learned to make perfect sourdough bread (a practice she continues daily.) Murphy-Buske continued to work in pastry shops in Paris, but was ready for a new challenge, which is how she landed as the sous-chef at Holybelly for more than three years. Much-hyped among tourists and Parisians alike, the café and all-day breakfast spot expanded to include a second location while Murphy-Buske was second in command. The restaurant’s motto is, “it’s good because we care” and Murphy-Buske credits the owners at Holybelly with modelling how a business could simultaneously be very passionate about creating local, seasonal menus, establishing and maintaining strong relationships with local producers, while also treating staff with genuine care.
Murphy-Buske is intent on carrying on this ethos at Terre & Neige. “The Outaouais has an insanely good agricultural [scene],” she says, noting that even in just the 15 years she was away from the region she’s noticed a proliferation of new farms establishing themselves in the area, including Juniper Farms, Ferme Thuya and Roots and Shoots as just a few in the region from which she loves to source ingredients.
Upon returning to Canada, Murphy-Buske spent a year working at Edgar, Marysol Foucault’s small but mighty restaurant in Gatineau. “She hired me when I was seven months pregnant,” Murphy-Buske chuckles, “so she’s an amazing woman, basically.” After a month-long maternity leave, Murphy-Buske was back at Edgar for the holiday rush. “It was so cool to work for her, because it was like stepping into a whole different kitchen culture. It really helped me have a good start here,” Murphy-Buske says, crediting Foucault with helping her get settled in a busy Canadian kitchen and exposing her to so many local producers.
While the couple’s “big, big dream” at Terre & Neige includes opening its own small restaurant, it just wasn’t possible to secure funding for a restaurant in a pandemic economy. “So, we had to have two phases to our dream,” Murphy-Buske explains, “[which is] totally cool, because we’re still going to have amazing food.” Fresh, from scratch breakfasts will be included for overnight guests, with offerings like pastries and jams, sourdough with local eggs and bacon, homemade maple syrup and French toast, seasonal fruit, local apple juice and fruit infusions. Committed to representing the best of what grows in the region, Murphy- Buske notes that “you will likely never see OJ on the menu” unless the citrus comes from a singular small specialty citrus farm in Laval. “Fresh infusions are more my thing anyway — think mint and blackberry, or wintergreen and pine shoots,” which grow on the property. Breakfast baskets will come with any necessary instructions, and the couple wants every menu to include the provenance of the local ingredients and products. “It’s important to nod to these producers, important to encourage people who are doing things the right way,” she says. Guests will also be able to purchase picnic lunches or dinners, and the hosts hope to be able to hold some food-centric events once they get the ball rolling.
Jenneret and Murphy-Buske have been as involved as possible in the actual construction of the cabins. Through a Quebec program called Soutien au Travail Autonome (STA), the owners received a minimum wage to kickstart their business, allowing them to dedicate themselves full-time to the project as of August 2021. The STA program also provided them with assistance in writing their business plan and training to pitch to potential investors. “It’s been an amazing opportunity for us,” Murphy-Buske says. “We are so grateful that this sort of program exists.” Between tasks such as pouring cement, installing window trim, tiling and even making maple syrup, Murphy-Buske says her pastry chef skills have come in handy. “Plastering walls? It’s just like icing a cake,” she jokes. And though Jenneret’s previous work-life in Paris was in fashion, he’s always nurtured a love for woodworking. Murphy-Buske says her husband has “definitely become a bit of a lumberjack” as they prepare Terre & Neige for guests.
For their cabins, they drew inspiration from their travels within France, having stayed at many countryside gîtes (traditional rural French cottages.) C1, an A-frame with huge windows, is nestled amongst trees, while the C2 cabin is perched on an rocky outcrop above a snowmobile trail. Murphy-Buske says they made friends with the head of the local Ski-Doo association to ensure that the snowmobilers will still have access to the area. Both cabins are isolated enough to offer a sense of privacy and the feeling of being immersed in nature. There won’t be parking next to the cabins; guests will enjoy a woodsy walk to their cosy accommodations. The future C3 will be lakeside and will require guests to walk more than a kilometre to reach it. “We were looking to kind of force people into nature, and then COVID happened and every- one wanted to be outside anyway,” Murphy-Buske laughs. Inside, cabins will be full of personal touches. “We want it to feel lived in and earthy, but also full of little treasures.”
The building sites for each cabin were chosen based on where trees had already fallen, or where logging routes had already been cleared on the property so that they’re not felling additional trees. “We wanted to build where there were already these clear pockets,” Jenneret explains, adding that “respect for the environment is something we take into account for everything that we do.”
That care and appreciation for the natural environment is how they settled on the name Terre & Neige. They wanted a name that evoked a connection to nature and all four seasons. In a slightly serendipitous piece of wordplay, the name also kind of sounds like Jenneret’s name said backwards. The couple liked that personal tie-in to the name, without explicitly naming it after themselves.
Along with that connection to the land, Murphy-Buske and Jenneret want to connect with the people who visit Terre & Neige. They live in the former bed and breakfast on the property with their two young children and a Daschund named Lou. “I think living on the property was really important to us,” Murphy-Buske laughs. “We don’t want to be overbearing, but it’s important for us to be present, to be able to bring guests their breakfast in the morning.”
A pandemic may have thrown more than a few curveballs at their plans to swap their Parisian lifestyle for a massive DIY project in the Outaouais, but Murphy-Buske and Jenneret’s enthusiasm is contagious, and they cannot wait to share their passions with guests. Their goal — to offer “great food, with awesome accommodations” — remains unchanged as they get set to share a destination for all seasons.
Terre & Neige
30 Chemin du Lac-Clair, Val-des-Monts, Que.
facebook.com/terre.et.neige | 819.431.8289 | @terre.et.neige
