He was called crazy. He himself recognizes the slightly cracked side of the thing. But the nostalgia was too strong. Michel Barrette tells how he bought his grandparents' house, where he grew up, to remodel it exactly as it looked in the 1950s. A story that opens the door to both joy and tears.
Updated yesterday at 12:00 p.m.
Some have deep ties to their parents' home. For the comedian, you can feel this intense love as soon as he remembers the home in Chicoutimi where he grew up. Within these walls he still hears the voices of his grandparents, Jean-Marie Barrette and Rose-Hélène Asselin, who watched over him in his younger years. A household where Grandpa liked things to be exactly where they were. “If an ashtray was slightly out of place, he would notice and immediately put it back. “He was the type of man who didn’t change anything,” explains Michel Barrette.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
The artist's parents, Lucien Barrette and Noëlla Asselin, in front of the family home in Chicoutimi
This spirit of the place frozen in time guided him as the building returned to his enclosure, years after he left the nest.
Sold !
Everything starts with a tragedy. In 1977, his grandfather crossed the threshold of the house for an excursion, “without knowing that he would never return there again,” says the then 20-year-old artist. A terrible traffic accident claims the lives of several people and shatters Jean-Marie's life, leaving him crippled and locked in a retirement home.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
Jean-Marie Barrette with his grandson Michel
The two-story house then leaves the family legacy and is occupied by other residents for two decades. Let's accelerate the time span to 1996: Michel Barrette is on the set of the annual Bye bye in Chicoutimi. At his side, Yvon Deschamps, who knows how much his friend has a crush on his parents' house, asks the driver of the car that is taking them home after work to take a detour so that he can just pass in front. As the vehicle drives across the property, Michel's memories swirl like a snow globe. Enter Guy A. Lepage.
A few days later, he and Michel were taking a walk in front of the famous address. The yellow curtains in the garage that Grandma Asselin once put up are still there. “The guy asked me if I had ever been in the house since I left. No, not since 1977. He said, ‘Let’s go.’ I didn’t want to bother people,” says the comedian. But Lepage makes his way to the landing with his big mouth and says: “Well, there are two stars for the price of one!” »
Two women open the door and invite them in. The prodigal son is caught in a whirlwind: “I've gone crazy. “Apart from the furniture, everything was the same, they hadn’t torn down any walls,” he remembers, and he even found the tracks of his bike near the stairs.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
Michel Barrette, used to mischief since his childhood, here with regard to his sister Sylvie
1997. Michel Barrette receives a call from his sister telling him that her grandparents' house is for sale. The host's blood boils and he rushes to his receiver. “Hello ma'am? Sold ! The house is sold! » To his confused interlocutor, who tries to soften him, he sends a second salvo: “I don't want to know the price. Sold, sold, sold! “, he insists.
Between relic and replica
With a heavy heart he finds his teenage room in the basement, his children's room upstairs and the common rooms where so many family crimes took place. But the biggest surprise is hidden behind the garage door, which the two former residents, without a car, had not opened in 20 years! Despite the light filtering through the layer of dust accumulated on the globe, Michel can see some remnants. His grandfather's hammer. His watering can. And many other elements from the past.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
His teenage bedroom crystallized over time
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
Books, maps and other items remained in their place.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
His childhood room, upstairs
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Here the story takes a special turn. “For two years I collected my old photos from the 1950s and those of the family showing the rooms in the house. I looked at every object, every piece of furniture, to put it back in exactly the same place. “I put everything back in its place as if I had to reproduce the scene of the Kennedy assassination,” admits the comedian.
During this time no one had access to the premises. Except his father. “When he saw that, he told me I was crazy. He had to tell me what time my grandfather's clock was. “Michel, we don't care,” but I stood firm: “No, we don't care.” I want everything to be in the same place as before.” Then he asked me to hit the wall. What ? He insists. I punch. He said to me: “Louder!” »
Under his blows, two pieces of plaster that had been used to close the holes where the clock once stood fell to the ground. There it is, the location. “I started knocking around the house,” he laughs.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
The living room, in a vintage photo
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
The kitchen, which has been restored to its original condition, includes a refrigerator from the 1920s
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Once the furnishings of the past have been brought back to life, the family is invited to discover the rebuilt house on the occasion of a Christmas Eve, where guests were asked to dress in 1950s style. Michel Barrette adorns himself with Jean-Marie's outfit, his glasses and presents himself in his grandmother's arms. “It was a little scary!” admits the host. Every day he spends his days in the gallery or dreams while listening to his old LPs in his room. “One day I was filming with Gildor Roy in Montreal and told him that I was returning to my grandfather's house that evening. He couldn't believe it: “Are you going to do the round trip from Montreal to Chicoutimi and show up for the shoot tomorrow morning?” And I did it! »
After regret
But 15 years after the purchase, ghosts, like carpenter ants slowly pecking away at beams, begin to gnaw at the property's new resident. The fear of fire, theft… The good times spent there are gradually overshadowed by the rampant fear. “My wife told me that I was less happy than worried. She suggested that I sell the house,” he says. After careful consideration, he sold it to a family friend. When he sees the house empty, his heart bleeds. “Do this as quickly as possible. Don’t talk to Michel, if he grabs your arm, go away,” his wife told the movers.
In the bare house he sits down one last time and waits for his late grandfather's approval. “I felt like he told me it was OK. And I left. But I regret selling it. I regret it so much…” he says emotionally.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MICHEL BARRETTE
The house has already been the scene of numerous family celebrations.
One fine day, as Michel Barrette was passing by the famous Chicoutimi residence, he saw a couple moving in there. He calls out sharply: “You are in my house, here. » Faced with the new buyers' incomprehension, he explains himself by sitting with them in the gallery and telling them the same story.
If you see a “For Sale” sign on the grounds of Grandma Asselin and Grandpa Barrette’s home, don’t hesitate to point it out to the grandchild. It is not impossible that he will shout again: “Sold, sold, sold!” »