Tucked away at the end of Wilkinson Road in Dunham lies a space dotted with colourful cottages. The cottages date back to the 1960s and they have passed through the hands of various owners before falling in the lap of partners Nancy, Michel and Marc.
Since last year, they have been upgrading the cottages to provide local residents and Quebecers with a place where they can connect with one another, disconnect from the technological world, and a place where they can enjoy some of the benefits of an all exclusive resort right in their own region and province.
“It’s a strange story because Nancy was actually searching for a camping or something like that, she was looking really for something else,” said Michel. “She found the 144 Wilkinson Road and she was curious.”
“It’s not a commercial place. It’s an 11 plex and I saw Lac Selby and I didn’t know what it was. In the parking, my feeling was the same as a mother with her kid; don’t touch anything, it’s my place. The feeling was very special, the silence, the trees, the atmosphere,” recounted Nancy.
She immediately called up Michel and Marc to check out the space and they both hopped on board.
“When I saw the alley (referring to the path that runs between the cottages), I fell in love too,” said Michel.
Nancy said that a lot of people with children find it easier to head to all-inclusive resorts, and they want to offer something similar to Townshippers and visitors to the region through Les Minis. She was initially inspired by tourist hotspot Cape Cod in the United States.
“The first thing is the paint. (…)The first idea I suggested was Cape Cod, there’s a lot of little houses in white and blue,” she explained.
“They are 24x24 one storey cottages with a Florida room, which is a closed off veranda in the front. It’s a nice sight, it’s like a closed community, a safe community, a lot of trees. (…) What we’re heading towards is creating activities on site so that it can be, not a closed space, but you can spend a lot of time on the space,” noted Marc.
Marc noted that people can find these something elsewhere, but it’s the “human details” that make Les Minis special.
“Like putting flowers on the table when people arrive, having blackboards with a welcome sign, having people give us feedback, we takes pictures of it. There’s a vibe here that is voluntarily created and it works,” he said. “(…) It’s said in the writing on the walls, but also in the attitude.”
With activities like kayaking, paddle boarding, a basketball court, a game room, on site, the partners want visitors to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of daily life and begin to connect with one another.
“The playground, it was just grass. In one year, we renovated the chalets, installed the vibe, added soccer, added basketball, added paddle boards, we’re talking paddle board yoga coming,” explained Marc. “It’s our first year. Now next year, we’re gunna have a hard surface for pickle ball, for skateboarders.”
“We really want to offer a lot of activities to make people think outside of the cell phone, outside of Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime,” added Michel.
They are working on making Les Minis accessible all year round.
“We started off with summer cottages, so we had families in the summer. Now, we have families in the summer, hunters in the fall, ski goers in the winter because we have four that can take winters, our spring we have to figure out who is going to come here,” noted Marc. “That is a spot that we are working on.”
Nancy encourages the community to check out Les Minis if they are interested in seeing what it’s all about.
“We are here by passion. (…) People are welcome whenever they want to visit, to come see us, to question us,” she said.
Listen to the full interview below: