This 70,000 square foot house is called Cherlieu and sits on a vast private estate in the Laurentian mountains of Quebec called Domaine Sagard. Domaine Sagard is approximately 100 miles north of Quebec City and covers 21,000 acres.  The palladian palace of Cherlieu was completed in 1997 to a design by Quebec City architect, Sylvain Larouche. Domaine Sagard is the creation of Paul Desmarais, the founder of the Montreal-based Power Corporation of Canada.  

Mr. Desmarais was born in the bleak nickel mining town of Sudbury, Ontario in 1927. He started his business career in 1951 by taking over the family’s money-losing local bus company for a dollar, expanded to other busing companies and utilities in Ontario, and eventually built up the Power Corporation of Canada into a $50 billion conglomerate with interests in financial services, transportation, media and wood products. Some say that Mr. Desmarais’ business acumen was helped along by considerable political acumen as well. Several Canadian Prime Ministers have been on the payroll of Power Corporation either before or after their terms in office or have served on various Power Corporation boards. Mr. Desmarais was also friends with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Many of these politicians have made the trek to the remote estate for parties and receptions. Mr. Desmarais passed away in 2013 followed by his wife of 60 years, Jacqueline Maranger, in 2018 and presumably the estate is now controlled by the Desmarais’ four children. Assuming you could even find Domaine Sagard, it is not open to the public.  

Mr. Desmarais was obviously a very clever guy but I’m not sure how I feel about his house. On the one hand its palladian symmetry, porticoes and columns and baroque flourishes are really unique in North America, something you’re more likely to see in St. Petersburg or Vienna. On the other hand I don’t think the design complements the setting well. Such a refined design, not to mention the yellow finish and formal gardens, would blend in better in a more civilized setting, not a forested and mountainous environment. Here it sticks out like a sore thumb. A Scottish baronial castle design using rougher textures, a more dramatic roof line and a landscape garden would have been a better choice for this setting. Nevertheless you have to admire the effort that went into planting a palace in the middle of the Quebec wilderness.

Click here for a satirical YouTube video that shows scenes from Domaine Sagard and also shows the ambivalence that the Quebecois have about their plutocrats. Another country house associated with the Power Corporation of Canada is Belmere, a creation of the company’s former CEO, Robert Gratton (click here for more on Belmere).

No, you may not come in.