In 1930, some ten thousand western red cedar logs went up on the Ottawa River in a single frantic summer, and the result remains the largest log structure in the world. Fairmont Le Château Montebello is that rarity, a genuine one-off: a vast cabin arranged around a six-sided stone fireplace hall, halfway between Montreal and Ottawa, smelling faintly and permanently of woodsmoke.
The 211 rooms keep the register, warm woods, lodge textiles and river, garden or forest views, comfortable rather than showy, with the log walls doing the character work. This is a resort that runs on activity: canoeing and kayaking on the river, an on-site golf course, tennis and trails straight from the door in summer; skating, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and sleigh rides when the snow arrives. The indoor pool and the spa mop up whatever energy is left.
La Seigneurie handles the French-leaning fine dining with Quebec ingredients and Café du Marché covers casual meals and pastries, with terraces working overtime in summer. The mood overall is family-camp-meets-grand-hotel, and it is strongest in winter, when fires roar in the great hall and the grounds turn white. It is not luxurious in the marble sense and does not want to be; as a place to put children, grandparents and a pair of snowshoes in the same postcard, it has no Canadian rival.
