The Beginning of a Great Hostelry Tradition In 1956, Alvine Desmeules and Louis Dufour built a 10-room family home for themselves and their 16 children on a rocky cape on Île-aux-Coudres, at a site overlooking the St. Lawrence River. In the summer, Mrs. Dufour rented rooms to the increasing number of tourists to the area, which became a popular resort destination in Quebec. As business thrived over the summer, a dining room, called the Cap-aux-Pierres Hotel, was built at the beginning of the 1960s.
In 1976, the site of the Dufour family home counted 26 new motel units, an outdoor heated salt-water pool, a bar with lounge and a ballroom/stage. Unfortunately, a major fire destroyed all of the installations in the spring. However, another motel was soon constructed and welcomed its first clients a few months later!
Today, the Cap-aux-Pierres Hotel has 98 rooms, an enormous dining room, restaurant, spa and 10 meeting rooms able to accommodate up to 400 people!
Expansion Project In the early 1980s, the Dufour family drew upon its maritime experience to offer cruises off the coast of Tadoussac, a village located at the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord. Given the success of its whale-watching cruises, the Dufour family founded its own maritime dry dock on Île-aux-Coudres near the
Cap-aux-Pierres Hotel and acquired expertise in high-tech naval restoration and construction in order to expand the size of its fleet.
The company continued to grow in 1986 with the acquisition of the
Val-des-Neiges, a resort and convention hotel concept integrated into the Mont-Sainte-Anne resort and not far from Le Massif de la Petite-Rivière-Saint-François. This hotel's 110 rooms, 47 of which have a hot tub, afford guests every possible luxury, amenity and leisure activity (skiing, golfing and biking), all only 30 minutes from Quebec City!
In 1992, the Dufour family bought the
Clarendon, the oldest hotel in Old Quebec, then successfully restored its celebrated period décor and atmosphere. The Clarendon Hotel's café-bar is renowned among jazz lovers, who flock to the very heart of Old Quebec to sing the blues.
Groupe Dufour In 1999, a sole Quebec owner took possession of Groupe Dufour: the Pillenière family. The computer systems were brought up-to-date and a new intranet system was installed. Considerable sums were invested to link all of the hotels in a network.
