Las Terrenas: a French-speaking village in the Dominican Republic

LAS TERRENAS | More and more Quebecers decide to settle in the French village of Las Terrenas, located on the Samana Peninsula, where they shop and order from restaurants in Molière’s language.

This destination, previously considered “off the beaten track,” has grown significantly in the past two years, according to Quebec entrepreneurs there.

“We speak French here 75% of the time,” says Nathalie Tremblay, manager of the charming little Hotel Takuma in Las Terrenas, located in the northeast of the Dominican Republic.

She, who spends several months a year there to run the facility, says she meets many more Quebecers than last year.

“Someone who doesn’t speak Spanish can easily get by in French in Las Terrenas, that’s a big thing,” she says.

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Quebeckers under a spell

Many French, Belgians and Swiss people live in this former fishing village in winter, where people mostly travel on motorbikes and mountain bikes. There is a French bakery, a butcher shop, as well as other small businesses run by Europeans, and more recently by Quebecers.

The owner of the village bakery, originally from Grenoble, France, says she is increasingly serving her relatives from Quebec. “They are always very happy to be served in French and happy to buy croissants or other fresh pastries for the day,” she says.

With its many wild beaches, bohemian atmosphere and diverse catering offer that differs from that of the Dominican Republic, Las Terrenas has increasingly won the place of Quebec’s snowbirds since the end of the pandemic.

For this reason, Daniel Michaud, who retired from the construction industry in Montreal, decided to move there, to engage in the restaurant business.

– I came to discover and fell in love – says the owner of the popular bar Los Kikis.

European gastronomy

Gourmets have no shortage of choices in this small coastal town, where several restaurants are run by the French. Unfortunately, on January 4, a large fire ravaged a dozen buildings located on the beach, near the city center. The authorities, however, say that the reconstruction process has already begun.

“There’s a certain touch of Quebec here that’s really interesting in terms of the quality of the restaurants. There is a great variety of restaurants, and the food is excellent,” says Daniel Côté, a retired professor from HEC in Montreal, who goes there regularly with his partner Narina Shahbazian.

The couple from Eastman also went to Las Terrenas three times last year. “We feel comfortable here, it’s very warm and safe,” she claims.

As Quebec has its place there, it is also of course possible to enjoy poutine, a club sandwich or even a beaver tail on the beach.

Island of love

Bordered by mountains, jungle and exotic vegetation, white sandy beaches and turquoise sea, Las Terrenas, accessible from El Catey Airport, thirty minutes from the village, is a favorite of many.

It’s no surprise to learn that episodes of the popular series were filmed at El Limon Beach. Island of lovebroadcast on TVA.

They settled in Las Terrenas

Three couples from Quebec are entering the hotel business

Three Laurentians couples have decided to pool all their savings to buy a boutique hotel in Las Terrenas in November 2022.

Initially, this project bed and breakfast under the Caribbean sun was the retirement dream of Claude and Manon Fauteux, aged 65 and 64 respectively.

Together since high school, the two entrepreneurs, he from the world of construction and the furniture industry, and she from the hairdressing profession, did not want to experience a traditional retirement by completely stopping work. But one thing was certain, they wanted to spend the winters under the Dominican sun, precisely in Las Terrenas, a place where they had been going regularly for twenty years.

“When I saw the place, I said to my wife: this is the place where I want to experience happiness,” describes Mr. Fauteux.

Their daughter Marilou and her husband, as well as a couple of friends, also decided to invest in this “big project”, estimated at almost one million US dollars. M’s maternal cousin^me Fauteux, Nathalie Tremblay, also comes to help manage the bar, when the owners cannot be there.

“People tell us we’re lucky, but it takes a lot of risk management, time and sacrifice. My parents put their entire pension into this, emptied their bank account and walked away all in», says Marilou Fauteux, TV producer, who works remotely for almost six months a year. Her son, 4 years old, is going to kindergarten in Las Terrenas this winter.

“It takes a lot of organization, but we get there and we know it will pay off one day,” she says, happy to spend the winter in a warm place.

Popular among Europeans, the Takuma boutique hotel is attracting more and more Canadians and Quebecers. “Tourism has exploded here since the pandemic, and in winter we are almost always full,” says Marilou Fauteux, 38.

Spaghetti, pies and beaver tails

Two former restaurant managers in Saint-Hyacinthe, which closed just before the pandemic, decided two years ago to “start from scratch” in Las Terrenas.

Véronique Mailhiot and Dominic Miron sold all their possessions in Quebec and packed up.

“As long as we want to take over a restaurant in Quebec, to hire again, we said to ourselves: we will do it,” explains Mr. Miron, 49 years old.

After visiting Las Terrenas several times, there was no doubt that he would spend his “second life” there. “The only place we wanted to return to was here,” says M^me Mailhiot.

That’s how they founded the ready meals company Suvid, and recently opened a beaver tail counter on the edge of the beach. A stimulating retirement project that keeps them warm in the winter.

Every week, Mr. Miron delivers cooked meals to about forty customers, who love recipes well-known in Quebec, including traditional spaghetti sauce, lasagna, ribs, mashed potatoes, chicken, cordon bleu, raw vegetable sauces and soups.

For the holidays, M^me Mailhiot also prepares almost 300 tourtières and turkeys. He also sends part of his sales to local children who live in precarious situations, in school desks.

Leave the building to open the lair of the Quebecois

A real gathering place for Quebecers from Las Terrenas, Los Kikis restaurant-bar was founded by Daniel Michaud and his daughter Ève almost three years ago.

On the menu: poutine, spaghetti, club sandwiches and live Canadiens games. “When I arrived here three years ago, there were few (Quebecers), but really there are more and more,” mentions the restaurateur, retired from construction in Quebec. “It seems like people would rather come here than Florida,” he notes.

His daughter, a waitress in a restaurant in Laval, decided to live the life of a snowbird for the first time this year: she came to give her father a helping hand during the six winter months. The Business Management and Marketing graduate notes that she prefers the more “relaxed” lifestyle of Las Terrenas to the snowbanks of Quebec!

Every week they organize theme nights to bring together rural Quebec snowbirds.

• This report was created thanks to the International Reporting Grant of the QMI agency