Our history and values in Rivière-du-Loup
Rivière-du-Loup, formerly known as Fraserville, has a rich history shaped first by the St. Lawrence River and its cargo boats, and then by the railway, which brought industrial growth and wealthy holidaymakers to the region.
Before all that, Rivière-du-Loup was a seigneury, home to a rather extraordinary seigneur. Come and discover his story during your visit.
A former manor, now a place to connect
Built in part around 1870, the hostel occupies a former manor that belonged to one of Seigneur Fraser’s children. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd took it over in 1905, renovated the house and added the beautiful woodwork you can still admire in the hostel’s entrance. That same year, the main building was enlarged to house the coachman and his family, and the barn now converted into guest rooms was expanded too.
For 60 years, the building was a small school for girls from the neighbourhood. The wooden floors, worn down by generations of footsteps, still tell the story of the cooking and sewing lessons and the classrooms upstairs.
From the hostel’s beginnings to today
The hostel was born out of the enthusiasm for connecting with the world around the 1976 Olympic Games. It first opened in a huge barn near Carré Dubé, before moving permanently into its current building in 1978.
Several projects shared the rear building in those years, including a paper-making workshop and a youth centre fondly remembered by those who spent time there around 1980. Without funding, the hostel struggled and ceased regular operation after 1985.
1990 marked a fresh start. The hostel was renovated and expanded to become home to a wide range of projects, including a climbing school, a schooner project on the river, a winter prospector village in the Parke Reserve, ice climbing at the falls, nature discovery activities, Indigenous storytelling evenings and Katimavik groups. These were just some of the initiatives led by our energetic team between 1995 and 2005.
After 2005, the hostel strengthened its operations. Visitor numbers grew year after year, and we now welcome guests for most of the year. Still young at heart, the hostel remains a place where new projects and life experiences take shape.
Our mission
For a long time, we described our mission as helping young people discover other cultures through travel. That remains true, but today we see our role from many more perspectives. We are a dynamic social economy enterprise, deeply involved in our local and regional communities, as well as the youth travel community. Today, our purpose is to enable travel experiences that enrich people’s lives, sometimes a little and sometimes a great deal. A stay at the hostel rarely leaves you unchanged. We’re proud of that, because our guests themselves create this special atmosphere. To experience it for yourself, discover our shared spaces and life at the hostel, along with our accommodation options in Rivière-du-Loup.
Our approach to sustainable development
Being a green hostel is in our DNA. It means sustainable development guides our decisions about cooking, cleaning, renovations, bedding and towel use, almost all the time. For us, though, sustainable development goes further. It means working with our community to make everyday life more vibrant for visitors and residents alike: welcoming artists in residence, supporting cultural festivals, creating a barrier-free outdoor space, introducing young people to a region they might never otherwise visit, keeping rainwater on our property rather than letting it run into the street, celebrating First Nations cultures and helping families enjoy affordable summer holidays. It also means offering a thoughtful travel experience. This includes rooms with a smaller environmental footprint, more places to connect, links to our region’s natural wonders, free bikes and evenings together at festivals, with nothing on your mind but the joy of discovery. Leaving with a better understanding of why the Bas-Saint-Laurent is worth protecting and why you want to come back. Our work aligns with 12 of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Our employees and volunteers are travellers too, coming from Quebec, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Kyrgyzstan, China and many other places. For them, this is a life experience as well. To discover the region that inspires us, explore Rivière-du-Loup and the Bas-Saint-Laurent from the hostel.
