Estérel, Quebec

Estérel (French pronunciation: [ɛsteʁɛl]) is a city in Les Pays-d'en-Haut Regional County Municipality in the Laurentides region of Quebec, Canada. The municipal territory almost entirely extends around Lake Masson, whereas the village itself is situated on the eastern shore of this lake.

Estérel
City
Lac Dupuis, with Estérel Resort in the background
Location within Les Pays-d'en-Haut RCM
Estérel Location in central Quebec
Coordinates: 46°03′N 74°01′W[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Laurentides
RCM	Les Pays-d'en-Haut
Settled	1920s
Constituted	January 1, 2006
Government [2]
• Mayor	Frank Pappas
• Federal riding	Les Pays-d'en-Haut
• Prov. riding	Bertrand
Area [2][3]
• Total	16.55 km2 (6.39 sq mi)
• Land	12.62 km2 (4.87 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[3]
• Total	262
• Density	20.8/km2 (54/sq mi)
• Pop (2016–21)	33.7%
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code(s)	J0T 1E0
Area codes	450 and 579
Website	www.villedesterel.com

History

The area of Estérel was originally part of the Parish Municipality of Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson, which formed in the early 1860s.^[4]

Around 1920, Baron Louis Empain, son of Belgian industrialist Baron Édouard Empain, acquired substantially all the land around Lake Masson intending to build a resort called Estérel, named after the Esterel massif in Provence, south-east France. In 1939, the Estérel Post Office opened.^[5]

In 1958, Fridolin Simard, an industrialist from Abitibi, bought over 2000 hectares of the baron's estate and completed the holiday resort. A year later in 1959, The Town of Estérel was formed when it separated from Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson.^[5]

On October 10, 2001, the Town of Estérel and the Parish Municipality of Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson were merged to become the Town of Sainte-Marguerite–Estérel. On January 1, 2006, after a municipal referendum, the Town of Estérel was however re-established and the Town of Sainte-Marguerite–Estérel was renamed to its former name of Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson.^[4][5]

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Estérel had a population of 262 living in 153 of its 377 total private dwellings, a change of 33.7% from its 2016 population of 196. With a land area of 12.62 km² (4.87 sq mi), it had a population density of 20.8/km² (53.8/sq mi) in 2021.^[3]

Historical census populations – Estérel, Quebec

Year Pop. ±% 1961 12 —     1966 133 +1008.3% 1971 94 −29.3% 1976 54 −42.6% 1981 68 +25.9% 1986 56 −17.6% 1991 119 +112.5%	Year Pop. ±% 1996 108 −9.2% 2001 181 +67.6% 2006 256 +41.4% 2011 199 −22.3% 2016 196 −1.5% 2021 262 +33.7%
Source: Statistics Canada[3][6][7]

Mother tongue (2021):^[3]

• English as first language: 17%
• French as first language: 75.5%
• English and French as first language: 3.8%
• Other as first language: 5.7%

Local government

Estérel town hall

List of former mayors:

• Fridolin Simard (1959)
• André Nadeau (...–2009)
• Jean-Pierre Nepveu (2009–2017)
• Joseph Dydzak (2017–2021)
• Frank Pappas (2021–present)

See also

• List of anglophone communities in Quebec
• List of cities in Quebec