Customers and Friends

Customers and Friends (subtitles available in FR and EN) – Watch the video with its transcription (EN)

F-X was not only a talented craftsman, he was warm and friendly and down-to-earth, which led to a number of lasting friendships with his well-heeled customers. Many of F-X Lachance’s clients belonged to the burgeoning French Canadian bourgeoisie, as well as to another segment of the French-speaking elite: the clergy (F-X was a very devout man).

A trip to Montréal in the late 1920s shaped the direction the rest of his life would take. He went to finish work on a yacht that belonged to the son of the founder of Banque d’Hochelaga, Arthur Vaillancourt, who would later become a friend.

Arthur Vaillancourt’s Handy Billy, built during the winter of 1928-1929.

F-X also became friends with Father Elphège Brassard, the artistic director at St. Joseph’s Oratory, since F-X revered Saint Joseph and would regularly pray there.

Both friends, Vaillancourt and Brassard, ended up introducing him to all kinds of people who had the means to buy themselves a boat—a social circle as far from that of Île au Canot as he could ever have imagined!

Customer letter to F-X Lachance.