2024-03-01 00:30:00
In Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier travels mostly on the run, his desk in his backpack, on the lookout for fascinating subjects and people. He speaks to everyone and is interested in all walks of life in this urban chronicle.
Heated floor and home theater: for the price of a small condo in Montreal, a wealthy RV enthusiast can afford the most luxurious motorhome, which is currently at the Montreal VR Show.
Obviously there are trailers priced over a million dollars, but you won’t see them here. No dealer will subject a high-end model to the dirty fingers and heavy boots of thousands of visitors.
“If you show off a $1 million RV, people come in there like a barn, and then they rip off all the door handles. Out of respect for the next buyer, we cannot do that,” says Jean-François Lussier, president of Horizon Lussier.
“We sell two or three models at $800,000 per year, but this is not a clientele that we reach through exhibitions.”
The Salon had not yet opened its doors when a long line of people were waiting.
Half an hour after opening, it was already busy. You have to be prepared to wait and wait your turn if you want to visit dozens of RVs.
A lookout watches over the entrance to the Allegro Red, from the Tiffin brand, at $510,000. Six visitors at a time.
A security guard monitors the entrance to the show’s most expensive RV to limit visitors to six. Louis-Philippe Messier
A sign warning people not to urinate or defecate in the toilet bowl reminds us that, as Mr. Lussier said, some visitors do not err on the side of being too considerate.
Inside this most expensive model in the Salon, the bathroom is more spacious than that of my current apartment in Montreal. There is a retractable television with home theater.
The ceramic floor is heated. All controls are electronic.
It looks like a brand new little condo in Griffintown, a rolling version and without the REM singing.
This half-million RV is so “homemade” that the trailer character is no longer there at all.
“Cleopatra was walking with her tents and her porters. Later, cowboys camped in their chuckwagons. Today, we are a little more luxurious chickens!” said Mr. Lussier, laughing.
This is not a hotel room… Louis-Philippe Messier
“Will the ceramic crack if we hit a pothole?” worry Marc Boivin and Pascale Desroches, a couple of truckers in their fifties who have come to look at RVs for their future retirement during which they plan to become desert snowbirds.
“Instead of Florida, we will go to Arizona or New Mexico, where the roads are magnificent for motorcycles,” says Ms. Desroches.
Marc Boivin and Pascales Desroches come to ogle the RV of their dreams in anticipation of their retirement. Louis-Philippe Messier
New this year: tiny houses on wheels… which are not aimed at retirees.
This type of dwelling requires fairly flexible and functional joints to climb or descend a steep staircase and to move crouched like Gollum when you are in the bedroom space perched about a meter below the ceiling.
A Timberwolf tiny house on wheels. Louis-Philippe Messier
“It just happened this year. It’s wonderful for families, the children love it and, at $50,000, it’s affordable,” says Marc Rémillard, of Roulottes Rémillard, the grandson of the man who was one of the first RV sellers in Quebec in early 1950s.
Mini houses on wheels, here an Aspen-Trail Mini, are new to this show. Charming for small families, but too acrobatic for seniors. Louis-Philippe Messier
Finally, I’m daydreaming about a beautiful Vida brand tent trailer that would be perfect for my son and I when I remember I’m not here to buy! But like everyone else here, in front of these itinerant places of life, I found myself dreaming.
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