Down a quiet stretch of rural road at 5 Rue Faith in Lac-Sainte-Marie, Quebec, Robert and Linda Faith run The Beggars Bench, known in French as Le Banc du Mendiant, a combination antique and gift shop that has built its identity around a mix of retail, restoration craftsmanship, and seasonal vacation rentals. Inside, the shop stocks what its owners describe as a large selection of antiques, reproductions, and unique gifts, giving visitors a browsing experience that blends genuine period pieces with decorative reproductions and gift items suited to cottage country tastes. A dedicated Christmas section on the businesss own website suggests the shop leans into seasonal shopping too, drawing return visitors looking for holiday decor alongside their antique hunting.
What sets The Beggars Bench apart from a typical antique storefront is the range of hands-on services the Faith family offers beyond the retail floor. The business does log house restoration, a specialized trade suited to the timber-frame and log construction common throughout the Gatineau Valley region, along with furniture refinishing and repair work, giving local homeowners a place to restore both structures and heirloom pieces rather than replace them. That combination of retail and restoration work reflects a business built on genuine craftsmanship knowledge rather than pure resale, and it is the kind of service that tends to earn a shop a loyal, repeat local clientele who trust the owners with more than a onetime purchase.
Beyond the shop and workshop, The Beggars Bench also operates a seasonal accommodations business, renting chalets, condos, and cottages year-round, including hillside condo units located at nearby Mont Sainte-Marie. That pairing of an antique and gift shop with vacation rentals is well suited to Lac-Sainte-Maries location in the Gatineau Valley, an area popular with visitors heading to Mont Sainte-Marie for skiing in winter and lake recreation in warmer months. Visitors renting a cottage or condo through the business have an easy reason to stop into the shop itself during their stay, and shoppers who come across the store while touring the region may find themselves booking a stay on a return trip.
The business can be reached by phone at 819-467-2735, and maintains a website with regular updates alongside social accounts on Facebook and Instagram under the handle beggars_bench_antiques, where the shop shares new arrivals and seasonal features like its holiday offerings. Visitors are encouraged to check the stores flyer, referenced on its own site, for current promotions and to confirm hours before making the drive out to Lac-Sainte-Marie, since a rural antique shop of this kind often keeps hours that shift with the season and with rental bookings.
In short, The Beggars Bench is a Lac-Sainte-Marie antique and gift shop run by Robert and Linda Faith that also offers log house restoration, furniture refinishing, and seasonal chalet and condo rentals in the Gatineau Valley region near Mont Sainte-Marie.
