Along Route 132 in Riviere-Ouelle, a small Bas-Saint-Laurent village overlooking the Saint Lawrence River, Conte de Fee Antiques operates out of a shop its owner half-jokingly calls an Ali Baba’s Cave, and the description fits once a visitor steps inside. Shelves and display cases hold a mix of antique and more recent lighting fixtures, electric and oil lamps, decorative objects, collectibles, and furniture, all pulled together into what the business describes as the largest inventory of its kind in the entire Lower Saint Lawrence region. Owner Bertrand Hudon runs the shop with an eye toward function as much as nostalgia, since a meaningful share of the inventory consists of lamps and light fixtures the shop has personally repaired and restored rather than simply cleaned up and resold as-is.
That repair work is central to how the business positions itself. Rather than treating antique lighting purely as decor, Conte de Fee offers lamp and lighting repair services on-site, so a customer can bring in a broken family heirloom or a flea-market find with a frayed cord and leave with something guaranteed to actually turn on. The shop backs its restored pieces with a working guarantee, a detail that separates it from antique dealers who sell strictly as-is. Gift cards are also available, letting customers who cannot decide on a specific piece give the gift of a future visit instead.
Hudon frames the business’s approach in explicitly ecological terms, describing the core idea as giving objects a second life rather than letting them end up discarded while new goods are manufactured to replace them. That philosophy plays out in the sheer range of what passes through the door: pieces spanning different eras and price points, chosen deliberately to appeal to a wide range of tastes and budgets rather than catering only to serious collectors with deep pockets. It is a practical kind of environmentalism, rooted less in slogans than in the daily work of rewiring old lamps and finding new homes for furniture and decorative objects that might otherwise be thrown away.
The shop keeps generous, predictable hours, open daily from 9 am to 5 pm, which makes it an easy stop for travelers moving along Route 132 through the Kamouraska and Bas-Saint-Laurent region, as well as a reliable destination for locals hunting for a specific style of lamp or a piece of furniture to fill out a room. Its riverside setting places it within a stretch of Quebec well known for antiquing and small-town shopping, and the shop’s broad category mix, spanning lighting, collectibles, decor, and furniture under one roof, means a single visit can turn up finds across several different interests at once rather than requiring a trip to multiple specialty dealers.
For anyone in eastern Quebec searching for a working antique lamp, a restored light fixture, or simply a large, browsable collection of collectibles and furniture in one rural storefront, Conte de Fee Antiques in Riviere-Ouelle offers one of the region’s most extensive selections, backed by hands-on repair work and a guarantee that every restored lamp will actually light up when it gets home.
