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The Butte à Mathieu
George Dor said that traditional Canadien folk song was set free in the 1960s to become Quebec song. Quebec's artists sang in coffee houses throughout Quebec, and the most popular among them was the Butte à Mathieu in the Laurentians, more precisely in Val-David. In 1959, Gilles Mathieu converted an old henhouse into a small entertainment building. The following year, Mathieu moved his venue to his father's expanded workshop. Until it closed in 1976, the Butte à Mathieu welcomed the great names of Quebec song writing, from Félix Leclerc to Plume Latraverse and Gilles Vigneault, Claude Gauthier, Louise Forestier and Jean-Pierre Ferland. Renowned singers from France such as Guy Béart, Anne Sylvestre and Barbara also took centre stage at the Butte. Many continue to remember the Butte as a showplace for Quebec song.
