State: Quebeckers feel chill in South Florida

Quebeckers feel chill in South Florida

Canadians flock to Hollywood for winter warmth, but is the area phasing them out?

By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN

HOLLYWOOD BEACH -- On this mile-long stretch of South Florida beach, winter visitors are more likely to read the Montreal Gazette than the Miami Herald, eat crepes instead of Coney Island dogs and sing along with Celine Dion instead of Gloria Estefan.

Bienvenue -- Welcome! -- to Floribec.

For decades, thousands of French-speaking Canadians from Quebec have flocked to a part of Florida where -- temperature aside -- they can feel as though they never left home. So strong is their presence here -- in bars and restaurants, shops and clinics -- that a Quebecker could spend an entire winter without uttering a word of English.

Quebeckers are "safe, culturally and linguistically," says Remy Tremblay, a University of Ottawa geography instructor who recently did his doctoral thesis on Floribec. "It's like being in Quebec with tropical weather."

Now, though, this unusual ethnic enclave could be an endangered species -- threatened by high-rise development and what some see as the increasingly unfriendly attitude of other denizens toward the Quebeckers.

"They say say, "Go back home' when they hear my accent," complains Jackie Lessard, who owns a travel agency and is among the city's 3,100 year-round French-Canadian residents. "We feel that we are not welcome."

Canadians are by no means limited to this part of Florida. Every winter an estimated 700,000 head to various parts of the state, including St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille. However, those snowbirds tend to come from English speaking Canada, have higher incomes and blend more smoothly into the communities they frequent.

Since the 1960s, though, French-speaking Quebeckers have found a warm climate -- literally as well as figuratively -- among people just like themselves along the Atlantic beaches of South Florida.

"It was called the Quiet Revolution in Quebec -- people had more leisure time and started to travel, and Miami, of course, was a great place," says Tremblay. "It was not too expensive and they could drive down there. Soon there were enough of them to open a business and survive just with tourists from their own province."

As real estate developers began buying ocean-view property, the French Canadians moved farther up the coast, settling en masse in the more working-class environs of Hollywood Beach.

During the peak winter season, Hollywood's population of 130,000 nearly doubles, mostly with visitors from Quebec. The beach is packed with sunbathers and strollers singing out Bonjour to passers-by, many of them friends and relatives from back home.

TV en Francais is the lure of $50-a-night motels, sprouting satellite dishes that pick up French-language soap operas and popular news programs like Salut! Bonjour!

Stores proclaim Nous Parlons Francais -- "We speak French" -- on signs next to discount T-shirts and racks of suntan oil. Visitors can eat at the Pole Nord, have their hair done at the Quebec salon or get prix speciaux -- special prices -- at the Sheldon Ocean Resort.

While there are some lithe young people, the crowd contains few of the sculpted bodies seen in South Beach or the expensively manicured matrons who prowl the boutiques of Palm Beach. Some local journalists have come close to cruel in their stereotyping of Quebeckers as middle-aged, overweight and decidely declasse.

"They are not ridiculed, but I think there are times that fun has been poked at them," says Mayor Mara Giulianti.

Giulianti insists that Hollywood welcomes the French Canadians, who form the largest single bloc of visitors, while acknowledging the city is eager to broaden its tourism base. Increasingly, German and Latin American accents mingle with those of the Canadians, whose weak dollar limits their spending and hence their guest allure.

"We don't want to lose a single Canadian, but the area is aware we need to appeal to a broader group of people because the Canadians make us very sensitive to fluctuations in the Canadian dollar," Giulianti says. "Like they say, "When Canada sneezes, we catch a cold.' "

Some French Canadians claim the city is actively trying to drive them away, by such means as raising parking meter rates near the beach to $1 an hour. Lessard, the travel agent, says the city didn't even ask her to set up a booth at last weekend's Canada Fest, a big annual event, even though she has owned a business here for many years.

Tremblay, who has visited Hollywood Beach since childhood, says the French-Canadian population is also threatened by the encroachment of high-rise condos and four- and five-star star hotels. The local Howard Johnson's is destined to become a luxury resort, and a huge oceanfront retail and residential project is scheduled to start construction soon in the heart of the French-Canadian area.

"The socio-economic class of tourist in Hollywood Beach might change or they'll go somewhere else, maybe the Dominican Republic," Tremblay says.

Dan Kennedy, a real estate agent who owns motels catering to French Canadians, agrees the city is changing. "You won't recognize this place in two years," he says.

But Kennedy doesn't think French Canadians will be any more affected than other ethnic groups. Few Quebeckers stay at the Howard Johnson's because they can't afford even its current rates, he notes. And the budget motels they prefer would be too expensive for developers to buy out given the density limits on what could rise in their place.

"The mom-and-pops are always going to be here," Kennedy says. "You're still going to have Canadians here -- I've got news for you, there are more working-class people in this world than rich people."

Tremblay admits he finds Hollywood Beach a bit tacky; he prefers to stay at South Beach in Miami or St. Pete Beach, where his in-laws have a place. Yet he thinks it would be shame if Floribec were to disappear.

"It just shows how strong the Quebec culture is, that they've been able to create an ethnic community outside of Quebec."

- Susan Martin can be contacted at susan@sptimes.com