Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 10, 2007

IQALUIT - Julie Beauchesne hasn't exactly rested on her laurels since she came North 18 years ago to work as a French immersion monitor in Yellowknife.

Since then she's served as a field technician repairing snowmobiles for the Nunavut Research Institute and a polar bear technician travelling by plane over Baffin Bay to conduct a head count of polar bears.

Nunattaq Suites owner Julie Beauchesne, right, serves a meal to guest Paul Roux and friend Gwendaline Kervran. Roux is a well-known comic book artist who spent a week working with students at Ecole des Trois-Soleils, where Kervran is French monitor. - Karen Mackenzie/NNSL photo

But now the 38-year-old native of Victoriaville, Que., would finally settle down to run a bed-and-breakfast in Iqaluit.

It's all part of the take-things-as-they-come approach that has guided Beauchesne her entire life.

"You live with a plan, and it can evolve," she said.

Opening Nunattaq Suites in the Lakeview subdivision of Nunavut's capital city wasn't part of her plan, but from a very young age, Beauchesne was guided by a keen business sense.

"When I was around seven years old, I collected business cards from companies and then I would use the other side so that I had the right format and I made my own," she said.

Nunattaq Suites, which houses four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and a full kitchen, opened its doors last spring.

"Nunattaq" is an Inuktitut word referring to Beauchesne's favorite kind of Northern scenery - "very high peaks surrounded by glaciers. It's a nesting area for migratory birds."

The bed-and-breakfast has attracted comers and goers from all walks of life, which was Beauchesne's primary attraction to the business.

"We've had military staff, psychologists, teachers, biologists, a researcher from Argentina. Right now there's a cartoonist."

Nunattaq has been home to its first big celebrity, too.

"It was a pop singer from New York," said Beauchesne, struggling for a moment to remember the name. "Jewel! Yes, that's it. She was doing a concert in Iglulik. I was too nervous (to take her picture.)"

Beauchesne's brother and "guardian angel," Mathieu, lives in an apartment on-site and is on call virtually all the time for guests.

"He's always there if clients are locked out, or if they have problems with something, or if they have questions. He's there to do some repairs for me, as well."

Beauchesne's two children - her six-year-old son Akeeshuk and her nine-year-old adopted son Jackie - also help her out with the business, which, given Beauchesne's early business dealings, is hardly a surprise.

"Akeeshuk is known as the chief executive organizer. He is quite good with guests. He entertains them and shows them around."