A place to call home

Telling stories and establishing roots

Chrystelle Maechler and Andreas Krätschmer chose to get married in the County because it was conveniently situated between Toronto and Montreal, and the Waupoos Island venue could accommodate their guests with ease. They were enamoured by the beauty of the County and had a dream of one day moving here. Chrystelle is originally from France, and met Andreas in his native Germany. Fourteen years ago they moved to Montreal, where they lived for a few years before moving to Toronto. Chrystelle is a jazz singer, screenwriter and director, and has worked in radio and television, most recently with the Ontario French network, TFO. Andreas is a cinematographer, film editor and director of photography. While working in Toronto, and even in Montreal before that, they found that most of their work was being done remotely from home. “The last few years I’ve mostly been editing films, and we both noticed that we didn’t meet our clients that much, so we didn’t feel the need to stay in Toronto with all the hectic life there, so we said maybe we can just work from here,” says Andreas. “Even in Toronto, I was editing and I would see my producer only every three months when he dropped off footage, so I said we could do that work from anywhere.” Chrystelle had been working remotely since 2017, and once she and Andreas decided to make the move to the County, it happened very quickly. “We had a dream to move here, and almost six years after the wedding, it just happened. We found a house and we bought it,” she says. “The dream was the beautiful landscape, the nice food, the nice people—every time we came here we encountered so many nice people— and also the thriving arts and culture scene here. Those were elements we both wanted in our life. We didn’t want to live in a suburb, and we wanted something that reminded us of Europe, something that reminded us of home.”

(L-R): Chrystelle Maechler and Andreas Krätschmer fulfilled their dream of moving to the County after being married on Waupoos Island seven years ago.

That concept of home is what led Chrystelle to want to explore how other people, after having moved to the County, have made this place their home. The idea started after a visit to the Busy Hands show in December 2019, shortly after the couple moved here. “We spoke to Joaquim and Amor [Conde], and their story is so interesting, and then I heard about Sleiman [Al Jasem] and the story fascinated me, then we started to look for others to tell different stories, different realities,” she says. “With my background in moving from one place to another, and even though you feel good at different places, sometimes it doesn’t necessarily feel like home. I heard from some conversations where people have this feeling of being rooted here even though they are relatively new, and I wanted to explore that.” With the help of Krista Dalby, Chrystelle and Andreas winnowed down their list of relative newcomers to include Melissa Cannons and Paul Tobias of Idle Wild, Aaron Armstrong of Blue Wheelbarrow Farm, and Susan and Glen Wallis of Away in the County. They then interviewed and filmed these entrepreneurs who now call the County home and created a television series A New Place Called Home, comprising five episodes now being shown on Bell Fibe TV.

Chrystelle and Andreas made the move to the County shortly before the pandemic hit, and they are still in the initial phase of calling this new place home. “The biggest challenge has been getting to know more people. It started very well, and we met lovely people in the first couple of months and then it all died down. We wanted to deepen some of those relationships and make some new ones,” says Andreas. “The social circle, and getting one established is always hard when you move to a new place, but we had a good feeling. What I like about this place is the whole agricultural community, being close to where your food is grown. There is a lot of arts and culture here, and we both would have looked for that in a region we would move to. We work in arts and culture, and we love going to concerts and galleries. I am an artist as well, as I do woodworking, and I thought this would be a nice setting for me to integrate in the arts scene here.” Chrystelle adds that being close to nature and being able to go for walks along the beach is very important, and she is looking forward to the coming seasons when fresh local produce becomes more available. The pandemic has meant a slow start in calling this place home, but she sees that one day it will be home. “We’re still able to connect with people, and have conversations easily, so there is this warmth as well, and right now, with the social distancing, we need that warmth more than ever.”