I FIRST STOPPED in Prince Edward County in mid-February of 2014, on assignment to write a travel story. It was blustery and grey, but I fell hard—head over heels for the island that would eventually become my home.

Even then, PEC was cultured and sophisticated without pretension. The people were ambitious but generous, committed to building something together rather than competing for space. It felt like Richard Florida’s creative class had not just arrived, but taken root—turned inward, self-sustaining, evolving.

The wine was beginning to make a name for itself—and yes, the County boasts remarkable terroir—but grapes aside, this place was (and still is) fertile ground for something deeper. “It’s the snowball of enormous spirit and huge collaborative energy,” County-born hotelier Alex Fida told me back then. If anything, it feels even truer now.

What’s happening here isn’t simply about city expats chasing blog-worthy dreams of hobby farming or hipster rusticism. There’s a hum beneath the surface—the sound of minds and hands at work.

Yes, the County is beautiful: a lakefront that can feel like an ocean, waves that shimmer silver-blue, skies that blush gold and pink at dusk. But beauty alone doesn’t explain the magnetism of this place.

This is a landscape where local wisdom and creative momentum collide. Where Michelin-rated restaurants cultivate loyal local followings alongside chef-led food trucks and kitchen takeovers with lines stretching down the block. Where winemakers, artists, farmers, chefs, builders, musicians, and entrepreneurs arrive with ambitious ideas—and somehow find fertile ground to make them real.

The County is a place where anything can happen.

And LIFE AU LAIT exists to tell that story: to guide visitors toward their best Prince Edward County experiences, to capture the spirit of this ever-evolving community, and to celebrate the extraordinary people shaping it—those born here, those drawn here, and those who, like me, fell in love with it somewhere between the lake, the limestone, and the possibility of what could come next.

Lonelle Selbo
Publisher + Editor-in-Chief