Prior to the attraction’s public pre-opening, the first employees—including René Bourassa, Marcel Faucher, Jean-Paul Pelletier, Jean and Carmelle Gamelin, Dolorès Montmigny, Hélène Letendre, Gilles Benoit, and others—are trained for the Village’s historical animation aspect. Many of these employees are generous contributors who have donated ancestral homes, and some of them are assigned to guided tours of their own houses. In addition to these guides, the animation crew includes historians and real tradespeople such as woodworkers, saddlers, tinsmiths, shoemakers, carpenters, barbers, farmers, and craftswomen who ply the loom, use spinning wheels, and make quilts, hooked rugs, hats, soap, and candles. There are a few notable individuals as well: a priest, a doctor, a notary, a general merchant, and an insurance agent. Together, they recreate the period’s atmosphere to perfection.