Montreal Playground Sightings

In addition to friends, fine international cuisine, Québecois films and the Bibliothèque Nationale, I got to squeeze in a few playgrounds on our recent Montréal mini get away from it all trip. One afternoon my playground widow humoured me and tested out some equipment as we happenstanced across playspaces walking from Atwater Market in the west end to the central shopping strip on rue Ste. Catherine.

Parc Vinet, Rue Vinet and Avenue Lionel Groulx, Montréal
This spinning top needed a little grease. Even with a good running adult push, it spun for only 10 seconds with playground widow Mélanie aboard. I’ve never seen a spinny carousel like it. In my experience, this kind of equipment is in a hallowed class all its own, pretty much on the endangered list. Here, it is the pièce de résistance, the shining star in this playground’s constellation.

Each time I come across equipment that is new to me, it’s like receiving a present. I admire its design, its look and feel and I try to imagine its inherent fun quotient. I frequently wish I could uproot it and take it to a playground near home. The photos above and those that follow show equipment that are in that ‘new to me’ category.

Parc David Lefebvre, Rue Vinet and Rue Quesnel, Montreal
Though its small in size, Parc David Lefebvre is big on the horse aesthetic. The six seater from the red and gold star stable has seen better days. The glide mechanism on the old mare is still working well though. With running boards and hand grips she could probably groan along with 20 or so kids hanging off her. I’ve seen a similar horse in photos taken in England but this is the first chance for me to get up close and personal.

The blue broncing buck is another find with two hooves cutting the air. Climbing on its back, young ones can imagine a cattle drive, a rodeo, a cowboy. This is the wild west with a stallion that won’t be tamed.

Parc Lafontaine, Rue Rachel and Avenue Calixa-Lavallée, Montreal
A ship has run aground at the Parc Lafontaine playground. After monkeying up the rigging, there’s ample opportunity to look out over the shallows strewn with boulders to try and find a way clear to resuming the journey along the Seaway. The black and red stylized vessel is in a class of its own. Resting on a bed of wood chips, it’s permanently anchored in this jewel of a park on the estern borders of Montréal’s Plateau district.

Parc Jarry, Boulevard St. Laurent and Rue Faillon, Montreal
Parc Jarry was the starter home for the Montreal Expos, Canada’s first professional baseball team. Today, the park hosts an international tennis venue, a skate park and a playground that serves both the toddler set and pre-teens.

For the older kids who feel they haven’t got quite enough sleep there is the hammock which I’m told can flip right over though I didn’t witness this. For those with a little more spunk, there are the four parallel triangles to scale and boogie down. Not surprisingly perhaps, the more extreme, nearly vertical slope was the most popular for sliding during our visit. These pieces of equipment are surely familiar to some of you but they were first time attractions for me.

Finding playgrounds in Montreal on this trip was a little hit and miss. The weather didn’t cooperate so there were no screams and laughter from kids having fun to zero in on. Montreal, like many other cities, has not compiled any kind of online directory of playgrounds for use by residents and/or visitors. It means pleasant surprises when fortunate enough to come across treasures but disappointments too.

If you’re traveling to Montreal with kids, make sure to visit Salamander Playground in the Mount Royal Park. It’s a must.
Salamander Playground, Mount Royal Park, Montreal

For the Côte-des-Neiges and the Notre-Dame-des-Grâces area, there is an online resource that lists playgrounds in parks. There is a similar online resource for Villeray, Saint-Michel and Parc-Extension.

More thought should be given to making information on these community resources readily available. What can you do? Contact your municipal government’s parks and rec people to see if they have any plans to post playground information online. Check to see if there are bloggers in your community who are documenting playgrounds – more on this in a subsequent post.

In the meantime, happy playgrounding. We’re pretty sure that springtime is going to arrive in the not too distant future on Canada’s east coast. We will get sunshine, it will get warm…