Bois Franc Park

I had never, ever been to Bois Franc, except for taking the train through (a lifetime ago) while commuting downtown from Pierrefonds. I had a look on Google Maps and the park here looked big and promising with a few lakes.
I had NO idea where to park the car, but figured there must be a playground here somewhere. So we drove.
And drove.
And reversed.
And…aha!
Finally, a playground that looked promising (and buuuuusy).
We parked on the street near Rue des Andes and Rue de l’Équateur in front of the very, very large houses. I felt rather inadequate with my Tim Horton’s coffee and my husband exclaimed “This is yuppy heaven! That is a LOT of Lululemon”.
We’re yuppies too, we’re allowed to say these things 😉
This is a very well designed park with a lake with bridge and benches, a sledding hill for winter, a nicely groomed walking/jogging/stroller-ing path around the water, a dog run, and an adult exercise course (complete with instructions for each station) along the path.
We toddled up and down the hill, along the path, played with the chin-up bars, crossed the bridge, crossed the bridge again, and then visited the playground.

The playground is on wood chips and while fenced, there are no gates and it is fairly close to the road. There is also no shade. In fact, none of the park has shade. It’s going to be beautiful when the trees grow and mature. 

I LOVE both the play structures here. By Kompan and distributed through the Mirabel-based Imagineo company, they are interesting, creative, and modern.
The toddler climber has wide platforms to access the slide, a mini rope ladder, steering wheel and joystick at ground level, slides, binoculars and megaphones. Really interesting and even the walls have designs and tactile elements.
The larger climber has a steep slide, verrry difficult climbing poles with “rope”, bars to stand on and climb, a metal hammock underneath and some high platforms.
There is also an Xccent Play X-Wave wiggly balance beam, a bunch of spring riders and seesaws including the three-kid Blazer, a “hang by your arms and hold on” Maypole spinner, and stand-up and sit-in spinners.
The playground is surrounded by large rocks and benches to sit on.
There is also a water fountain just outside the fence, as well as a nicely disguised porta-potty.

Edited 2016: We’ve returned a couple of times to check out the progress of work happening in the park. There’s now a natural pond with a picturesque amphitheatre, a basketball court, an unassuming splash pad with adirondack chairs and picnic tables, and a chalet. If you want to park close to the splash pad it’s located near Rue des Hémisphères and Rue du Chinook. There are no big water towers or dumping buckets, rather it’s all ground jets (which is nice as it doesn’t ruin the natural feel of the park). There are two “magic” buttons to turn on the water, and it’s surrounded by picnic tables and lounge chairs. There is no fencing. 
Though this splash pad isn’t yet listed on Saint-Laurent’s website, their splash pad hours are generally 8:30am-9pm.

You can read all about the changes to the park (those already done and more to come) by clicking HERE or reading this new article from Les Nouvelles Saint-Laurent.