des Hirondelles Park

Huh. It’s like this…amazing park, with some puzzling, ok-ish playgrounds. But a FANTASTIC-looking sledding hill, but a less-than-stellar splash pad. But, GREAT outdoor fitness equipment…..so ya, a bit of a conundrum. 
This park is so immense that we actually got back in the car to go around to the other playground. There should be a map or aerial view posted somewhere. 
Actually, here’s a view from above!
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You’ll find one of the playgrounds (the bizarre/cool retro one) in that sand circle you can see above, and the other playground and quazi “splash pad” near the chalet on Avenue Larose. 
We initially parked on Fleury, which has a ton of interesting-looking restaurants and cafés, and wandered past the Cercle De Fermières building to the oddly placed first play area with some swings, picnic tables, and a slanted rope climbing wall. It’s like a remnant of an old forgotten park. 
Then, it was on to what I’d previously spotted on Google Satellite: The giant compass! With the cardinal directions (N,S,E,W) denoted with huge metal letters, it’s both retro-cool and slightly odd. The…playground has a tall slide, and some seen-better-days swings. And it’s all rather unkept. I’d love to know the history behind this park, and when the compass was placed here, and why! A Google search didn’t come up with anything 🙁
The little one was puzzled (“What is for me to play on??”), so we did a little wander, a quick phone search, walked past the AMAZING-looking sledding hill, the soccer fields, and went back to the car.

The quick drive around the corner brought us to the second playground with its fully fenced and gated toddler area; the really, really archaic splash pad (it’s a couple of water jets that I have ZERO idea how to turn on); and the kinda-for-older-kids section. Little ones will like the play structure here as they can play underneath, try out the bridge and slide, or use the easy stairs. Older kids will probably go “huh” about the whole thing. 

Wander up the path past the base of the sledding hill and you’ll find the outdoor fitness course with both BenchFit AND TrekFit products. I believe the borough has FREE training sessions during the summer, so if that’s something that interests you make sure to check that out. You can see the full list of equipment available HERE

So…all-in-all a little puzzling. BEAUTIFUL park that’s home to events and activities throughout the year; but it’s like the playgrounds got forgotten during the rest of the park’s improvements. I’d love to the the retro bits revamped and the rest of the play areas updated. 

Things to note:
-There’s actually quite a lot of street parking available around the park, just make sure to check the signs. 
-Get your exercise by hiking to the top of the sledding hill, it’s immense!
-picnic tables and benches are throughout the park, with lots of trees for picnics. 
-The splash pad should be on from 8am-8pm.

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