Saint-Paul-de-la-Croix Park

This is a large park with two separate playgrounds, pétanque and bocce courts (lanes?), and a new chalet, wading pool and separate splash pad.
New in 2017 are two permanent ping-pong tables (bring your own paddles), and the park for older kids has been completely redone. 

We were able to snag street parking right in front of the playgrounds, VERY carefully crossed the busy road, and trotted up to the toddler playground. Redone in 2007, the toddler area has a cute and easy-to-climb Kompan play structure. With stairs, little rope ladders, slides and a ground-level shelf, little ones can explore it on their own. In the surrounding sand are two spring riders (we had a race, I lost), baby swings, and a triple-kid seesaw/bouncer. What used to be a fountain is now a sand box with a cheery yellow shade umbrella. This area is fenced by the road, but open to the rest of the park, and is pretty much full sun.

It was tricky taking pictures in the brand new older kids playground as it was packed with kids. And no wonder it was so busy. It’s really, really cool, with some unique play equipment from GameTime, Urban Design Berlin, and Lappset’s sports line. 
Sports line? Yes! What initially caught our eye was the large yellow and black pyramid of oversize balls, and when we went over to explore we read the instruction panel with its play ideas for teens. Nice to see this age range recognized at a playground! On a bright poured-in-place rubber base, there are platforms, ropes, and bars to climb. 

Nearby and on fluffy wood chips (which always remind me of the smell of hamsters!), is an immense cable climber with TWO different bridges to the play structure. I love the fat rope (I’m pretty sure the official name is “fat rope”;) ) and this structure has all sorts of ladders, and stairs up to the tall slides. Plenty of ways up and down for older kids. 
I only had the 4-year old  with me, but he happily played with the ground-level colour wheel, spun in the saddle seats, and urged me to join him on the sit/stand seesaw. And then he saw his most favourite thing EVER, the woven saucer swing which he pretended was a bird nest. *chirp, chirp*
The whole space is really cheery with colourfully painted paths, picnic tables and benches, and funky bicycle racks. And because I’m a sucker for details, I loved that the blue and yellow theme continues through all the redone sections of the park. 

Things to note:
-The splash pad hours are 8am-9pm. It is located outside of the wading pool fence. You can read here for more info about the wading pool, which I didn’t take pictures of because it was full of kids, but it’s really, really lovely. The brand new chalet is right beside and has washrooms available. 

You can read more about the renovation HERE and HERE. Also, can I just reiterate how much I love that some cities have public consultations when redoing parks? Unlike my own city, whose motto should be: “Suck it up. You get what you get.”

2 Comments

  • Hugo says:

    Hello, my name is Hugo I’m a young adult who LOVES to stay active, explore and play. I’ve been to this parc before the ( 13 and up) and I just wanted to say that 1# you should change the word teens in this article to (ages 13 and up )which means adults who love to play as well! Many young adults still have a need to run, jump and climb and stay fit in a FUN way.
    I’m also into Parcour and took lessons at the Monkey Vault when I lived in Toronto. 2# My dream job is to become an architect and designe futuristic playgrounds that are like art, but art your allowed to touch finally. I think my first playground would be construction themed because MTL is always under construction. It be bright orange, red and yellow.
    I also want to get the city of Montreal to create more adult playgrounds and Idk who to share my idea with so we can get help for more adult playgrounds! Yes Montreal has Trekfit but those are simply gyms Brought outdoors…they are boring boring boring! Some cool city’s even have adult obstacle courses with nets to climb on and things to jump on. And that’s my dream for Montreal! To make FUN playgrounds for teens, young adults and older ones alike. Because everytime I see a cool playground when there’s no kids there I’m tempted to go have some fun, but it’s not socially acceptable so I think Montreal needs to be futuristic and understand some adults still have that need to make fitness fun and not boring repetitive movements like chin ups and lunges.
    Please if you know who to bring this idea too let me know. I’m sure that your website has tons of views. Maybe you know of one of the playground companies and can ask them or the city of Montreal to make more Parcs for ages 13+.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.