La Fontaine Park

Eighty-four acres of pure bliss – that is what locals are going to describe La Fontaine Park. Right in the hustle and bustle of the city stands a lavish green park, which features two linked ponds with a fountain and waterfall, an open-air theatre venue, a cultural centre, a dog park, playing fields, bike paths, barbecues and tennis courts. It remains one of the most popular parks among Montrealers, year-round.
But La Fontaine Park wasn’t always this urban forest; it is located on the grounds of what used to be the old Logan farm, which was sold in 1845 to the Government of Canada and used for military practice until the 1900s. This part of Montreal was still very much rural back then, and the soldiers used the surrounding wilderness to train. At one point, the military left, and the park got its first landscaping makeover – it was the first phase of the development of the city's large nature parks. The park was actually called Logan Park for its first few years, but changed to La Fontaine Park due to the increasingly important, almost exclusively French-speaking communities that settled around it. The park sustained plenty of changes throughout its history; today, it remains one of the best places for a picnic or to skate on the frozen pond in the winter.

Practical Info

La Fontaine Park is located in Plateau Mont-Royal, Montreal. It is surrounded by Sherbrooke Street on the South, Parc-La Fontaine Avenue on the West, Rachel Street on the North, and Papineau avenue on the East. It can be reached by foot from downtown Montreal and Plateau Mont-Royal, by metro via stations Mont-Royal, Sherbrooke or Papineau, by bus via routes 24, 45, 97 and 29, or alternatively, by car.