See the country | A showcase on Lake Saint-Louis

Too often inaccessible in several sectors of Montreal, the river does not hesitate to make eyes at residents and visitors in the West Island. At Valois Bay, a small maritime alcove located in Pointe-Claire, watercraft and a recently redesigned park chalet reach out to boaters.

Valerie Simard
The Press

Baie de Valois and the Grande-Anse park that borders it are well known to residents of Pointe-Claire and the surrounding area, but less so to other Montrealers. Relatively modest, the place is a mesh of the string of waterfront parks that dot the banks of the river, between Verdun and Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.

Slightly set back from Lake Saint-Louis, the bay allows for more peaceful kayaking, canoeing and paddle boarding, although a westerly wind blows there regularly. After launching, it is therefore better to head west first to take advantage of the tailwind on the way back. Along the shore, you can see the luxurious residences that benefit from a privileged view of the water and turtles basking on the boat ramps. In the distance, sailboats sail in hordes. In just over half an hour, you easily reach the end of the point which, once bypassed, reveals a great view of the Pointe-Claire marina and Saint-Joachim church.

New cottage

Boat rental is offered to everyone, by the hour or by the day, by the City of Pointe-Claire. The place is lively on weekdays because of the holding of a day camp, but becomes peaceful at the end of the afternoon (rental is offered until 8:45 p.m. on weekdays, in summer).

This activity has been offered for years by the municipality, but its popularity is growing. Traffic has doubled since the same date last year, observes Stefan Fudakowski-Gow, project engineer at the City of Pointe-Claire. The new park chalet, inaugurated last summer, is certainly no stranger to this growth.

Condemned because of its dilapidation, the old chalet has been replaced by an elegant cedar building signed by the architects of ADHOC and PRISME and by the contractor Groupe Piché.

Accessible to wheelchairs, the new Baie-de-Valois Nautical Center was inspired by geological stratification (rocky shore, tree trunks and canopy) and designed to fulfill multiple uses, in the spirit of improve access to shorelines.

“There was a citizen use [du parc] which was still strong, so we gave a project worthy of its use,” says Krystel Flamand, lead architect at PRISME architecture.

In the basement there are storage spaces and changing rooms with lockers for boaters. Upstairs, a community room with kitchen and view of the water can be rented for private events of up to 100 people. A covered terrace also allows you to enjoy the waterfront, rain or shine.

Originality and functionality

Pleasure for the eyes, the pavilion is distinguished by its angled roof, a choice guided by the desire to recall the canopy and to “direct the view towards the water,” says Jean-François St-Onge, co-founder and creative director of ADHOC Architectes. In addition, the overhang of the roof allows increase the building’s energy efficiency by deflecting the sun’s rays in summer to prevent overheating.

For the soffits as well as for the interior ceiling, ash planks from trees affected by the borer felled on the territory of the municipality were used, at the request of the City of Pointe-Claire.

“We wanted it to be a project to open up to nature,” says Jean-François St-Onge. It’s a fairly unique point of contact in Montreal, as far as the banks are concerned. »

This pavilion is the fourth or fifth generation of building to overlook Lake Saint-Louis at this location, notes Stefan Fudakowski-Gow. The remains of an old foundation as well as artefacts such as carabiner balls were found during archaeological excavations carried out on the site in 2020. This shows that visitors to Valois Bay are not new.