Plaisance (a derive of the word pleasant in French) is a small municipality between Montreal and Ottawa.  The town offers two very interesting options for a visit next to the water.

The first is the National park where you can hike/bike/camp and the second is the Plaisance Falls.

You can combine a visit with Montebello and/or Omega Park within the same day if you like.

Parc National de Plaisance

National parks are conservation territories allowing visitors to explore protected nature.  The Parc National de Plaisance is small and is located on the Ottawa River. It presents different types of environments: swamp and forest. You can discover the site on foot, by bike or even some sections on water.  The park also offers camping options.

Bikes are available to borrow on site. It is a great option to cover a larger territory.  We reached the complete end of one of the paths to “la falaise” by bike.  It is not a must but the view is okay.

The Zizanie-des-Marais trail was the highlight of our excursion at this park.  The walking trail offers a new outlook of nature from a floating boardwalk across the swamp.  The area certainly offers a beautiful habitat to nature’s life. Unfortunately, despite the fact that we were mostly alone, we did not see any wildlife.

Chutes de Plaisance (Falls)

We combined our visit to the region with a stop at the falls. Since we were near the end of the day, we did not foresee the need to get into this park but somehow we opted to go.  While we did not explore the entire place because of lack of time, the little that we witnessed highly surpassed our expectations. The décor is beautiful. Benches are well positioned to see the falls at different levels which are surprisingly better and better as you move down the path.

It was a gorgeous discovery and we were very pleased that we took the time to get closer to the falls.  What you see next to the bridge is completely different and even disappointing when you compare it to the landscape in the park.

I do suggest visiting this place.