Plateau, Gatineau, Quebec

2,693 miles

Sept 4 – At the other end of the Chemin de la Montagne, I’ve discovered a planned community named Plateau, presumably built on a plateau, although I can’t tell from here.  It is a bedroom community of commuters to Gatineau, Quebec, and its neighbor city Ottawa on the other side of the river.  This section of town and its nearby big box stores has mushroomed since the 1990s, and most of the architecture reflects this era.

The main road through the community is sensibly named Boulevard du Plateau.  Each section has a different level of housing, from mansions on the eastern side to ordinary homes, duplexes, and apartments toward the west.  Perhaps the entire community was planned for luxury homes, but the lots didn’t sell that well and other sections were turned into multi-family dwellings.  Each area has its own park, and footpaths connect the different sections.  One long path wanders through the whole community along a stream named Ruisseau-des-Fées (Stream of the Fairies) and a footpath.

The planner seems to have had lofty goals for the place, because the street names are highly intellectual.   I thought that this plateau might have been planned as a site for a great university or an astronomical observatory.  One street is even named for “Civilisation” itself! 

Rue des Conifères

The streets on the eastern side were named for botanical species:

Conifères (conifer trees)

Grives (thrushes)

Noyers (walnut trees)

Sapinières (fir trees

Acajou (mahogany)

Pommiers (apple trees)

Pruniers (plum trees)

Genèvriers (junipers)

Cèdres (cedars)

Frênes (ash tress)

Rue de Prado

On the west is a group of streets named for famous museums of Europe:

Rue du Conservatoire (museum of arts & crafts, Paris)

Rue de Prado (Madrid)

Rue du Louvre (Paris)

Rue de l’Acropole (Athens)

Rue d’Orsay (Paris)

Rue de Glenbow (Calgary, Alberta)

Rue de Luxembourg (art & culture, Paris)

Rue de Pergame (Berlin)

Rue de Carnavalet (history, Paris)

Rue de l'Art Moderne

Some streets are named for styles of art:

Rue de l’Art Contemporain

Rue de l’Art Moderne

Rue des Beaux-Arts

Another bunch are named for great cities of Europe:

Europe, Dublin, Francfort, Moscou, Munich, Londres (London), Bruxelles

Rue du Firmament

One section of streets were named for beautiful features of sky and weather:

l’Atmosphere

Arc en Ciel (“arc-in-sky”, rainbow)

Cumulus (cloud)

Stratus (cloud)

Frimas (frost)

Rosée (dew)

Grésil (sleet)

Crépuscule (dusk)

Embellie  (I’m not at all sure of this one.  Literally, it translates as “embellished”.  The translation I’ve found is “upturn”.  It may refer to a celestial phenomenon I can’t identify.)

Rue de l'Automne

The Parc des Quatres Saisons (Park of the Four Seasons) is surrounded by the streets:

Printemps  (spring)

Été  (summer)

Automne  (autumn)

Hiver  (winter)

Rue de la Nébuleuse  & Parc des Deux-Ruisseaux

Many streets were named for astronomical elements of the universe:

Cosmos

Firmament

Galaxie

Zenith

Apogée

Zodiaque (Zodiac)

Étoile (star)

Astre (star)

Constellation

Orbite

Satellite

Comète

Éclipse

Planète

Équinoxe

la Petite Ourse (Ursa Minor)

Andromède (Andromeda)

Ganymede

Nova

Météore

Cassiopée (Cassiopeia)

Centaure (Centaurus)

Nébuleuse (Nebula)

Callisto

Amalthée (Amalthea)

Venus

Rue de l'Astrolabe

Several streets are named for earthly geography and navigation.

l’Equateur

Polaire

Méridien

Tropique

Hemisphere

Solstice

Gravité

Astrolabe (This last must be, of course, the famous astrolabe of Samuel de Champlain.)

Obviously, I was charmed by the idea behind the planning and naming of these streets, even if the homes themselves are more prosaic.

info:  Wikipedia.com

images:  Google Street Views