Another Big Hardware Store in Gatineau – The Saga Continues

I needed to find a particular shade of 1/4″ plywood for the latest theatre set I’ve designed. I found out there’s another big hardware store on the Quebec side that is accessible by bike path. It’s a Rona on Boulevard du Plateau, so I went and had a look. The blue line on the map is how I got there. The red line is how I got to Réno-Depot from Rona after not finding what I wanted, and then home.

The design of the bike path I followed along Boulevard des Allumettières was influenced by popular struggles to minimize the negative impact this major traffic artery would have on the social fabric of the area. This interpretive panel located in front of one of the three traffic calming round-abouts describes in part these struggles.

For example one of the things they managed to set in place was no transport trucks allowed.

Boulevard des Allumettières is only five years old. It’s name is in reference to les Allumettières, female employees of EB Eddy, whose dangerous job it was to prepare and package wooden matches, a major local industry at the time. Their story is explained in this article.

It’s great that organized activism resulting in benefits to the community are acknowledged as part of the history of the area, as is the case with the above interpretive panel.

Backing up a bit, here is the path along Boulevard des Allumettèries just up from the Ruisseau de la Brasserie Pathway.

These are some of the sound dampening walls separating the traffic from the bike lanes and houses.

I had trouble figuring out how the path continued beyond the Promenade du Lac des Fées off-ramp, until this bicyclist, who had just passed me, suddenly appeared on the other side. I realised then that I was to follow a pair of switch backs that circled under the off-ramp. I guess the message spray painted on the concrete barrier is meant to discourage pedestrians tempted to hop over and avoid walking the longish switch backs.

After riding through part of Gatineau Park I arrived in the area in which the Rona is located. All very new development. Here’s what a section of Boulevard des Grives looks like. Note the designated bike lanes. Well done Ville de Gatineau.

So, I didn’t find what I was looking for at Rona. Glad I checked it out. Now it was time to head to Réno-Dépot.
Retracing my treads, I rolled back onto the Ruisseau des Brasseries Pathway and headed North. If you come upon this incredible graffiti painted on an errant boulder, and you are still planning on going to Réno-Dépot, you’ve gone too far. You should have turned left over a small bridge a hundred yards back. I’ve made this mistake a few times.

BUT continue on a bit further before turning around and you will come to this underpass, one of the more worked over graffiti sites I’ve happened upon on the Quebec side.

Got to Réno-Dépot. No luck. I’ll have to visit the orange bib brigade this side of the river and see if they have what I’m after.

By the time I headed home the sun had sufficiently set for the lights on the Rue Montcalm bridge to start twinkling.