Cold puts a damper on celebration of winter at Centre de la Nature
The City of Laval’s Centre de la nature in Duvernay was definitely not the place to be on the weekend of January 23-24-25.
A polar vortex assailing the region had the obvious effect of discouraging many moms, dads and children – who are usually eager to get outdoors during the winter – from attending Laval’s popular Laval en Blanc seasonal celebration.
A seasonal counterpoint
Every year in January, Laval en Blanc offers a counterpoint to the city’s popular Fête de la Famille which takes place during at the end of summer.
The idea of having fun outdoors during the winter, in temperatures that normally hover around zero degrees Celsius, is a novel concept and a discovery in itself.
However, this was not to be for Laval en Blanc this year, as the thermometer dipped as low as -25 Celsius on some days.
Attendance was way down
Even with the sun shining down on the Centre de la nature on Saturday, it wasn’t enough to raise the temperature more than a few degrees, the result being that only a fraction of the thousands of Laval residents who normally attend turned up.
For those who still felt up to the challenge of facing the rigors of a real Quebec winter, there was snow sledding, ice skating, obstacle course racing, snow sculpting, even some musical performances to be enjoyed by kids and their families in warmth inside an enclosed interior pavilion.
