It's May, which means it's prime time to see pretty spring flowers. Particularly, pretty pink spring flowers.
There are plenty of stunning spots around Montreal where you can bask in the beauty of the blooms — whether cherry blossoms, magnolia blossoms or crabapple blossoms. But, if you think it's worth a little extra travel time to experience absolute magic, you're going to want to hear about this enchanting alley, located 20 minutes by car from downtown Montreal (without traffic).
Bursting with blushing florals when the crabapple trees reach peak bloom, this trail — not well known to Montrealers — is bound to make you feel like you've stepped into a fairytale, rather than having stepped onto the south shore.
You can find the pink promenade at Parc Linéaire Desaulniers in Longueuil.
According to Le Reflet, the park's walkway was renovated around 2022. It crosses Vieux-Longueuil from east to west, and is popular with joggers, cyclists, pedestrians and animal walkers in every season, even in winter.
Above all, the park — which is more of a long pathway than a traditional park — is beloved for its gorgeous pink crabapple blossoms, which bloom each May.
Yep, these are crabapple flowers, according to the Ville de Longueuil, not cherry blossoms. Although, they do look pretty similar and it's easy to confuse them.
If you need help telling the difference, crabapple flowers have longer petals and the trees have paler bark. They also typically bloom with some visible leaves, while cherry trees rarely have leaves when they bloom so green amongst the pink is a sign that it's a crabapple tree. There are more distinctions than that, but they involve knowing what a flower's "style" is (and we don't mean its fashion sense), so check out the Brooklyn Botanic Garden website if you want to learn more.
Heads up that the images in this article are from previous years. Mother Nature refuses to tell us when specific trees will reach peak bloom, but we know that the crabapple trees in Longueuil have started blooming. In the past, the crabapple blossoms at Parc Linéaire Desaulniers tended to look their best in mid to late May.
Happy spring!
