Rigaud is well known for its ski center, which offers one of the best children’s ski school programs in Quebec. Most of the town’s activities, whether it’s the many kilometers of hiking trails, rock climbing, high-flying treetop walks at Abraska or the Paintball Warzone, revolve around the mountains. The Fall Festival des Couleurs attracts people from all over Montreal. The area is truly beautiful, bordered by the Ottawa River and backed by mountains.

Nestled on the mountain is the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame- de-Lourdes, a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The mountain is also home to an unusual natural rockery known as the “potato fields”, so named because of the local legend that it was once a potato field, turned to stone by God because the farmer worked on Sundays. The Collège Bourget, now an excellent French private school, was founded and run by the monks until recently.

Rigaud is also home to the Canada Border Services Agency’s training center, which is an added bonus to make customs officers smile when they see your home address when clearing customs at Canada’s airports!

The base of the mountain is dotted with rolling farmland, and a local farmers’ market supports many of the town’s organic producers.

On the mountainside is a wooded residential subdivision called Mountain Ranches, with large, secluded building lots, which attracts residents for its tranquility and quick access to the highway. The center of Rigaud caters to young families, with smaller homes and plenty of parks.

There is no longer any active rail service in Rigaud, but a local bus system, the RTM, provides transportation between Rigaud and the Vaudreuil-Dorion station.