St. Norbert

St. Norbert sits at the very southern edge of Winnipeg, where the La Salle River meets the Red, just beyond the Perimeter Highway along Pembina Highway. It is one of the city's oldest communities, founded as a francophone and Métis parish in 1857, and it was here in October 1869 that Métis residents raised a barricade on the old Pembina Trail and formed the national Métis committee, with Louis Riel as secretary, setting in motion the negotiations that brought Manitoba into Confederation in 1870. Part of the Rural Municipality of Fort Garry until Winnipeg's 1972 amalgamation, the neighbourhood still feels more like a village than a suburb, with heritage sites, river-bottom forest, and a bilingual French-English character. It offers a semi-rural pace while the University of Manitoba and downtown remain a straightforward drive up Pembina Highway.

Highlights

• Le Marché St. Norbert Farmers' Market, Manitoba's largest farmers' market, running Saturdays year-round with more than 200 local makers, bakers, and growers
• Trappist Monastery Provincial Heritage Park, with the stabilized ruins of the monks' 1903-04 Romanesque Revival church and the 1912 guesthouse that now houses the St. Norbert Arts Centre
• St. Norbert Provincial Heritage Park, where the restored Turenne House (1871) and Bohémier House (1889) interpret Métis and French-Canadian family life on the Red River, with a walking loop through the grounds
• La Barrière Park just south of the neighbourhood, an 84-hectare park along the La Salle River with picnic shelters, walking trails, and cross-country ski trails in winter