| Val-David | |
| Settlement Type: | Village municipality |
| Flag Size: | 120x100px |
| Motto: | Un monde à part, et à partager (A world apart, and to be shared) |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada Central Quebec |
| Pushpin Label Position: | top |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in central Quebec |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Quebec |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Name2: | Laurentides |
| Subdivision Type3: | RCM |
| Subdivision Name3: | Les Laurentides |
| Established Title: | Settled |
| Established Title1: | Constituted |
| Established Date1: | May 10, 1921 |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Dominique Forget |
| Leader Title1: | Federal riding |
| Leader Name1: | Laurentides—Labelle |
| Leader Title2: | Prov. riding |
| Leader Name2: | Bertrand |
| Area Total Km2: | 43.90 |
| Area Land Km2: | 42.66 |
| Area Water Km2: | 3 |
| Elevation M: | 322 |
| Population Total: | 5558 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Density Km2: | 130.3 |
| Population Blank1 Title: | Pop 2016-2021 |
| Population Blank1: | 13% |
| Population Blank2 Title: | Dwellings |
| Population Blank2: | 3227 |
| Timezone: | EST |
| Utc Offset: | −5 |
| Timezone Dst: | EDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | −4 |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code(s) |
| Postal Code: | J0T 2N0 |
| Area Code: | 819 |
| Blank Name: | Highways |
| Blank Info: | |
Val-David is a village of more than 5,200 inhabitants in the Laurentian Mountains about 80km (50miles) north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Attracting about 100,000 tourists a year, Val-David is predominantly francophone although it has a small anglophone minority.
The village is famous for its delicious and diverse food scene as well for its artistic and hippie character. Many renowned and amateur artists, writers and dancers live and have lived in Val-David, notably Québécois poet Gaston Miron, jazz bassist Charlie Biddle, and singer-songwriter Alan Gerber.
Val-David is also a centre for much outdoor recreational activity as its 2000acres Parc Dufresne is the most popular rock-climbing destination in eastern Canada. Also, the Parc Linéaire Le P'tit Train du Nord, a 200km (100miles) bike trail, and groomed cross-country ski and snowshoe trails in Winter, run throughout the town's splendid nature.
The place was first known as Belisle's Mills, after the owner of one of the area's first sawmills. In 1873, its post office opened under the name of Mont-Morin, which was renamed Belisle's Mills in 1901. In 1917, the parish of Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Belisle or Bélisle was formed, detached from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. In 1921, the village municipality was officially established and named after the parish.
In 1923, the post office was renamed Val-David, which also became the official designation of the municipality in 1944. It pays tribute to Louis Athanase David (1882-1953), member of parliament for Terrebonne from 1916 to 1919 and secretary of Quebec from 1919 to 1936, and his father Laurent-Olivier David (1840-1926), member of the House of Commons and author of several books.
It now has its first local community monthly newspaper, ski-se-dit.
The town is accessible via Autoroute 15 which links Laval and Montreal towards the south shore suburbs like Brossard and the north shore suburbs like Saint-Jérôme. The autoroute 15 also offers a direct path to and from the United States border. The municipality is located near the northern terminus of the Autoroute which continues further north via Route 117 towards the La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve north of Mont-Tremblant and Mont-Laurier.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Val-David had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 42.66km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[1]
Mother tongue:
Val-David has three schools (all francophone), one of which is the Waldorf school, which is very popular among some of the hippie folk because of their approach to education.
Sainte Agathe Academy (of the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board) in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts serves English-speaking students in this community for both elementary and secondary levels.[2]