Last week I was back to Paris for a couple of days of meetings and also had the opportunity to visit some new spots around town that I hadn’t had the chance to make it to previously. Although the weather was a little dodgy, it held off enough to allow for plenty of walking – which was needed to do to make up for the plenty of eating I also did. I only had three occasions to really go out for dinner and my colleague and I hit the following: A Noste, a tapas spot that mixes traditional french, Basque and Spanish cuisine; Les Papilles, a french wine shop with a set menu that I have visited before but could eat at every day; and Clamato, a seafood spot that is the more casual cousin of the famous Septime.
The final spot, Clamato, claimed the honour of the most difficult menu I have ever encountered in French. Even in English, I would have been guessing at many of the types of fish and preparations but in French, it was a completely blind order.
The taco truck inside A Noste – seating for three!
If I was recommending one spot in Paris for people visiting, Les Papilles would probably be it. It is a four-course menu for about 30 euros – consisting of a soup, some sort of meat, typically cooked in a cassoulet, a cheese course, and then a dessert. It is a small spot where the owner is always there and involved in your service and although there are a good number of tourists, it is balanced out by a nice number of Parisians as well. The food is a pretty good representation of french cuisine I think – plenty rich and available with a nice selection of wines also.
The final spot I visited on my own was Frenchie To-Go on Rue du Nil. I had eaten at Frenchie’s wine bar before too and been very impressed – this lived up to the hype. And one thing I always enjoy – the owner/chef was actually there when I visited, just as he was when I visited the wine bar.
Walking off some calories on the Promenade Plantee – the original elevated railway line park that the High Line in NYC is based on.
As mentioned in a previous post, our Honda CR-V, the first car I have ever owned from ‘new’, started to show some signs of its age this summer. First, the A/C compressor blew out on our roadtrip this summer, then we realized we would need new front brakes before the summer, and there was also the increasing number of creaks and squeaks that seemed to appear every time we drove it.
None of this was a surprise with an 8-year old car so we made the decision rather quickly to try and sell it off before dumping a bunch more money into it. We were lucky enough to sell it on our work bulletin board to an eager buyer and it was gone within days.
The CR-V in happier times. Outer Banks, NC.
We often have discussed our need for more space, particularly when people are visiting or we are on a long road trip, so the minivan became our point of focus. We settled in on the Honda Odyssey as it seemed to check all the boxes for us.
While a quick and easy sale was great, it also left us without a car and we needed to move quickly. I had heard of Unhaggle previously, and since we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted, I put our specifications in. Esentially what Unhaggle offers is the car costing sheet – what the dealer pays for the car – for free. In addition, for a fee of $99, Unhaggle will solicit offers from car dealers in your area with the idea being that they will compete against each other for your business and you end up with the lowest price.
I was going to pursue this but reading through a few message boards online, people seemed to think you could get a better price most of the time by negotiating yourself rather than putting it through Unhaggle if you were willing to put in a little bit of time.
One thing that has really changed since we bought our last car is that car dealerships will actually respond to, and bargain over, e-mail. Almost every dealership I e-mailed in our two days when I knew we needed a new car was good about coming back with a solid offer and also willing to beat other offers that I got over e-mail. This ended up being almost as efficient as using a service like Unhaggle.
We basically figured out the price floor pretty quickly for our vehicle and I checked online via RedFlagDeals and a couple of other forums to ensure we knew what the best prices others were getting.
With that, it only took us about an hour and a half in the dealership to review the features of the Odyssey, go back and forth once on price, and then decline all the extra warranties, rustproofing, and whatever else they try to add on. All in all, a very smooth sale and we knew we were getting what we wanted at a very good price.
Two weeks in, and we are both pretty happy with our purchase. The space in this car is endless, it will be great to be able to take extra passengers and we are eager to plan out some exciting family roadtrips over the next few years.
So after months of anticipation and planning, we were finally wheels-up from Ottawa, stopped off in Montreal, and got on our plane to Rome. The only direct flights from Montreal to Rome now are on Air Canada Rouge which I had not heard very encouraging things about. However, we had a thoroughly enjoyable flight – the young staff was really friendly and helpful, the seats are no worse than those on a regular Air Canada flight, and because we were prepared with our iPads the lack of television screens wasn’t an issue. When we arrived in Rome, we had arranged for a transfer to our hotel with Rome Airport Transportation and this worked out really well. Just slightly more than the cost of a cab, we had a driver waiting for us and some room to stretch out in a minivan that took us into the city and to our front door.
In Rome, we stayed in Al Centro Storico Roma Suite – in the Pont district, just west of Campo di Fiori. Lavinia met us at the apartment as planned and the accommodation worked out really well. After a quick nap, we were soon standing in Vatican City, just a ten minute walk from our place.
St. Peter’s Square
Our next priority was to find a gelato and luckily, you are never too far away.
Gelato #1 of many
On our first of two full days in Rome, we slowly got going and hit the tourist trail. Since neither of us had been before, we hit the big ones; Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain construction site and finally the Spanish Steps. In the middle of a Saturday afternoon, these just got busier and busier as we went along and we were glad to take the bus out of the crowds for a late lunch at Forno Marco Roscioli, an institution in Rome where we tried a variety of their pizzas – all of which were enjoyed!
Piazza Navona
Later on our first day, we met up with our friends from Ottawa that were just finishing up their own trip through Italy. We wandered through the Trastevere neighbourhood and relaxed on the banks of the Tiber River after getting a shaved ice, or grattachecca, at Sora Mirella. This was one of my favorite treats – so refreshing in the heat with the fresh fruit flavours.
Castel Sant’Angelo
On day two, we realized we still had lots to see before we headed to the train station the next morning so we were up a bit earlier and headed to see Castel Sant’Angelo, just across the river from our apartment. Unfortunately, we did not have time to tour this fascinating 2000 year-old fortress but even walking around it was very impressive and we even found a playground in the backyard.
After a quick lunch, we jumped on the city bus to get out to the Colosseum – again, although we weren’t planning to go inside, we were curious to see the structure and it didn’t disappoint. The scale of it is really impressive and it lived up to expectations. There is still some scaffolding on it due to the massive refurbishment program that is underway but it seemed to be more minimal than others had mentioned. When we were here, it seemed cooking hot since there is very little shade. I can hardly imagine visiting these sites in the heat and crowds of August.
Yep. Still there.
By the end of the Colosseum, we had all had our fill of the Roman tourists and we headed to Testaccio and then to the southern edge of Trastevere, stopping for another delicious gelato at Fatamorgana, then letting the big guy run off some more steam at another playground we came across. This was quite enjoyable as we were clearly just in the middle of an Italian neighbourhood, the kids couldn’t understand any of the other kids on the playground but they still all managed to play and have fun. On our wander back to the apartment, we also visited the Santa Maria in Tastevere Basilica, another most impressive old church.
Walking, always walking…
On our last night in Rome we had dinner in the Jewish ghetto at well-known Nonna Betta – eating on the street outside as the sun went down. Yet another place where ‘the credit card machine just broke yesterday’ but an enjoyable meal and too much good house wine.
Nonna Betta
After our dinner, we did what was probably my favourite thing we did in Rome, taking a walk at night inspired by this post. I would highly recommend this – it was so interesting to see the monuments at night and it felt like we had the city to ourselves since it was so much quieter than when we had seen it earlier. We walked to the top of the steps at Piazza Venezia, visited the Pantheon, wandered through Piazza Navona and then explored through tiny streets before stopping at Gelateria del Teatro for a nightcap gelato just after 10pm. (our kids were still not quite adjusted to the time so we just rolled with it)
Nighttime through Rome
The next morning, we said goodbye to Rome, taking a cab to Termini and hopping a train to Orvieto, and our next adventure….
Last night we arrived home from our two and a half weeks in Italy and this morning it is really setting in that I am heading back to work for the first time in 9 weeks.
We had a wonderful trip – all the big pieces fell into place – the flights were on time, the car rental was there, all of our rentals worked out, and the weather was absolutely perfect for the entire time. It really made going in September worthwhile, I cannot imagine touring around in the heat of the summer.
I hope to do a series of posts over the next couple of weeks about the four different areas we visited – Rome, Umbria, Tuscany and Cinque Terre.
Of course we experienced some hiccups along the way, not understanding the local way of doing things, not comprehending the language and generally just making silly mistakes that you do while traveling but none of these had any real consequences. However, it did lead us to come up with a few lessons from Italy.
1. Cash is king. You can never have enough cash to pay for things. Even if a restaurant or hotel says they take credit cards, more than likely their machine ‘just broke yesterday.’ It got to be comical how many times we heard this.
2. Make reservations. Some things in Italy seem so freewheeling but it is necessary to have reservations for any tours or for dinner. We had a couple of instances where we walked into completely empty restaurants to be told there were no seats because they were all reserved.
3. Buy train tickets in advance. You can always validate the tickets up to 60 days later for regional trains. The less times you have to use a Trenitalia ticket machine, the better your life will be. This is particularly true when standing in a line behind people who are seemingly baffled by a touchscreen.
4. Go with the flow. This is true on any trip but there were a few things that just made no sense (such as where to return our rental car, or why you can’t buy the amount of cheese you would want) but at a certain point there is nothing to do but shrug and move on.
Another great trip but it was equally great to be back in our own bed last night. Those little euro beds just don’t quite work for my frame!
Each year we usually go on a family camping trip to an Ontario provincial park with H’s sister and her family. Over the past couple of years we have gone to Charleston Lake and even closer, to Rideau River last year. However, it has been a few years since we had made the trek down to Sandbanks. There’s a couple of reasons for that:
#1. Sandbanks has some really horrible campsites – whoever was carving these out was not concerned about having level ground, whether a car would be going right by your head, or whether all the rain in an area would collect in the one basin that also happened to be the only clearing for your tent on your site.
#2. It’s a long drive for a weekend camping trip that was made longer last time we went because of road construction.
#3. You have to reserve five months in advance, at 7am as the reservations open up, to even have a chance at one of the aforementioned lousy sites.
Regardless, we gave it another shot this year, booking our five months in advance on a site that looked to be decently large and flat (the addition of pictures on the website now sure helps!) and choosing to stay for three nights rather than two to make up for the length of the drive. Oh, and they finally finished that road construction in Picton county – a nice bonus as well!
The last time we visited (June 2008)
This time around, we stayed on site #333 – although it lacked a bit of privacy on one side, it was a huge site that had a nice level spot to pitch our tent.
Site #333Paddleboarding
We also rented a paddleboard this year from Sandbanks Tours – they were great to deal with and only about a 15-minute drive from the park but I did notice that the park also rented standup paddleboards right on the water which might make it a bit easier. Neither of us had tried this before but it is quite intuitive and doesn’t take much getting used to.
Breakfast in the great outdoorsA-Train running the grill
Overall, I don’t think my assessment of Sandbanks has really changed. I would definitely try and stay in the Outlet River section of the park if we went again. The best beach of the park is located there and the sites also seem larger and more private. We did have a great weekend, but our fortunate choice of site and beautiful weather certainly played a part. I am sure we will return in the future but I think we will try out some other parks as well before rushing back.
It has been mentioned other places and I am not sure what has happened to ranger patrols in Ontario Parks – they seem to be non-existent. In three days, I did not see a single ranger go through our campground loop whereas the last time we were at Sandbanks, they were a constant presence and were warning people for talking too loud around their campfires after dark. This year people had music going until 1 or 2 in the morning every night – luckily they were not right by us but it certainly was a change from the tightly-patrolled and dead-silent nights we spend in Vermont earlier this summer.
During our stay in Alberta, we thought it would be fun to give the kids (and adults) a little more of a ‘country’ experience and since Rocky Mountain House is only an hour away, we started looking out west of there. In this area there are some beautiful views of the mountains and the foothills. My mom came across the website for Ride the Wind Ranch and setting up the details of our stay with Kathy was a pleasure. She and her husband moved to Canada from Switzerland many years ago and have built themselves beautiful accommodations and a very nice ranch with horses and longhorn cattle.
Unbeatable view
The cottages, built by Kathy’s husband, are rustic but kept impossibly clean and have everything we needed with a small fridge, a comfortable bed, full bathroom and even a coffee maker for the morning.
We enjoyed a beautiful night by the fire, with dry firewood that burnt beautifully. (Ontario Parks could take a lesson)
The ranch is perfectly set up for kids; they were able to play in the ‘Sherriff’s Office’, feed the horses and roast marshmallows. The whole place is really well thought out and we enjoyed our stay very much.
Last week I had the opportunity to go back to Paris for work where I represent Canada on a working group at the OECD. This is the third time in the past 18 months that I’ve been and so while the city becomes more familiar, I also feel less inclined to stay longer than I have to. This trip, I arrived early on Sunday morning and was headed back to North America by lunchtime on Wednesday. Despite that, I managed to pack in some successful meetings, dinners with colleagues and a bit of touring in the 3rd and 4th arrondissement (the Marais); an area where I haven’t spent a lot of time since I have typically stayed in the 16th on the other side of town.
Place des Vosages
Rue de Rosiers is referred to as ‘Falafel Row’ because of the many different shops specializing in this handheld dish and I went to check it out after visiting Bastille Market. The most famous of these shops is L’as du Falafel and the line outside suggests the power of the Internet’s ability to concentrate people in one place. I would estimate 200-300 people in line, something I had no interest in undertaking. I took my spot as the fourth person in line at Chez Marianne around the corner which by all accounts builds a good falafel and it delivered. From there, I wandered the 8km back to my hotel to work off the falafel and my jetlag.
The masses
It became apparent to me that I have never visited Paris in June before, since typically our meetings have been held in December – the crowds of tourists were insane. One night, since I wasn’t tired I walked over to the Eiffel Tower at midnight to watch it light up on the hour and Trocadero was still jammed with dozens of tour buses letting people off to go check out the view.
Midnight in Paris
A trip to Le Cafe du Commerce in the 15th on our last night provided a nice glimpse of the classic Parisian brasserie. The rude service, cheap wine, and excellent duck dish demonstrated its authenticity.
Cafe du Commerce
a work in progress – our adventures here and there
Last night we arrived home from our two and a half weeks in Italy and this morning it is really setting in that I am heading back to work for the first time in 9 weeks.
m&h 