A weekend in Paris – on a whim

We have long harbored the dream of crossing the Atlantic just to spend a weekend in Paris, one of our favourite cities in the world. Coming from snowy Canada, Paris, especially in the spring, holds special memories for us. We realised that dream during Easter Weekend in 2018.

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Cinque Terre magic

Perched on promontories along the ‘Italian Riviera,’ between Pisa and Genoa, Cinque Terre is a string of coastal villages that will capture your heart forever. Up to relatively recently these villages, situated within a national park, were off the beaten track for tourists. We hadn’t heard of this area up to a few years ago, despite having visited Italy several times. However, having watched an episode of Rick Steves’ Europe video series, we just had to visit.

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An Atlantic crossing

We had never been on a ship larger than a ferry and we had never dreamt of going on a cruise. However, the idea of sailing from Southampton to New York seemed like a unique experience, with no land in sight for almost a week. The Cunard Line stresses in its communications that this journey is a “crossing” not a cruise.

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“The Sun” – a poem by Mary Oliver

The video clips used to complement the reading of this beautiful poem contained in the post here were shot in the following locations in Canada: Lac Taylor in Gatineau Park in Quebec, The Ottawa River just east of Ottawa in Ontario, the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Ontario, and The City of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. The background music is “Quiet Time” by David Fesliyan (fesliyan.com).

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Discovering Tobermory

We first heard of the Bruce Peninsula, the Bruce Trail, the Niagara Escarpment, and Tobermory when we lived in Toronto back in the 1990s. We could see the Escarpment on day trips to the west of the city and it looked very imposing. We learned that the Bruce Trail, which courses along the top of the Escarpment is the oldest and longest hiking trail in Canada, extending (with side trails) approximately 900 kms from Queenston in the Niagara Peninsula to Tobermory, at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.

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