Granville Island in Vancouver

7 December 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit, Shopping Reading Time:  6 minutes

Vancouver & Granville Island © flickr.com - La Citta Vita/cc-by-sa-2.0

Vancouver & Granville Island © flickr.com – La Citta Vita/cc-by-sa-2.0

Granville Island is a peninsula and shopping district in the Fairview neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, across False Creek from Downtown Vancouver, under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge. Formerly an industrial manufacturing area, it was named after Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville.   read more…

Ottawa in Ontario

15 November 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

'Changing the Guard' in front of the Canadian Parliament Building © Yann Fauché & Alma Mulalic/cc-by-sa-2.5

‘Changing the Guard’ in front of the Canadian Parliament Building © Yann Fauché & Alma Mulalic/cc-by-sa-2.5

Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA) and the National Capital Region (NCR). As of 2021, Ottawa had a city population of 1,017,449 and a metropolitan population of 1,488,307, making it the fourth-largest city and fourth-largest metropolitan area in Canada.   read more…

L’Anse aux Meadows in Canada

19 October 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  6 minutes

Recreations of the Norse halls and huts © flickr.com - Eric Titcombe/cc-by-2.0

Recreations of the Norse halls and huts © flickr.com – Eric Titcombe/cc-by-2.0

L’Anse aux Meadows (lit. Meadows Cove) is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. The site is located on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador near St. Anthony.   read more…

Le Plateau-Mont-Royal in Montreal

30 August 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  < 1 minute

Victorian houses on Saint Louis Square © Alexcaban/cc-by-sa-3.0

Victorian houses on Saint Louis Square © Alexcaban/cc-by-sa-3.0

Le Plateau-Mont-Royal is a borough (arrondissement) of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Due to its large concentration of French immigrants who arrived in the early twenty first century, the neighbourhood has been named the “French District”, “Le Petit Paris”, “La Petite-France”, or ironically “La Nouvelle-France”.   read more…

Lobster Roll

21 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  6 minutes

© flickr.com - Dana Moos/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Dana Moos/cc-by-2.0

A lobster roll is a dish native to New England and Atlantic Canada. It is made of lobster meat served on a grilled hot dog–style bun. The filling may also contain butter, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper, with variants made in some parts of New England replacing the butter with mayonnaise. Other versions may contain diced celery or scallion. Potato chips or French fries are the typical side dishes.   read more…

75th anniversary of NATO

15 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Flag Of Nato The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; French: Organisation du traité de l’Atlantique nord, OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. The organization’s motto is animus in consulendo liber (Latin for ‘mind unfettered in deliberation’). The organization’s strategic concepts include deterrence.   read more…

Poutine

24 March 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  7 minutes

Vladimir Poutine restaurant in Montreal © Jwslubbock/cc-by-sa-4.0

Vladimir Poutine restaurant in Montreal © Jwslubbock/cc-by-sa-4.0

Poutine is a dish of french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It emerged in Quebec, in the late 1950s in the Centre-du-Québec region, though its exact origins are uncertain and there are several competing claims regarding its invention. For many years, it was used by some to mock Quebec society. Poutine later became celebrated as a symbol of Québécois culture and the province of Quebec. It has long been associated with Quebec cuisine, and its rise in prominence has led to its growing popularity throughout the rest of Canada.   read more…

Surf and turf

2 March 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  5 minutes

© flickr.com - HarshLight/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – HarshLight/cc-by-2.0

Surf and turf, sometimes called reef and beef, is a main course combining seafood and red meat, typically beefsteak. While lobster and filet mignon are a standard combination, variations common to steakhouse menus include prawns, shrimp, squid, or scallops, which may be steamed, grilled, or breaded and fried.   read more…

Hollywood North in Canada

14 February 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  18 minutes

Bridge Studios in Vancouver © flickr.com - Jeff Hitchcock/cc-by-2.0

Bridge Studios in Vancouver © flickr.com – Jeff Hitchcock/cc-by-2.0

Hollywood North is a colloquialism used to describe film production industries and/or film locations north of its namesake, Hollywood, California. The term has been applied principally to the film industry in Canada, specifically to the cities Toronto and Vancouver. The title has been claimed for both Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia.   read more…

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