Happy Victoria Day!

A perfect day to have a deserved rest and to update my blog.

Speaking of Victoria Day, it’s a good occasion to relate the afternoon I spent in Victoria (Vancouver Island) last month during Alexandra’s visit.

First of all, we arrived just in time for the departure at Tsawwassen Bay after running against the clock!  The ferry trip passed smoothly even though we almost lost patience in the line-up to buy breakfast .

After about an hour and half and a few extra kilometers by car, we arrived in Victoria.

That day the sun had decided to play hide and seek with the clouds, but the weather did not prevented us from making great discoveries.

Several elements give this city a unique character: It’s a very nice town with an architecture similar to Old Quebec, the Parliament of Victoria is definitely one of the most beautiful (and larger) that I had the opportunity to see, the world’s smallest shopping Street?(Alex’s must-see), Victoria’s Chinatown which is small and but recognized as the oldest in Canada.

We definitely had a beautiful time even if we felt the fatigue from the previous three days of camping. We didn’t had the opportunity to visit any gardens, parks and museums. I will probably return this summer for a more detailed visit of Victoria, Nanaimo and Tofino (another must-do in BC).

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Stanley Park, oh Stanley Park …!

Yes I did! The complete tour of the Stanley Park in 2 hours, and my feet can certainly testify it! I’ve been several times at the Stanley Park, also at English bay, at the third beach but it was the first time I did the entire loop.

The seawall offers a breathtaking view of downtown Vancouver, Golden Lion Gates, North Vancouver, and the Mountains. Starting from the Vancouver Rowing Club to English Bay, it’s a distance of about 9.6 km. I must confess: it’s definitively something to do at least once when you are in Vancouver. Aside from the scenery, the beautiful view, taking this walk certainly helps clear your mind while breathing the sea air and it’s the perfect excuse for rewarding yourself afterwards with some sushi from Yamato on Davie between Granville and Seymour.

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Ça y est je l’ai fait… Le tour complet du Stanley Park en 2 heures. Eh oui… Ce ne sont pas mes pieds qui vous diront le contraire ! Mais qu’elle belle promenade par cette journée ensoleillée que Dame nature à bien voulu nous donner durant cette fin de semaine.

J’ai déjà été plusieurs fois au Stanley Park, également à English Bay, à la troisième plage mais c’était la première fois que je faisais le tour du Stanley d’un trait.

Le chemin du bord de mer vous offre une vue imprénable sur d’une part le centre-ville de Vancouver, le Lion Gate Bridge, North Vancouver, les montagnes. En partant du Vancouver Rowing club jusqu’à English Bay, en passant en dessous du Lions Gate Bridge, c’est une distance d’environ 9,6 Km que vous êtes invités à parcourir…Je dois avouer que c’est une expérience à réaliser au moins une fois en étant à Vancouver. Mise à  part le paysage, la belle vue, il n’y a rien de tel pour se remettre les idées claires en respirant l’air marin, surtout lorsque vous vous récompensez par la suite par des sushis de Yamato Sushi sur Davie Street entre Granville et Seymour.

Lots of laughs !!

The Vancouver comedyFest was 4 weeks ago. I attended this event as a journalist of  The Source. I was very suprised about the quality of the performances as well as the audience. I have seen Neil Hamburger and Tom Green during the show. In fact, I thought this kind of event would have brought people with a certain age, around 40 to 50 years old, but many young people were there too. This confirmed what the artistic director of the Comedy Fest Will Davis, told me during the interview for my article about the ComedyFest.

On one hand, Neil Hamburger’s humour was gross and vulgar. His style is based on question/answer jokes most of the time about celebrities and I didn’t understand why he was carrying three glasses of water on his hand during the show without using them !! but above all I didn’t like the sound he was making while clearing his throat, he didn’t do it once but each 2 min !!! I was very open-minded but during his part I was hoping impatiently the end  !!

On the other hand, I loved Tom Green’s performance. Through his own life experiences, he talked about many subjects: our society, our youth, our technology-based life and he was so funny ! For sure he got a gift !! watch his opinion about facebook here. I surely had a good time watching this show !!! and I look forward to attend more events like this one and discover other humour styles.

UBC’s Rose Garden

After seven months in Vancouver it was time (during the last sunny week-end, sniff !) for a real visit of UBC, in order to learn more about this university which makes vancouver so proud. I have been there a couple of times and every times one single word comes to my mouth:  awesome !

I was really impressed by the buildings, the atmosphere, the landscaping. Also, from what I have seen, many monuments remind to the visitor the importance of the First Nations’ history along the years like totems and the anthropology museum. I think that to study there, enjoy this atmosphere (and the beach !!!)  is a huge opportunity for the students, which also costs a lot !
I took time to visit the rose garden. There, I saw differents types, colors and shapes of roses, like I have never seen.

You don’t need to know many things about gardening (like me !! ) before you fall in love with UBC’s rose garden. I really appreciated this visit because this place reminded me the importance of being fascinated by huge things like sea waves and also by small things like a bee taking a flower’s pollen. I realised that I was witnessing an important moment of the plants life cycle, the natural pollination (my botanical classes came suddenly in my mind !). For sure, this moment was priceless !

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I don’t want to stop here my new passion for gardens (lol !), so I plan to visit very soon the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, known as the Garden of Ease (humm!!), and also the Queen Elizabeth Park and the VanDusen Botanical Garden with its stone sculptures, specially the Zimsculpt.