Paris in Spring

Lori here. We need to change the name of the the blog. Right now it's just one Canadian in Paris and in a few more weeks, I'll be back in Canada too.

What a change a year can make. This time last year, we thought it would never stop raining in Paris. It was cold and miserable. But this year, it's been a spectacular spring. The flowers are in bloom, most of the trees have leaves on them now, and we're heading into another week of 20C temperatures. When you hate winter as much as I do, a spring like this one is such a gift.

I'll be traveling a bit over the next few weeks and will try to post some photos here or on Facebook. Geneva this week and Erbil the following one. And after that, I'll be on my way home to Canada.

Now I just have to hope that Spring finds Calgary and St. John's before I arrive.

Lori

Middle Cove Beach

Yesterday was my birthday and I wanted to do something fun. Lori told me that my horoscope said I should be a tourist in my own town. It was a beautiful day, but a little cool, so I decided to borrow Lorraine's car and explore the area and get my bearings. I drove along the shore to Portugal Cove where you can catch the ferry to Bell Island. Then I made my way over to Torbay and headed back towards St. John's. I stopped at Middle Cove Beach on my way. This is just down the road from where Lori grew up and it's a special place to her. When we were first dating, we hung out here quite a bit. That's the first time I saw the Capelin roll in. Capelin are small fish (sort of like sardines) and they swim close to shore to spawn at the end of June or early July and they actually "roll" ashore in the waves. Sometimes you can see whales that are feeding on the Capelin close to shore as well. The sun was really bright so I was able to take some great pictures.

I love being close to the ocean again.

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Local Beer

Now that things have slowed down a bit, I can start enjoying life in St. John's. Anyone who has known me for 5 minutes (or has read this blog) knows that beer is a big part of my enjoyment. Wherever I go, I always try to drink the local beer. Here's my free tip of the day, when it comes to beer, fresher is better. Beer is not like wine or scotch, it does not age well. Not only is fresher better, but closer is better too. In order to ship beer around the world, it is heavily filtered and pasteurized to give it a longer shelf life, so it's best to find a local craft brewery near you.

When I lived here 20 years ago, the local beer scene was pretty sad in St. John's. Blue Star and Jockey Club are a couple of poor excuses for lager made in Newfoundland. Luckily there are 2 craft breweries open in St. John's now and they make very good beer. Quidi Vidi Brewery opened in 1996 and YellowBelly opened in 2008. Both have a decent repertoire of regular beers that are supplemented with seasonal beers.

Quidi Vidi Brewery is in the small fishing village of the same name just north of Signal Hill in St. John's. If you ever visit Newfoundland, it's worth visiting the village and while you're there, pick up some beer. I really like their 1892 Traditional Ale and British IPA. They have a Winter Ale out as their seasonal beer and it's very good.

YellowBelly is actually a brewpub right downtown. I stopped in for lunch the other day and I had the braised short rib and it was delicious. It's cooked with their St. John's Stout.

Doesn't really matter where the breweries are, if you're coming for a visit, I will have plenty in the fridge waiting for you.



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Basement Apartment

Lori asked me to thank everyone for the well wishes and messages of congratulations. We are very excited to start a new chapter of our life.

I'm sure it must be confusing to read two completely different story lines on our blog. One day I'm writing about buying a new house in Newfoundland and the next I'm telling everyone we are staying in Paris. They may seem unrelated, but they're not. Since we are going to be out of the country for an extended period of time, we want a base in Canada. We have furniture, clothing and personal effects in storage across the country in Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland. We asked Lori's parents to buy a house with us so we will have a place to keep all of our possessions, maintain a permanent mailing address and most importantly, have a place of our own when we are in Canada.

Lori and I wanted to be right on the ocean, but Lori's parents would have no part of that. We settled on a place with a view of the ocean. You can see the Atlantic Ocean (Conception Bay to be exact) and Bell Island from our deck.

Of course, because the Avalon Peninsula sticks out into the North Atlantic, the view isn't always as good. This picture was taken one day earlier.

We also wanted to find a place that would have two separate living areas. The place we bought was the perfect combination for us. While it doesn't have an official basement apartment, it's close. We have our own driveway and entrance on the side of the house.

We have a living room, two bedrooms and our own bathroom. There isn't a kitchen yet but until we put one in, I've set up a makeshift kitchen with a microwave, toaster oven and hot plate.

None of this would be possible without the help of Lori's parents. Moving is always a lot of work and stress, but I think they will enjoy as much as we will.

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Even Bigger News!

Awhile ago I wrote a blog entry entitled "Big News" when I told everyone we were staying in Paris for another year. Well, over the past few weeks, there has been something in the works that we haven’t made public but we can finally tell everyone now. Lori has decided to resign her partnership in the firm in Calgary and will be taking up an in-house position with Total in Paris. Here is a message from Lori:

Something ends and something new begins.

In 2003 we left Halifax to head for Calgary. I started a new job with a great firm and 10 years later (a bit to my surprise) I was still there, though working in a different department.  During those 10 years I got to work with a wonderful group of people and worked on lots of interesting and challenging files. It was great.

Then in 2013 we had the opportunity to move to Paris for what was to be a short secondment of 6 months. More than a year later, we're still here and we'll be making the move a permanent one.

It feels strange to say goodbye to a place and to people who have been such a big part of my life for so long, but it also feels terrific to be starting a new chapter in our lives.

Dennis and I will be spending the summer in St. John's. He's back there now and I will join him in May. In August we'll head back to Paris where I'll be working for Total in their legal group.

I'm so excited about the new job and am looking forward to seeing what the next ten years will bring. I'm sure there will be lots of travel and new experiences. I already know that there are great people and fascinating work.

Here's to new beginnings and to old friends!

Lori