Venice Beach

We headed to Venice Beach and had break­fast in a small side­walk restau­rant, from which we could observe peo­ple com­ing and going. This is one of the best spot I have ever seen for can­did por­traits and street photography—locals seemed obliv­i­ous to what was going on around them and sim­ply kept on rollerblad­ing, run­ning, singing or what­ever activ­ity they were into.

Hollywood Boulevard

After Hol­ly­wood Hill, we headed back to Hol­ly­wood Boule­vard for a much-needed dose of tacky sou­venirs and postcards.

Being in L.A was very fun for me, the same way it is for an Amer­i­can going to Paris, I guess. I read so many mys­tery and thriller books tak­ing place in that city, includ­ing Jonathan Kellerman’s books, that I felt I knew it. Yet it sur­prised me.

Hollywood

We didn’t sleep much on Sat­ur­day night and get­ting up at 4:30 a.m. on Sun­day was bru­tal. I can barely remem­ber what we did at the Ottawa air­port, but we must have got it right because we landed in Toronto at 8 a.m., trans­ferred to another flight and landed in Los Ange­les six hours later.

A Cold Sunset

On Sat­ur­day, as I was walk­ing out of the mall, I noticed the sky was turn­ing a nice shade of yel­low. I hur­ried to Par­lia­ment Hill, the clos­est van­tage point, and stood in the cold for almost 45 min­utes to cap­ture the sun­set. Noth­ing dra­matic but a nice clear sky and a beau­ti­ful gra­di­ent. A clas­si­cal win­ter sun­set, basically.

The Phone Booth

When I first came here, I found Cana­dian pay­phones really cool. France already didn’t have many pub­lic phones left because the cell phone mar­ket was boom­ing. The few phone booths left were often dirty or out of ser­vice. Beside, to make a call, you first had to buy a phone card from a retailer, even for local locals, and you paid per minute.

The Rideau Bus Stop

I have a love and hate rela­tion­ship with Ottawa’s tran­sit sys­tem. I take the bus but the bus hates me.
Tak­ing pub­lic trans­porta­tion is a sec­ond nature to me. I grew up in a city and I took the bus and the tramway a lot. In France, we only drove if we had to get out of the city. Gas is expen­sive and cities are made for pedes­tri­ans, not cars: nar­row one-way streets, weird signs and traf­fic laws and traf­fic jams are a strong deter­rent for drivers.

Fall in New York State (2/2)

After Wadding­ton and the shores of the St Lawrence River, we headed to the town of Massena in St. Lawrence County. It is named after the Napoleonic gen­eral, Andre Massena—I smiled at the thought of my French her­itage fol­low­ing me all the way to the U.S.A.

Fall in New York State (1/2)

A cou­ple of weeks ago, to cel­e­brate the Cana­dian Thanks­giv­ing, we took a drive to the U.S.A. The weather was gor­geous and we made it to Prescott/Ogdensburg in less than an hour, eat­ing Tim Hor­tons Donuts and lis­ten­ing to the Red Hot Chili Pep­pers in the car.