On The Way To France

It may only be 6:23 (!) to go from Mon­tréal to Paris, but the total trip was closer to 24 hours.

We left Ottawa Sat­ur­day after­noon and took the Grey­hound to Mon­tréal. The bus was almost empty and we were at the air­port around 7 pm. A quick lunch/dinner later, we started queu­ing for check-in, which took over 1:30. Another line-up for secu­rity and we boarded the plane just before midnight.

Close Up of the Canadian Parliament

The Par­lia­ment is def­i­nitely the Cana­dian land­mark I get to see the most: I work in its shadow every day. Yet, it still impresses me – I always seem to find new details and new angles.
Par­lia­ment Hill is a very busy place in spring: hordes of tourists visit the Par­lia­ment, politi­cians and MPs are wrap­ping things up for the sum­mer and locals enjoy relax­ing on the grass in front of the Cen­ter Block.

The Supreme Court of Canada

The sec­ond main build­ing I vis­ited as part of the Ottawa 2010 Doors Open event is the Supreme Court. Located on Par­lia­ment Hill, the impos­ing grey build­ing sits in the back­ground, close to the Ottawa River.
Right after going through secu­rity, I stepped into the Grand Entrance Hall, with the logo of the Supreme Court, the “S” and the “C”.

Ottawa Paramedics Headquarter

Last week­end was “Doors Open” in Ottawa, a yearly event dur­ing which a num­ber of places open their doors to the pub­lic. Not only admis­sion is free, but you get the chance to peek into a num­ber of inter­est­ing places which are not usu­ally open to the gen­eral pub­lic. Being my usual curi­ous self, I decided to go visit the Ottawa Para­medic Head­quar­ter in Walkley.

Our Southern Neighbours

The clos­est U.S bor­der is at Prescott, Ontario, a mere 45 min­utes drive from Ottawa. Armed with cold drinks and cook­ies (Tim Hor­tons, obvi­ously), we hit the road. Cross­ing the bor­der is still a cool expe­ri­ence for me, the French girl, and I admit I get a kick out of using my Cana­dian pass­port. This is only the sec­ond time I go to the U.S as a Cana­dian cit­i­zen — the first time was last win­ter, in Nia­gara Falls.

Latina Dances in Ottawa

After the Egypt­ian and the Thai per­for­mances, I just couldn’t leave with­out watch­ing the Latino’s. Mex­ico and Venezuela put out quite a show!
Both coun­tries fea­tured a lot of very young dancers, both shy and proud to be the cen­ter of atten­tion. Older dancers swirled and spun, their col­or­ful flounced skirts fol­low­ing each one of their steps. The dances were fast, con­trast­ing with the slow Thai per­for­mance, but as graceful.

Thai Dance at the Tulips Festival

After the Egypt per­for­mance was fin­ished, I was about to exit Major’s Hill Park when I noticed a strange pro­ces­sion mak­ing its way to the stage. Hid­den behind bright red sun­shades, Asian-looking girls and women were shyly pos­ing for pho­tog­ra­phers. From the pat­tern of their clothes, I gath­ered it was time for a Thai dance, and once again, I hide besides the stage to watch the performance.

International Friendship Stage - Egypt

I was on a pho­tog­ra­phy hunt last Sat­ur­day when I heard some music com­ing from Major Hills Park, by the Par­lia­ment. I hur­ried there and stum­bled upon the Tulips Festival’s final week­end cel­e­bra­tions. The fes­ti­val is not just about gor­geous flow­ers, it also pro­motes inter­na­tional friend­ship and a num­ber of per­for­mances from around the world are invited to star on the aptly named “Inter­na­tional Friend­ship Stage”.