Greyish November

On Sat­ur­day, Gail headed to Ottawa and we meet down­town, two addicts with cam­eras in need of some­thing to shoot. Between rain show­ers, we cov­ered the Chateau Lau­rier, Notre-Dame Church and many places in between down­town. With the grey­ish weather, it was almost like shoot­ing in black and white but I’m quite happy with the results.

Sunset on the Hill

I was down­town, shop­ping around, when sud­denly I real­ized the sun was about to set (at 4:30 pm, stu­pid Win­ter time!). I rushed to Par­lia­ment Hill to catch a glimpse of it and I spend over an hour there, watch­ing the amaz­ing col­ors as the sun set on the city. It was just magic.

1, Sussex Drive

We headed to Rideau Hall, the offi­cial res­i­dence of the Gov­er­nor Gen­eral of Canada, as well as that in Ottawa of the Cana­dian monarch. The estate, located at 1 Sus­sex Drive, is huge. Like many offi­cials places in Canada, such as the Par­lia­ment, it is open to gen­eral pub­lic for free.

The End of Fall

The last leaves are falling, the sky is moody, the days are get­ting shorter and it’s a bit colder every­day. Almost win­ter, I guess.

To non-initiated peo­ple, it’s hard to explain what is going inside a Canadian’s head right before win­ter. It’s a mix of fear and pride, a mix of appre­hen­sion and excitement.

The Ottawa Valley

In the Gatineau Park in Québec, once you pass the forests, the lakes with their beau­ti­ful reflec­tions, you will come across a few view­points, up in the moun­tain. From here, the Ottawa Val­ley looks gorgeous.

Smells Like Fall...

After a rainy sum­mer, a short Indian sum­mer and a few more weeks of rain, it finally smells like Fall. Tem­per­a­tures are lower and the leaves are finally chang­ing colors.

The Rideau Neighborhood

The Rideau neigh­bor­hood in Ottawa is prob­a­bly the busiest, the most dan­ger­ous (by Cana­dian stan­dards!), and the most cen­tral neigh­bor­hood in Ottawa.
It’s above all a hub: when you go down­town, you go to Rideau. Since the city is basi­cally based on an East — West line, pretty much all buses tran­sit there, either on the bridge, either on Rideau street.

Chinatown In Ottawa

Ottawa’s Chi­na­town is quite small and not as col­or­ful as in other cities. Yet, it’s a great place to go out for a walk, to sam­ple authen­tic Chi­nese roasted pork, Viet­namese Pho and Korean Kim­chi, to buy noo­dles, tofu and dried mushrooms.