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Travel Day - End

June 15, 2022

All good things come to an end, and unfortunately so did our trip! We took a delayed flight from Nice to CDG, then from there to Calgary, then home to Winnipeg!

There were Laduree macarons in the CDG airport that I just had to indulge in.

In Calgary we used some of my lounge passes for the Westjet lounge which was the best lounge I’ve visited by far. The food was good, you could order custom drinks, and they had quieter areas where you could nap. Would definitely recommend!

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Nice - Day 4

June 14, 2022

A great start to the day at the local fruit and flower market. We had peaches and I had an apricot pastry.

We then headed to our last-minute boat tour around the coastline of Nice and Villefranche. This was one part informative about the history and landmarks of Nice, and other other part it felt like a celebrity home spotting tour

This was followed by a warm day on the rocky beaches of Nice, and more macaron ice cream!

We had a frustrating time trying to find dinner this evening since our reservations had fallen through, but even when hungry, Nice is still beautiful.

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Nice - Day 3

June 13, 2022

The hard work of vacationing calls for a beach day! We took a 5 minute train ride over to Villefranche sur mer, a town just one bay over from Nice to hit the beach. The wonderful thing about Villefranche is that they have an actual sand beach, not just rocks like in Nice.

The town is beautiful, and very laid back. 

After returning from the beach we had dessert first from a fantastic local chocolate shop, followed by a variety plate of Nicoise specialties for dinner.

We then finally found our way up to the top of castle hill after finding only blocked entrances previously. We founded out our day with a walk on the promenade, and watched some beach volleyball teams scrimmage

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Nice (+Monaco)- Day 2

June 12, 2022

We started our day off right with pastries on a patio for breakfast, followed by a swift walk over to the train station to catch a quick train over to Monaco!

Despite the reputation, we didn’t drive any supercars, or go gambling. We did see the famous casino, including supercars parked out-front though! After this we had a long walk approximately following the Grand Prix track, then leading down to the harbour where the rich and famous dock their super yachts.

We took a steep hike up to Monaco-Ville, the oldest district of Monaco, also home to the royal palace!

After walking the length and breadth of Monaco-Ville we were pretty exhausted, and ready to return to Nice. Much to our surprise on the train back to France there were border officers checking for passports (which we had read was not something that usually happens). Mom had her passport but I only had a photocopy of mine in my wallet, which they luckily accepted! It would have been a great trip story to be deported back to Monaco though!

As soon as we got back to Nice we went for some delicious ice cream filled macarons

In the evening we took it easy, strolled around Nice’s harbour, and spent some time on a pier with a lighthouse and another great sunset view.

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Nice - Day 1

June 11, 2022

After an exhausting day at Disney we were up bright and early once again to catch a hotel shuttle to the main bus station, and from there catch a bus to the airport. We departed out of Orly on EasyJet, and flew down to Nice in about 1.5 hours.

Our AirBnB was in the absolute best location! Right by the beach and walking distance to all the main attractions in Nice. Once we were settled we went to grab some dinner at what we later discovered was a very popular restaurant after it filled up almost immediately upon opening, and then had a lineup for the rest of the night!

After dinner we walked to Fenocchio, a well known gelato shop in the area with an overwhelming number of flavours.

The rest of the evening was spent wandering Nice’s old town, and spending some relaxing time watching the sun set on the beach.

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Disney - Day 1

June 10, 2022

There’s nothing like a day in Disney. No matter what country you visit in, it always feels nostalgic.

We arrived bright and early before rope drop, and managed to sneak our way to the front of a shorter admission line. We tried to run straight to thunder mountain, but it was down for part of the morning, so we re-directed to Phantom Manor (Paris’ version of Haunted Mansion) which was great! 

After that we doubled back to thunder mountain and subsequently had a packed day of knocking out all of Disneyland Paris’ top rides (except for space mountain which was closed.

The castle has some beautiful stained glass windows on the second floor, and in the basement is a truly impressive animatronic dragon! So cool!

We had a slower afternoon and went to see the Lion King stage show and Buzz Lightyear astro blasters (I remain the reigning champion).

We walked out of the park to get Five Guys for supper, and when we came back we hit the classic rides again. Thunder mountain at sunset is absolutely beautiful.

We closed out the day by looking around Tommorowland, and then watching their fireworks show which included a really unique segment with hundreds of drones flying in formation

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Loire Valley - Day 3

June 9, 2022

It was an early one today! We got up around 0400 to drive to meet the hot air balloon company we had booked to fly us over chateau chenonceau for sunrise. The weather up until this point had been a bit spotty, so we weren’t even sure if we would get to fly, but luckily on this last morning things had cleared up and we got to see the absolutely breathtaking view below!

It was totally worth getting up early! The man flying the balloon was also hilarious which made for a good experience. Once the balloon landed we were stranded in a field for a while before the pickup car was able to come get us, but no one let it spoil the good mood, and we had a quick snack of some local delicacies (local croissants, specialty butters and honey, chocolates etc) before heading back to our bed and breakfast to pick up our things and continue our drive back towards our last chateau (and in the direction of Paris).

We drove a bit over an hour to the last chateau on our list; chateau chambord. This is the largest of all the castles we visited, built by Francois I, king of France on some of his prize hunting grounds. It’s absolutely massive, and has a lot of restoration work going on at the moment. We particularly enjoyed spotting the hundreds of carved salamanders found on most surfaces in the chateau. They were the symbol of Francois I and there are more than 300 hand carved around the castle. The impressive residence also contains a double helix staircase, which is said to have been created by Leonardo da Vinci himself.

After visiting Chambord we had another long drive ahead of us back to Paris to drop off our rental car at the train station at Disneyland Paris. The traffic was absolutely chaotic but mom killed it driving manual. We then checked into our hotel near Disney and went to grab dinner and check out the exterior of the park in preparation for our visit tomorrow!

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Loire Valley - Day 2

June 8, 2022

Today we visited what mom and I both consider to be our favourite of the castles in the Loire Valley; Chateau Chenonceau! It’s an absolutely beautiful castle with a fascinating history. It’s most unique feature is that it is mostly built over Le Cher river.

The chateau has changed hands many times over the years, occasionally being used as the primary residence of the French court, various mistresses or wives to the king, as a hospital in world war I, or as a way to transport individuals from the occupied south bank of the river to the ally controlled north bank of the river in world war II. 

The area bridging over the river serves as the castle’s main ballroom on the main floor, and as a gallery dedicated to the various owners and inhabitants of the castle on the second floor.

From there you can watch various tour groups boat directly under the castle!

The grounds of Chenonceau, though not as manicured as chateau villandry which we had sen yesterday were still beautiful. They contained fountains, gardens, a preserved area representative of a local farm from the era in which chenonceau was built, and a donkey farm!

After spending the morning at chateau Chennonceau, we drove up to a town called Bloise, where we had some crepes and walked around the old town. There we saw the Chateau Royal du Blois, which made for a beautiful view across the river, as well as Chateau du Clos Luce which was home to Leonardo da Vinci near the end of his life.

We opted not to enter these castles due to the higher entrance fees, and we felt that we had already seen the interior of the more impressive chateaus.

After that we headed home for a quiet end to our afternoon, including reading on the pool deck and a quick swim!

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Loire Valley - Day 1

June 7, 2022

On the road again! This time on a 3 hour drive to the tiny community of Vouvray, just outside of Tours in the Loire Valley, home to the famous chateaus of various kings and nobility.

We took things at a leisurely pace and first stopped in Fougères. Here we saw the castle that sits near the centre of the town, and took a walking path through their various gardens and side streets. This castle wasn’t the grandest we were planning to see but it was unique in that many more areas of the castle were open for exploration. We ducked through a random door and found ourselves in a courtyard with a working waterwheel, and then crouched down to get through another tunnel that led us to some defensive arrow slits!

After Fougères we drove through dozens of roundabouts on the back roads of the region (to avoid tolls), and made it to our first official chateau of the Loire Valley; Chateau Villandry!

Although it’s on the smaller side, this chateau is famous for it’s beautiful gardens! They have flowers, vegetables, water gardens, and a maze

After visiting chateau Villandry, it was time to check in to our bed and breakfast. This was the coolest place we stayed on our trip, it was a centuries old house that was partially built into the abutting cliff! They had a room that was inside the cliff itself, and we had to walk through a passage and up a stairway within the rock to get to a pool situated on the roof! This also provided a gorgeous view

After check-in it was time to get some food! We headed back into the near-by town of Tours to get dinner. Tours is the largest city in the Loire Valley, it’s most notable area is place plumereau, a square with many restaurants and well-preserved half-timbered buildings

We had indian food for dinner, followed by gelato for dessert, and then headed home for some rest.

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Mont Saint-Michel - Day 1

June 6, 2022

Today we left Paris to strike off on the beginning of our France road trip! We took the RER out to the station near Disneyland Paris where we picked up a rental car. Mom absolutely rocked driving manual while I navigated us about 4 hours west to the coast of France, and more specifically Mont Saint-Michel!

We did some grocery shopping for lunch and dinner and dropped by our airbnb which was adorable, and about a 45 minute walk out and across the bridge to mont saint-michel.

We opted to walk there across the bridge to get a good view of the approach. For some background this is a tiny town with an abbey built at the top. It’s built in one of the most extreme tidal areas in the world, so that at high tide the town is completely surrounded by water. Our visit was during a period of the lunar cycle where the tide was on the lower end, so we were never able to see the mont completely surrounded by water, but it was still beautiful!

Despite it being a dreary day the town was still packed with tourists. Luckily we booked our tour of the abbey at the latest time slot of the day, so that was much less crowded. The abbey is active and has a dozen nuns and monks who reside there.

We were particularly impressed with the size of the fireplaces, pictured above with mom for scale!

After our tour of the abbey we walked back down through the town which was much less busy by that time. It then started to rain quite heavily so we caught the tram back closer to our airbnb to reduce our walk time.

Dinner was supplies that we had picked up earlier from the grocery store. I was really excited about the cheese (mimolette) because it’s banned in the states and eating an illegal cheese makes it taste so much sweeter

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Paris - Day 3

June 5, 2022

By complete chance we happened to be in Paris during the first Sunday of the month, which means free admission to many of their museums! Normally this would also bring additional crowds, but with COVID precautions there was still limited capacity at most museums, leading to a fantastic free and minimally crowded experience!

We started off at musee de l’orangerie, home of monet’s water lilies.

We then walked over to Angelina, which is famous for their pastries and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate is so thick it’s pretty much just melted chocolate, and they give you whipped cream to cut to the intensity. We also had paris brest, which was great, but not as good as Frenchway’s in Winnipeg

After that we had reserved time slots at the Pompidou, which we had never been to before!

We then strolled through the Jewish quarter, with plans to go to L’as du falafel.  Unfortunately they had a surprise closure on that day, so we went across the street to their rival falafel maker mi-va-mi which we both agreed was no where near as good.

We had some extra time in the afternoon, and although we hadn’t booked tickets we tried to go to musee rodin to see their sculpture garden. Once we got there we discovered that they were one of the few museums that doesn’t provide free entry on the first sunday of the month, so we turned around and walked to galeries lafayette haussmann instead. There we saw their famed glass roof, and made our way up to the top floor for a beautiful view of Paris!

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Paris - Day 2

June 4, 2022

Today was a walking day. We decided to stroll our way slowly to the Notre Dame from our hotel, located close to place de trocedero. We stumbled upon a local market, and then walked along the seine.

It started off rainy but quickly cleared up into a beautiful day. On our stroll we happened to walk by the petit palais, which is a free museum in a palace. Of course we went in, it was gorgeous and had a stunning centre courtyard!

We walked further along the seine, and eventually made our way to the Notre Dame! It was so interesting to see it again after 7 years and one devastating fire. The whole area is blocked off, but they have explanatory signage on the fences which was interesting.

Then it was time for our reservation at 1 michelin star restaurant Benoit! We got the lunch deal where you receive two courses for ~30 euros. We started off with some amuse-bouche, and bread and butter (the best I’ve ever had!). For mains, mom got the salmon en croute, and I had the duck parmentier. Both were delicious! For dessert mom got the millefeuille, and I got the profiteroles with an absolutely amazing chocolate sauce. They then provide you with a chocolate and a raspberry flavoured marshmallow to complete the meal

We had reserved tickets at the louvre a little bit later, so we took our time walking there and did some browsing at uniqlo along the way. We then entered the Louvre through the less busy underground entrance (thanks Matt for suggesting it) and got hopelessly lost in this palace/museum. We didn’t bother withe the mona lisa this time as we weren’t that impressed last time we were here. We hit many galleries but most notably the winged victory, the venus de milo, and their sculpture gardens (which we both enjoyed most). There was a really interesting exhibition that hadn’t been there when we visited previously that revealed the hidden base of the old palace that formed the initial footprint of what eventually became the louvre

Interestingly while we were there the emergency alarms went off and they evacuated everyone from the museum! No one ever told us why, but luckily we were just about done visiting anyway so from there we went back at uniqlo to complete our shopping before taking the subway over to l’arc du triomphe. This was supposed to be a quick detour since we had seen it last time, but it ended up absolutely pouring when we exited the metro an we had to schlep it back to our hotel (a 20 minute walk) absolutely drenched.

After that we didn’t really feel like getting up again, but we dragged ourselves out of the hotel room and went to go see the eiffel tower light up at night.

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Paris - Day 1

June 3, 2022

With minimal sleep we touched down in Paris! To get from CDG airport to our hotel we had to take the RER and a combination of metros. The cars were absolutely packed, it was definitely a challenge to keep our luggage balanced on our laps/in the aisle.

Once we got to our tres petite hotel room we took a quick nap so we would be recharged and ready to make the most of our first day!

We took the metro over to Montmartre and admired the Sacre Coeur, and especially the famous panoramic view of Paris from the top steps

The neighbourhood of montmartre itself is beautiful, so we wandered around the area, making sure we. hit the highlights! Some of them are pictured below, including la maison rose, and the even more famous Moulin Rouge!

After that we were absolutely starving, and good thing too because we had reservations at one of Paris’ hottest/most instagrammable restaurants; Pink Mamma! Mom had gotten up at around 4 AM two weeks prior to score us reservations. We had the famous black truffle pasta, and margherita pizza.

You might think by this point we would be tired since we hadn’t slept on the plane, and you’d be right! But that wasn’t going to stop us from going to see the one and only Eiffel Tower. We took some time to just relax in the park near the tower and soak it all in. Unfortunately since our last visit the bottom of the tower has been closed off so that you need a ticket to walk anywhere close to the base of the tower.

By this point we were absolutely exhausted. We walked back to our hotel through place du trocedero and had a great night’s rest

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Travel Day - 1

June 22, 2022

Today we finally leave for Paris!

The airport was a breeze which was great because we had been hearing how busy other airports like Toronto have been lately. While waiting for our flight to Halifax I saw two of my med school classmates in the terminal, Carrie and Steven! We chatted for a bit but before long we were off to Halifax

We had both never flown into Halifax before, there are so many lakes in the surrounding area! We touched down right around sunset.

The airport was super empty, and barely any of the restaurants were open. Thank goodness mom had packed us snacks.

Before long it was time to board our flight to Paris and aim to catch some sleep before our first REAL trip day!

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Hong Kong - day 3

August 22, 2018

What better way to spend my last day in Asia than at Hong Kong Disneyland! It had the smallest capacity of any Disney park in the world, but that makes it ideal for one day, and allowed me to fit in all the shows I wanted to see as well.

I got to the park early, and was one of the first ones on mains street, since most people got distracted by character meet and greet near the entrance. From there on out it was a packed day all the way until 9 PM when the park closed. I won’t bore you with a play by play of my walk through the park (it was a lot of me sprinting back and forth), but I’ll include summaries of the rides or shows that I saw that were unique to HK Disney.

Iron Man Experience:

- the only marvel themed ride in any Disney park.

- It’s a motion simulator which always makes me vaguely nauseous, but it was still really well done.

Hyperspace Mountain:

- space mountain but overhauled with a hastily done Star Wars theme

- They had a cool model X-wing parked out front and projected some fight scenes inside the coaster while you ride through

- Admiral Ackbar gives the safety video/ride instructions which was fun

Mystic Manor:

- Like the haunted mansion but way better

- The animatronics and soundtrack were amazing

- I waited a max of 10 minutes to ride this, and ended up going 6 times.

- Definitely one of my top Disney rides of all time

Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars:

- the name is a mouthful

- Like if Expedition Everest and Thundermountain were mashed together, with maybe a smidge if country bear jamboree.

- Really enjoyable, and I’m sad I only got to ride it twice

- I waited 20 minutes for this, which is the longest I waited for a ride in the park.

Jungle Cruise:

- very similar to the version found in America.

- Offered boats narrated in English, Cantonese, or Mandarin, which was cool

- The finale is way better than the American version

Mickey and the Wondrous Book:

- A half hour show, which is incredibly popular. I’m very lucky to have gotten a spot

- It’s a fun story line that has performances of many Disney hit songs with some nice effects and choreography

I also went on the Winnie the Pooh ride, RC Racer, It’s a small world, festival of the lion king, and of course the train encircling the park

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Hong Kong - day 2

August 21, 2018

One reason I like Hong Kong is that they know how to take a late start to the day. Many shops only open around 9 or 10, so I feel less guilty about sleeping in.

I started off by hunting down a Tae Cheong bakery, to get one of their famous egg tarts hot from the oven. I then caught the cross-harbour star ferry over to Hong Kong island.

After the ferry I caught the Victoria peak tram up to the mountain, which normally yields a beautiful panorama of the city, but it was rainy and foggy on the day I went so the views weren’t great.

Another tram ride down and I was more than ready for a late lunch at none other than Tim Ho Wan, the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in the world. They serve up dim sum, and are especially well known for their bbq pork buns.

I waited in line for about 15 minutes, until they had a space open for a single diner and I got to skip the rest of the line. I ordered their pork and shrimp dumplings and of course the bbq pork buns. They were honestly divine and I’ll dream of them for the rest of my life.

After stuffing myself at Tim Ho Wan I needed a bit of exercise so I walked a km over to Man Mo temple. This one was unique because of all the incense burning, which made for a really cool atmosphere.

I walked back to the star ferry and caught one going back to Tsim Sha Tsui so I could rest up at the hostel for a bit.

In the evening I went to go see the Festival of Lights, a show put on over Victoria harbour that involves a synchronized show on various screens and lights shooting from the top of skyscrapers.

The show was good, but I’m also glad I didn’t have to pay money to see it. With the show done, I picked up some cheese bread for my visit to Disney tomorrow and called it a night.

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Hong Kong - day 1

August 20, 2018

I caught a convenient bus to Hanoi airport early in the morning to catch a 9:30 flight to Hong Kong. On the way there I had the distinct displeasure of meeting a fully grown man on the plane who somehow thought it was appropriate to trim his nails for 15 minutes while we waited for takeoff. I’m just so shocked there are adult humans who think that’s a good idea.

Luckily the rest of my day went better than the morning flight with my clipper-happy neighbour.

I got all my stuff sorted at the airport including getting the iconic Hong Kong octopus card for easily using their public transportation. I got to use it right away to get a bus ride into the city proper (I booked a hostel in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of the mainland).

My hostel is located in one of the huge apartment complexes that dominate Hong Kong’s skyline. It’s nice enough, but far more expensive than what I was paying throughout Southeast Asia.

After getting my things stowed I went back out to look around the Tsim Sha Tsui area. For supper I got a huge slice of pizza from a local institution called piasanos for about $5. Then I headed farther north to the temple street night market.

The market was unimpressive and more expensive than others I’ve been to, but the streets around it have some great neon signs at night so that was fun to look at.

For dessert I got a famous egg waffle, from a stall recommended by the Michelin street food guide. It was really great, but so large I didn’t manage to finish it all.