I flew in to Paris after my UK trip and met up with Alexander, who had come up by train from Limoges. It wasn’t far from the airport to the place we were staying but neither of us fancied the walk with our travel bags, so we looked at other options. It seemed there was no easy way to get there (bus, tram, metro) other than a taxi. Alexander had the Uber App on his phone but his battery was flat, so we spent a while searching CDG airport for a power point. They have smart looking seats at the airport which provide a handy USB port, but none of them seemed to be connected. When we eventually did find a power socket there was already someone else using it to charge their phone… A short wait ensued until we could eventually get charged up and book a ride.
The next day we had a free day to explore Paris – I last visited years ago with Lucy and was interested to see what had changed. We again had a transport dilemma but decided the best option was to get an Uber out to the airport and then get the Metro into the centre. We then spent the day wandering about – lots of preparations going on for the Olympics, and generally the city seemed quite a bit cleaner and tidier than I remembered.
I had intended to pay a return visit to the Musee d’Orsay to see their fabulous exhibitions of impressionist art, but unfortunately I left it too late and it was fully booked. However, we did stumble across the Banksy Gallery, which was deserted and very interesting.
Not far from the gallery we stopped for lunch at a cafe and I was amused to see that one of the street signs had some Banksy-esque grafitti on it…
Back to the hotel and out for more beer. Nice to get a Pelforth Brune – not sure what I would be able to find in Canada ?
Early start the next day and an Uber back to the airport for our slightly delayed flight. The 10 hour flight was fine, despite being in economy with seats I could barely fit into. This was with Air France and they had a very good in-flight entertainment system – a screen directly in front of you with a huge choice of films. I didn’t watch any of those but was interested in the real time flight data and the cameras looking out at the view from the plane. The downward facing camera was great to watch going over Greenland and the forward facing one was good fun on take off and landing.
Georgina picked us up from the airport and took us back to her place in south east Vancouver, a suburb called Langley.
Here is a map to get some bearings on where we were (Vancouver – yellow star) and where George had arranged for us to visit (Kelowna, Whistler and Tofino – green stars).
I didn’t find Vancouver especially interesting – it seemed very modern and busy, like any major city, and I’ve turned into a bit of a country bumpkin used to a slower pace of life. Fortunately, apart from a few much needed rest days, we didn’t spend much time in Vancouver as George had planned to visit three of her favourite destinations that are easily accessible from the city (a few hours drive away). This turned out to be a very good plan and it was great to experience a range of different places and activities in a short space of time – we were there almost two weeks in total.
Kelowna
Kelowna is out to the East of Vancouver, is dominated by its proximity to the absolutely huge Okanagan Lake and has a much more relaxed feeling to it. We arrived in the early afternoon and checked in to our AirBnB which was very comfortable. It was then off to the lake to pick up a speedboat that George had hired for us for a few hours. She had wanted to book jet skis, but the boat rental company had been hit by the wild fires that swept though here last year and was only offering a limited choice of boats. In addition to the boat George had also booked a “tube”, which is a big floaty thing that you can ride on and be towed along by the boat. We had ridden one of these once in Egypt so knew they were great fun, but we decided that the water was a bit too chilly ! Alexander had bought some cheap fishing gear and was keen to see if he could catch something.
The boat handover was very straightforward once we had completed the liability waiver forms – basically you’re on your own, we’re not responsible for anything. I volunteered to be the main driver and was asked if I’d handled a speedboat before. “No” I said, but it didn’t seem to matter – I was then given a 30 second introduction to a myriad of controls and instructions on what to do to avoid being poisoned by exhaust fumes or allowing a build up of explosive gases in the “bilge”, whatever that is ? So with absolutely no idea at all we pottered out of the harbour. One thing became immediately apparent, at low speed the steering has virtually no effect on the direction the boat is going. I had to keep a watch on the depth gauge to avoid grounding as it was very shallow (the one thing I did remember from the safety briefing).
Once I had pottered out past the marker buoys, at which point you are allowed to pick up speed, George asked to “have a go”. I was more than happy to hand over as I wasn’t feeling comfortable with something that felt out of control. I went and sat in one of the seats up front. And then all hell broke loose – George opened the taps and set off flying down the lake. I got bounced out of my seat and ended up sprawled on the floor of the boat with the children laughing their heads off. Having previously rented a jet-ski, George clearly had a taste for speed and, once you got used to it, it was great fun.
Once I had got more used to the controls I also had some fun piloting the thing. As well as the throttle it also has a trim control that alters the angle of attack to the waves. By playing with the two you can get the boat up on the plane and then it really flies. We didn’t spend all of our time charging about as Alexander wanted to fish so we spent quite a while just trolling along the shallower water near the banks, admiring the enormous, multi-million dollar properties lining the waterfont.
Much to everyone’s surprise we managed to catch three trout, which we put back as we had no means of dealing with them on the boat.
The next day Georgina had organised a “Wine Tour” – a very popular thing out here and they have a lot of “wineries” in close proximity. I wasn’t drinking but Alexander and Georgina made a very good effort, I think we visited six different places and tried 5 or 6 wines in each of them.
It was very interesting talking to the vignerons and comparing their approach to what we experience in France. What we are used to here is having a specific wine tied to a particular region and the vigneron has to work to precise rules regarding the grape varieties etc in order to received the AOC Cahors label, for example. So the differences between Cahors producers will largely be down to their “terroir” and the post processing that they do with the wine, such as ageing in oak barrels. The big difference in Kelowna was that there are no rules so every winery is free to make whatever wine they wish and they do a lot of experimenting. This made it interesting because of the variety available and explains why the tasting makes sense – you can try a few and see what you like. I think the hosts quite enjoyed having visitors who could talk a little bit about wine and ask lots of questions and we usually ended up getting an extra taste or two.
We did buy a few bottles of wine, but not many as it was extremely expensive compared to what we are used to here. Mind you, that seemed to be the case with most things we were buying in Canada – apparently they get paid more than we do ?
Fort Langley
Back in Vancouver for a rest day, Alexander and I walked to Fort Langley – originally a trading post on the river, but now a pleasant suburb of Vancouver. It was Canada Day so there were a lot of people about. Alexander brought his fishing rod and had a go in the river, but it was very murky and he didn’t catch anything.
I was a bit concerned at the outset that the portion sizes in Canada would be enormous and unhealthy. This was based on my very limited experience in America on a business trip. Stopping at a chain restaurant for a burger and chips (already more than enough for me), I was asked “Y’all want that biggie size ?”. So when we went into a restaurant in Canada I always asked about the portion sizes in advance – much to Georgina’s embarassment. In actual fact, although the unhealthy, belt-packing options were available, everywhere offered a big choice of very reasonable sized healthy choices too.
Whistler
Our next destination was Whistler, which is a popular ski resort to the North of Vancouver. Getting there involves a delightful drive along the “sea to sky” highway. In fact we were staying in Whistler but our destination was a bit further North as we wanted to walk a mountain trail up to a glacial lake. This does require some planning as you have to book in advance as they restrict the number of people on the trail at any one time to control the environmental impact. In addition we had to be equipped with bear sprays and air horns in case we encountered something big and furry.
We actually saw two glacial lakes on the walk and they have a distinctive blue colour, which is apparently casued by tiny particles of rock that are eroded by the action of the glacier.
In the left centre of the above picture you can just make out the edge of the glacier, which is absolutely huge, but hidden from view over the top of the mountain.
This was early July and it was amazing to see a glacier and so much snow. We stayed the night in Whistler and headed back in the morning, but stopped off at an out-of-the-way cafe for brunch. It was excellent…
Tofino
After another rest day in Vancouver, we were off again, this time heading West to a surfing town called Tofino. This is on Vancouver Island which meant catching a ferry.
Georgina had booked a surf lesson for us with the Pacific Surf School, which was the first time for any of us. I was really looking forward to it as I have done a fair bit of windsurfing but never tried a surf board on its own. We had to get kitted up with wetsuits as the water was quite chilly and have a briefing about safety and technique. This was followed by some instruction on the beach and then some warm up exercises before we were allowed out into the surf. There was a photographer on hand to capture the action…
After what seemed like about 20 minutes we were called back to the beach. I thought we were just going to have a break, but it turned out we had been surfing for an hour – so much fun !
In need of some sustenance we headed into Tofino to get some lunch and stopped at “Big Daddy’s Fish Fry” which served up a very nice looking fish and chips for the children – I had a salad…
In the evening we found quite a posh restaurant which, like many of the bars and restaurants here, didn’t have wifi. Once again I found a healthy option…
On our last night in Tofino we bought some food to self cater at our AirBnB and Alexander cooked some excellent steaks on the barbecue.
Back in Vancouver there was one more rest day then it was time to head back home. Cody and George decided it would be a good idea to head out for breakfast as they particularly wanted Alexander to try the Canadian special of pancakes with maple syrup and crispy bacon. I think the place was called Denny’s and seemed to be a classic “diner style” cafe with a massive menu choice. Cody went for the full monty, closely folowed by Alexander with all his pancakes – I had an omelette and fruit, which was great.
The flight back was long, but uneventful – probably a bit easier as we knew what to expect and Alexander had all the films lined up that he wanted to watch. We had a few hours to kill in Paris before catching a train down to Limoges.
Back in Limoges we managed to keep going until 8pm, by which time we had been up for 28 hours. The jet lag didn’t seem to be too much of a problem on the way there, but coming back it took several days to adapt. It was nice to see Hebe again after so much time away and we managed an early morning walk…
Huge thank you to Georgina for organising a fantastic trip.