Alton village is the cultural heart of Caledon. In 2020, a process was launched to study the potential of making half the village into a historical conservation district. The are already has a lot going for it, over a dozen buildings are designated heritage buildings under the Ontario Heritage Act. Read more…
Imagine a Toronto suburb, now imagine the most boring Toronto suburb – that’s Mississauga. Commuter trains, highways, and unworkably wide streets thread across Mississauga to get residents to work in downtown Toronto. Mississauga isn’t a destination in itself, it’s a means to spend time in Toronto. For locals, the real Read more…
The history of Chambly’s fort is as storied as the one at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. After all, they were part of the same defence system built by the French in the 17th century. A wooden fort was first built in 1665, the remnants of which can still be seen in the ground. Read more…
A member of staff at the Boréalis museum told me that Trois-Rivières used to be the “paper capital of the world” with their world’s largest paper factory in the 1950s. The factory was razed about a decade ago to make way for new apartment buildings and only the water filtration Read more…
I’m stretching the Magog region to include Saint-Benoît-du-Lac where a Benedictine abbey lies. The monastery was founded in 1912 and the construction of the present stone structure began in 1939. The cheese factory was actually built a year before but didn’t serve its cheese to the public until 1943. The Read more…
Mostly known for its military history, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is the site of the first French fort in Canada. First built in 1666, Fort Saint-Jean has been continuously occupied from 1748 to the present day, albeit changing hands several times. The second fort was built in 1748 and destroyed by the French Read more…
Right on the short of tri-national Lake Constance, Romanshorn is Switzerland’s gem of the lake. It’s no match for Germany’s bustling Konstanz or Austria’s festive Bregenz, but it is an important gateway for the Swiss to enjoy the lake. The ferry pier at Romanshorn is just a stone’s throw away Read more…
On the easternmost end of Lake Constance, Bregenz is the largest Austrian city on the lake it shares with Germany and Switzerland. You can either get there by train within Austria, but the best way to get there from Germany or Switzerland is to ride one of their ferries from Read more…
Aachen is one of the most historic cities in Germany. It was first a Roman town, the ruins of which can still be seen on the streets of modern Aachen. The famous Aachen Cathedral saw the coronations of 31 Holy Roman Emperors and 12 queens. It is easily the most Read more…
Mönchengladbach isn’t a hotspot for tourism. Most tourists can’t even get its name right. You can look up the origins of its stance name on Wikipedia that claims it was changed twice because it could’ve been confused with two other places in Germany. Try and beat that for being an Read more…