Founded in 1697 and completed in 1715, the Ursuline monastery in Trois-Rivières is one of the few French-built buildings to survive the fire of 1908. Although it is now a museum, it is still a working monastery. There are no Read more…
The often overlooked history of indigenous peoples in North America and their exploitation by Europeans is still a contentious issue in Canada. As history museums are usually conservative, a safe way to explore indigenous cultures is by visiting UBC’s Museum 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 Read more…
A language is defined as a system of communication used by a particular nation or people group (Gessner 2017). There is no consensus on the over 100 definitions of culture by anthropologists, but it is widely accepted as “a web 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 Read more…
William Lyon Mackenzie King kept a daily diary totalling about 30,000 pages from 1893 to 1950, almost all of it is available online on the Library and Archives Canada digital library. He wrote much of his diary at Kingsmere near Read more…
After writing about the best gelato in Vancouver and the best ice cream in Seattle, I just have to write about the best ice cream in Ottawa. Carp Custom Creamery offers classic American flavours like lemon blueberry, double vanilla coconut, Read more…
The Seattle Monorail is just under a mile long and probably one of the world’s shortest urban railway lines. It was built to shuttle passengers between downtown Seattle and the Space Needle, which was the site of the 1962 World’s Read more…
The Space Needle in Seattle is tall, but doesn’t reach anywhere near space. Its exterior style is typical of 1960’s futurism with an enthusiasm for human progress. The observation tower is 184 meters tall, but the highest floor only stands Read more…
The Ottawa Tulip Festival comes into full bloom every May. The display contains 10,000 tulips sent by air from the Netherlands to show their gratitude for the Canadian Armed Forces that liberated them from German occupation during World War Two. Read more…