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Every once in a while something happens that makes me take stock and question why I'm living in Canada. Every once in a while a government somewhere else does something simple yet important that for whatever reason I can't see Canada's government ever doing.
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The words Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité were written into the 1958 French Constitution and are considered part of the French national heritage. This week France’s Constitutional Court ruled that the “principle of fraternity” protected farmer Cédric Herrou from prosecution for aiding dozens of migrants who had entered the country illegally.
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The dream lives on, and we're still poring over property listings. We've expanded our search to include Burgundy, which is also insanely cheap. Check out this property, which is listed for €220,000. I imagine a day that goes something like this.... Wake up late. Maybe
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Mirare, a sculpture by Cheryl Hamilton and Michael Vandermeer, was first placed in Deep Cove, but after outrage by people there was moved across town to Princess Park Two events are convincing me that leaving North Vancouver for France is our best choice. The first, part of the research for
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Perhaps inevitably our thoughts have turned to Provence. As Normandy is to the north-west of France, Provence is to the south-east. More sun, less rain, and of course the locale for no end of books and movies. One one hand, the improved climate, especially near the Mediterranean, is surely tempting,
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I'll admit to only a passing interest in the Eurovision Song Contest, (seriously, go look if you haven't before.) but this gem on Twitter speaks volumes.
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Admittedly the North Shore has been home to at least a handful of well known and/or respected musicians, not the least of which are Bryan Adams, Sook-Yin Lee, and of course the legendary Al Neil. Still though it's hardly a hotbed of music thrills. North Vancouver has
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I will admit to a fondness for Ace of Spades, although a lot of Speed Metal and Death Metal doesn't really do it for me. So it's probably a good thing that France has relatively few Metal bands per capita. And where is Canada in the
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Earlier today I was hiking a back trail, high above the Ballantree Trail in West Vancouver. I was high enough up that I almost couldn’t hear the traffic on the Upper Levels highway below. I was reminded of the nearly constant wall of noise and sound that surrounds us
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One of the projects over the last couple of weeks has been investigating whether it's possible or sensible to take our red Fiat Turbo with us to France. On one hand selling this car just to buy a new one over there seems like a hassle, but on
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At 11:36 am last Monday North Vancouver moved from the endless rainy season to bright, warm, sparking sunshine. Yes, it was that dramatic, and immediately the mood of everyone on the North Shore improved by about 110%. This week has reminded me that one other thing that I want
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If you're moving to another country you need to figure out which electronics you will bring. Here in Canada we like 120v 60hz power with this plug. France though uses 230v 50hz and these plugs. What freaks me out is the voltage. For sixty years 120v is "