The fortune cookie

If the cookie says so!

An opportunity to celebrate

Why not take this opportunity to celebrate the first month (and first third) of this trip, the additional year I carry in my baggage since a couple of weeks and, keeping apart egocentricity (it would have been more elegant to begin with that, I guess), the last corn harvest.

Anyway, we celebrated the occasion with an épluchette de blé d'Inde, that is a gathering with friends to eat fresh corn. The nice thing is that everyone should first peel the corns. Then they are cooked in salted water and eat with some butter and salt on them. It is such a comfort warm taste they have!

We bought these corns on the road, on our way back from the Eastern Townships, that region with towns in which porches, gardens and mailboxes are almost annoyingly perfect. After the visit I can understand better why the Quebec mysteries of Louise Penny take place here.

Postcard home

Dear family and friends,

During my stay in Montreal I couldn't miss the opportunity to visit Canada's capital, which is only two and a half hours by car. So here I am, spending some days in Ottawa, visiting a part of the family that I hadn't seen for so many years, and catching up with family stories, which at this side of the Atlantic are served with a nice slice of lemon meringue pie.

I'm having a very nice time in Ottawa. It is an easy city to walk. The Parliament buildings, bridges, canals, museums...

...and tasty things like the beaver tails in the crowded ByWard Market. Beaver tails are a kind of fried dough pastries topped with various condiments (cinnamon sugar, chocolate, etc.). Take a look by yourselves and decide whether you'd like them or not!

I've already decided to come back some winter in the future. I can't wait to eat beaver tails, hot as they're served, on the Rideau Canal kiosks while skating it up and down :-)

Greetings from Canada's capital!