Will and Kate make a big splash in, surprise, Paris! Also, party time in Victoria

I'm a sucker for romance, and that's one lovely ceremony we're watching over in London, isn't it?

I don't think I've ever seen the city look finer; all those waving flags and folks singing "Jerusalem" and the parade with the Duke and Duchess, newly married, streaming past the Houses of Parliament and all. It's great advertising for the British "brand," if you like, and maybe that'll ease some  concerns from folks in Britain who don't like the price tag for the public purse.

Anyway, it's great stuff. And they're lapping it up all over the world, including Paris, as Star Travel guy Adrian Brijbassi reports...

You’d think Paris would be the one place in the world that would look at the Royal Wedding and shrug. You don’t see any large union jacks on display today, wedding gowns streaming down Ave. Winston Churchill or Will and Kate doubles lining Ave. George V. Pockets of excitement can be found in the City of Light, though.

A lot of aaahs could be heard from inside the Frog & Rosbif when Kate said “I will” to her prince. The decidedly female crowd gathered at this British pub near the Marais. Lineups began before the doors opened at 11 a.m. local time and more than 150 crowded in by the time Kate and William met at the altar about an hour later.

Rob Sutton said he was missing the street parties in London, where he lives. He’s visiting Paris for the weekend and thinks the nuptials will reinvigorate interest in the royals, because of the likeability of the couple. “The two big things are the coronation and the wedding. You don’t miss those,” he said, pointing out that a boom in TV sales occurred in Britain when Queen Elizabeth II was officially crowned in 1953.

Still, Sutton was a bit chagrined to be at a bar holding a pint watching bouquets stream by.

“I think if you’d ask the blokes in the bar, we’d all wonder what the hell we’re doing here,” he said, laughing. “It’s a wedding, it’s a girls’ thing.”

It’s also big business. Patricia Yates, VisitBritain’s director of strategy and communications, said on Sky TV on Thursday night that she expects 2 billion people around the world to watch the ceremony and thinks the attention will generate billions in tourism revenue. “We’ll see an additional 4 million people over the next four years visit the country,” she said.

At the Frog & Rosbif, cheers arose when the big names showed up — the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the couple themselves, of course. And there were big cheers for Elton John when he was flashed on the broadcast. Some hands went up, from tiara-decked women, when Westminster Abbey — and the world, really — was asked if anyone objected to the marriage.

Torontonian Mel Dark, who’s been visiting Paris for weeks, said many people she’s run into in the city have been talking about the wedding. Briton Justin Steed, though, joked that Paris may not be so into the wedding as other places because “The French just don’t have this, do they?”

They were whooping it up this morning at Le Meridien King Edward in Toronto, where it was being shown, and out in Victoria, B.C., where folks were up at 3 a.m. to watch the start of the ceremony. Star columnist Bert Archer files this report...

Four hundred groggy well-wishers gathered in the Tea Room and Bengal Lounge of Victoria’s Empress Hotel very early Friday morning to eat beans, eggs and kippers in their bathrobes, pyjamas and fascinators and watch Kate Middleton become Princess Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge and the latest Mrs. Windsor.

“This is the first wedding I’ve attended in a robe,” says Alisa Muntz, 31, who came up from Seattle with her friend, Eliza Schuster, 23, to watch the wedding in Canada’s monarchist capital. It’s not her first wedding at the Empress, though. She had her own wedding here in 2005.

“She’s just so classic,” Schuster says, eyes fixed on one of 12 screen beaming the beaming princess into the three rooms set up for the breakfast festivities.

Tickets for the breakfast affair went on sale in February, and sold out so quickly that they added rooms and screens to meet the demand from tourists and locals.

Angela Rafuse-Tahir, director of sales and marketing for the hotel, who was up at 1 a.m. to make sure everything went smoothly, figures about a third of the guests were also guests of the hotel; the other two thirds were locals who paid $39 a pop to nibble on roasted tomatoes and watch the wedding, exactly the sort of people who make Victoria, and the Fairmont Empress in particular, Canada’s royal ground zero.

Meryl Howard, 78, and her friend of 40 years Sylvia Keith, 70, were two of them.

“I’ve taped two of the broadcasts,” says Keith, who moved to Canada from England when she was 25 but still speaks with a hearty southern British accent. “CBC and CNN, and I’m going to watch the whole thing over again, twice.”

The Empress was also the site of Canada Post’s debut of the official William and Kate stamp, which was selling briskly, even at 4am.

Sara Tichgelaar, 18 and Jordyn Ramsay, 19, both in tiaras, were two of the early-morning revellers in line for the stamps. “It really brings the country together,” Ramsay says of the wedding and the Empress 400. “It makes you feel good to be a Canadian.”

The Monarchist League of Victoria clearly has nothing to worry about for the next few decades.

 

Keep me from blowin' away while I write about Trip Advisor's best beaches

There's a storm brewin' up in Toronto. A whopper. And I don't mean the federal election - bah da boom. As I finish these notes in my handy sunroom in north Toronto, the winds are howling like a wounded Canadiens fan. I'm actually afraid one of my maple trees might come crashing down, as they're both about a hundred years old and we've had lots of rain lately. This happened a couple years back. We had a big rain storm and then it cleared up and I went and sat outside in my back yard. I came in for a minute and, whomp, a branch as thick as a telephone pole can crashing down and split the chair I had been sitting in clean in half. It was about 40-feet long and reached all across my back yard, resting on the fence but causing no damage except the chair. Oh, and a Japanese maple that it also cleaved in half. Still. to this day, that little maple only grows on one side.

But enough of that. I wanted to mention a pretty decent Trip Advisor survey of top beaches in the world. I often find Trip Advisor pretty American-centric - filled with folks who are surprised not to find ice machines in their pension in Italy - but this is a pretty decent list. For world beaches, this is what the readers/users/raters came up with:

1. Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

2. Boracay, Philippines (see photo at left)

3. Palm/Eagle Beach, Aruba

4. Negril, Jamaica

5. Tulum, Mexico

6. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

7. Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman

8. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

9. Cape May, New Jersey

10. Santa Teresa, Costa Rica

For U.S. beaches, it was:

1. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

2. Cape May, New Jersey

3. Panama City Beach, Florida

4. Miami Beach, Florida

5. Sanibel Island, Florida

6. Clearwater, Florida

7. Honolulu, Hawaii

8. Captiva Island, Florida

9. Poipu, Hawaii

10. Siesta Key, Florida

I like the world list. I've heard great things about Boracay and it's hard to argue with Jamaica. Millions flock to Punta Cana every year and I've been to the beaches at nearby Cap Cana, so that makes sense.

I don't much care for the U.S. list. Honolulu? I guess they mean Waikiki, which is famous and pretty but it's not even close to being the best beach on Oahu, let alone anywhere in Hawaii. Poipu, number nine (see photo at right), deserves a good spot. But where's Kaanapali on Maui or, better yet, the best beach in the world for my money, Napili (also Maui?). Of course, you can make the point that most tourists only get to Honolulu/Waikiki, so it's hard to fault them for not knowing about Waimea or Sandy Beach or the other great ones on Oahu or the other islands.

And, hey, not to get too provincial about it, but a born-and-raised California dude is wondering how the west coast got shut out? Malibu's overrated but Santa Monica is great and Newport (better yet, next-door Corona del Mar) and Laguna beaches are some of the best you'll find anywhere.

There's nothing here from Europe, and you can't tell me that beaches such as those in Portugal and Spain, let alone the Greek islands, don't deserve some mention. The seacoast and beaches north of Barcelona are magic, especially spots such as Tossa del Mar. There's also the French Riviera, which has awesome (if rocky) beaches in places such as St. Jean Cap Ferrat.

I'll tell my kids to shield their eyes here lest they be embarrassed - again - by their father, but the best European beach I ever saw was on the island of Paros in Greece. It was about a half-hour walk from my small hotel on the waterfront in the main town, but it was in a gloriously quiet part of the island with hardly a soul. I was lying there in May, 1984 (I think) when two young and very beautiful women came by and laid out their towels. Great. Then they got up and stripped down to nothing. Gulp. Then they started rubbing suntan oil on each other. Yowsa.

You wouldn't think a memory like that would stick with a guy but somehow I can still recall some of the details...

 

 

 

Good time to book a summer cruise in Europe...Tragic accident on cruise ship

By all accounts, this is a good time to visit Europe. With the economies in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and other countries still in something of a mess, there appear to be good deals in those countries.

That's been the case for a while, but what's new is a report I saw in USA Today this week about how summer cruises in Europe are another big deal for the summer.

A lot of cruise companies pulled their ships out of troubled spots around the globe over the winter and positioned themselves in Europe. But they don't seem to be getting the business they expected.

USA Today's Gene Sloan, who writes a regular cruise report and blog, said this week that industry watchers report "lower-than-expected demand for summer cruises in Eruope is behind a rash of unusual, last-minute discounts - and more deals could be on the way."

Celebrity Cruises, which has five ships in Europe this summer instead of the usual four, is said to have a "fly and sail" promotion, while Crystal is offering a "standby fare" promotion.

"The cruise lines are going into panic mode," said Mike Driscoll, editor of Cruise Week. "They have moved all this hardware over there and they need to fill the beds."

Good stuff. For consumers, anyway.

TRAGIC TALE AT SEA

This was truly awful to read about. A British woman, 73-year-old Janet Richardson, was on the 800-passenger Ocean Countess off the coast of Norway in late March when she became quite ill. She was suffering internal bleeding, so a rescue boat was sent to get off the bigger ship.

During the transfer, Richardson's stretcher was dropped into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. It took several minutes to rescue the poor woman. She was taken to hospital and apparently was recovering, but word came this week that she had died.

A very bizarre and heartbreaking accident, for sure.

 

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Star's Heather Mallick in London; desperate for milk!...Oregon, Niagara news

Here's a London post from the Star's Heather Mallick, who's covering the Royal Wedding on Friday but is having trouble adjusting to holiday hours and the lack of North American-style milk.

Here’s a tip. Never travel to London without checking first for approaching Bank Holidays.

This would be obvious, normally, but you wouldn’t think a city devoted to entertainment and commerce would be so, well, shut down for Good Friday and Easter Monday. Worse, London closes in a Parisian sense, which means that it’s seriously closed and expects you to know that. It doesn’t update websites about approaching closures and it sneers at capitalism in the sense that even chain stores decide not to be at all approachable.

 Thank god it doesn’t shut down in French style by telling you to f--- off for even wanting to see your huge giant important museum exhibit. On Friday, a London guard apologized to me for the British Library not having announced its Good Friday closure on the website. Amazing. What a nice man.

  The Wellcome Collection show didn’t explain that  it wouldn’t open until noon on Good Friday. It’s weird waiting in Bloomsbury, an area much bombed during the war and coffee-shop-free, to see an art show called DIRT: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life, about how dirt can be used as a material for art, and how revolting cities have always been, and continue to be. It was wonderful and creative, but very odd to hang around waiting to be deliciously repelled. Kind London passers-by explained the Wellcome always opens late on Bank Holidays.

 The courtesy of Londoners is extraordinary. I apologize 10 times a day and each time a good-humoured Londoner brushes it off. In Toronto, people ignore my apologies, leaving me grimly reluctant to offer them ever again. Until the next hopeful apology.

 I suppose they don’t think the Wellcome’s bricks made of hair, skin flakes and toenail clippings collected from around London call out much to the tourist trade. (Really, the show was brilliant, fodder for unusual thoughts.)

Even at St. Pancras, the huge train station that sees everyone off on Eurostar to Paris and the great capitals of Europe, a third of the shops shut down because they bloody well feel like it. I know this because my hotel sits on top of the station. I can watch from my room as tourists melt down when they can’t buy a cake or an egg or a notepad or a red purse.

That was me only hours before. Le Pain Quotidien is always open, and at all times, I can order a soft-boiled egg. Never before have I found a restaurant that will boil an egg for me. Now I seek a European restaurant—or any restaurant anywhere—that will give me a huge glass of skim milk. You can't get milk in restaurants, it's too naff.

I love milk, I drink a gallon a day. The trick of travel is to replicate the conditions of home. If anyone knows where I can get a glass of skim milk in London, please email me at hmallick@thestar.ca.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog from Jim Byers.

OREGON HAPPENINGS

Managed a drink with some nice folks from Oregon Tourism at the always fun Park Hyatt rooftop lounge Monday night.  I haven't spent a ton of time in Oregon, but I've been a couple times, mostly to Portland (see photo), and quite enjoyed it.

I think Canadians feel a certain affinity for folks with a West Coast liberal attitude. Well, some of us do, anyway. Oregon is big on environmental sustainability and celebrates the outdoors like true Canadians; windsurfing on the Columbia River, playing golf at world-renowned courses like Bandon Dunes on the lovely coast, mountain biking, climbing Mt. Hood (apparently doable quite easily in a day) and, even better, quaffing lovely, Oregon-grown Pinot Noir or heartier reds from the eastern part of the state.

Folks in Ontario may not realize it, but Oregon's geography is quite varied. Just like B.C., it's rainy and green on the coast (although not in summer or fall so much), then there are some lovely valleys and mountains. The eastern edge, kind of like the Okanagan Valley, is much more dry and desert-like, with sagebrush and rolling hills and wide-open spaces.

Bend, Oregon, is a favourite spot of my dad's in central Oregon, although I haven't had the pleasure. Canadian cross-country skier Beckie Scott was living in Bend at one point, and I remember interviews in which she raved about the place.

Portland, of course, is a dynamic city with great cafes and shopping and terrific local food. They also love their Portland WinterHawks hockey team, I was told by an Oregon tourism official whose husband adores Tie Domi and has a quote from Domi on the family refrigerator, and how many people other than Don Cherry can say that?

There's also a great Shakespeare festival in Ashland and a hugely popular Pinot Noir festival and a big western rodeo (as opposed to the eastern kind) in Pendleton, home of Pendleton shirts. This year's Pendleton Round-up goes Sept. 14-17.

Good stuff. But if there's anything that's gonna lure your Toronto Star Golf magazine editor out to Oregon, it's likely Bandon Dunes. They have four courses and consistenly get rated as the top or very close to it golf experience in North America. One of the folks involved in Bandon Dunes is helping build the new Cabot Links course in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, which we wrote about in this year's golf magazine.

MAID OF THE MIST ABOUT TO RETURN IN NIAGARA

I got this press release on Tuesday morning, another sign of spring (at last).

"After a particularly long winter the historic Maid of the Mist returns to the water, three and a half weeks later than last year.  Maid of the Mist will welcome visitors on both the Canadian and American landings on May 4, 2011.  As Niagara Falls’ top tourist attraction, the popular boats have graced the Niagara waters for more than a century.

"To kick off the upcoming season, readers of the Niagara Falls Review have voted the Maid of the Mist the number one tourist attraction for the 17^th consecutive year. Trip Advisor, a trusted travel review site, has also consistently placed Maid of the Mist as the number one activity in Niagara Falls. With high reviews and a rising economy, the Maid of the Mist organization expects promising results this year."

I always thought it would be cheesy but I took a ride on the Maid of the Mist last year and thought it was awesome. Just spectacular, to be honest. Definitely a must-see in Niagara.

 

Hey, America, we're keeping you in business...Canada's very strange borders

Got a note from the folks at Canadian Visa to say that over the past two years, Canadian Visa cardholders have been the NUMBER ONE contributor to the U.S. tourism biz. In 2009, the collective "we" spent $7.8 billion down south. In 2010, that rose to $9.2 billion in spending on our Canadian VISA cards, which is a pretty good hike (18 per cent).

Nobody really comes close. UK Visa cardholders spent just $2.5 billion in the U.S., while Mexico was third at $2.0 billion. Slackers.

"Canadian tourists continue to have a positive impact on the U.S. tourism economy," said William M. Sheedy, Group President, The Americas, Visa Inc. "The strong willingness and desire of Canadians to travel across the southern border reinforces the important of the North American tourism industry to the region's continued economic growth."

So the next time you get hassled by a U.S. immigration officer at Pearson, I think you should write this down on a card and say it, very slowly but loudly.  "Hey, buddy, you're giving me a hard time? We Canadians are keeping you all from the unemployment line. Yeah, Canada. Our dollar is higher than yours and we're keeping you all from financial ruin and Florida-type bank disclosures. So next time you're thinking of hassling someone, pick on the guy from Portugal."

Yeah, maybe not. But Sheedy's comment made me think for a minute. Southern border? We never think of it, do we? I mean, we all say we're going over the border or south of the border. We never talk about going NORTH of the border unless we're referring to the act of coming home from the U.S. so we can our fix of curling highlights.

Probably this is because we don't search out trips to the Arctic Circle to cross over to Russia. Or as a way of reaching other countries that claim some sort of Arctic sovereignty, including Norway and maybe some other Scandinavian nations. But then I started thinking again about our other borders. Basically, we kinda get ripped off in that department. I mean, Switzerland is landlocked and all but they can get in their Smart Cars (everyone in Switzerland has one) and be in Italy in five minutes, sipping cappucino and slurping plates of spaghetti carbonara. They can drive around the corner and be in France, sampling one of the 4,793 types of cheese the French make or strolling down the Champs Elysees. Shoot, they can take the subway to Munich (and know that it will ALWAYS be on time), or climb every mountain and end up in Austria (not that they'd want to). They can go any time they want to Leichtenstein, for gosh sakes, and how great is that!??!!

Over in Asia, China does pretty good in the border department, with a list of neighbours that includes Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as Mongolia, a sliver of Afghanistan and North Korea. Great takeout food options, for sure, and wonderful vacation spots (well, maybe not ALL of them). Our only real option without an icebreaker or a pack of sled dogs is the U.S., and even though it's a great place it's kinda boring to have only one real southern neighbour.

Anyway, so what about our other borders? I'm glad you asked. Our most immediate western border is with the United States, as Alaska borders on the Yukon, right? I don't think we really have a western border for British Columbia, although the Kuril Islands south of Kamchatka, Russia would be next if you cross the Pacific along the 49th parallel. Our eastern border? Denmark, that would be, as the mighty Danes control Greenland, which butts up against some of our property up around Baffin Island.

Further east? I didn't know this, but if you draw a line directly from St. John's to Europe, you cross into France somewhere in Brittany. Not really a border, I don't think, but still interesting if you're a person who wakes up at 3 a.m. and wanders downstairs to read the atlas.

 

 

 

 

 

Toronto hotel boom ignored by U.S. study...Virgin Air/Royal Wedding...Iraq flight

Quite the mixed bag here today. First, I'm pissed off (again) at another U.S. study that ignores Canada. This time, I get riled up reading a good USA Today report about a study by the STR/McGraw Hill Construction Dodge Pipeline Report. It talks about how New York is building 6,763 hotel rooms at the moment (wow) and then goes on to list the top-ten markets for hotel construction, but only in the U.S.

The report said the number two city was Orlando, at 2,636, followed by Washington D.C. at 2,619 rooms under construction, Dallas at 1,475, Miami-Hialeah at 1,026 and then Philadelphia (799), Chicaco (778), Atlanta (691), Houston (680) and Nashville (446).

Yeah, I guess Canadian companies often do studies that focus only on Canadian hotels. But it still aggravates me to read big stories in major U.S. publications that ignore the friendly neighbour to the north, just as a colleague of mine gets his knickers in a twist watching CNN and seeing the weather reports stop at Buffalo and not listing our atmospheric conditions.

It’s no wonder Toronto has such a hard time making itself heard in the Fox News/CNN dominated American market, where the 50 states are the only thing that matters in the entire world unless Uncle Sam is dropping bombs on Libya or Afghanistan or there's a Royal Wedding going on (see item below).

If nothing else, the hotel study got me thinking again about Toronto's impressive hotel construction market. I mean, in the last year or so we’ve had the Thompson (see photo), the Ritz-Carlton, the new Le Germain at Maple Leaf Square. Under construction? The Trump, the Shangri-la, the new Delta near the convention centre, Bisha (also near the convention centre), the new Four Seasons, and more.

I checked the Star’s library and came up, roughly, 1,860 rooms that were under construction as of January. That could be off by 10 per cent but it still would be good for number four on a list of North America hotel construction (assuming there are no Canadian cities doing more than Toronto, and after checking around I believe that is the case).

Terry Mundell of the Greater Toronto Hotel Association said he shares my frustration with the American study.

“I agree,” he told me. “I don’t think Americans know what we have up here. I don’t think people understand how big we are. We get measured against Montreal and Ottawa and all but we don’t compare. We’re the anomaly. We’re the beast. The GTA probably has almost one-third of all the hotel rooms in Canada.”

Mundell said his group measures hotels in terms of overall business and that Toronto is something like seventh in North America.

We may be a beast up north but obviously we’re small potatoes compared to New York. The USA Today report said the next hotel that will move out of the construction phase is a 316-room Dream Downtown hotel operated by Wyndham, set to open in May. The following month, the folks who operate London-based Yotel will open their first American hotel, a 669-room affair with small (how small I don’t know) rooms, presumably aiming at bargain hunters.

ROYAL WEDDING GOES VIRGIN

An item on Travelmole.com today said passengers on board Virgin Atlantic flights to the US and Caribbean next Friday will be invited to onboard street parties to celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

"On flights departing April 29, passengers in economy and premium economy will receive an afternoon tea of wedding cake and traditional English breakfast tea served in a souvenir union jack lunch box.
Cabins will be decorated in bunting and union jack headrests and passengers will receive special Kate and William themed love hearts and ice cream during the flight."

A nice touch. Not to mention clever marketing by Sir Richard Branson. Too bad Virgin doesn't have its Toronto-California flights any more...

FLY TO IRAQ

Seeking something a little different? After 21 years, Austrian Airlines is returning to Baghdad. Beginning June 8^th, the air carrier will reinstate its route into its scheduled flight program. Austrian will operate a total of three flights per week to the Iraqi capital. The service will be provided with aircraft from the Airbus A320 fleet.

Not quite what you had in mind? Finnair will reintroduce a direct summer route between Toronto and Helsinki with connections to over 50 destinations in Europe. Finnair will offer a scheduled flight between Toronto Pearson International Airport and Helsinki Airport five days a week from May 26 to September 11, 2011.

Finnair’s summer rates will start at $825.

 

Smashing hotels in Old Montreal: Hotel Nelligan and Hotel Le St.-James

 

MONTREAL – It’s good to get back to this city.

I spend a lot of time looking at travel stories from all over the world, and sometimes I get caught up in lovely photos of Tahiti or Africa or Europe. And I forget – I think we ALL forget – just how wonderful Montreal can be.

I spent two nights in Old Montreal on Sunday and Monday, checking out the Hotel Nelligan and Hotel Le
St.-James. They’re both remarkable properties with tons of charm, and located in terrific areas.

The Nelligan (see photo above) probably gets the nod for streetside ambience, being located on narrow Rue St. Paul in the heart of the old town. It also has great rooms, with exposed brick walls from its pre-hotel days, a cool atrium and a nice, clean look to the rooms.

It’s a very solid deal, as I booked a room for $199 on Sunday night. Not cheap, but for a fabulous boutique hotel on a great street in a great city, it’s pretty good.

I sat down for dinner at one of their two restaurants, Verses, and enjoyed duck confit rolled up in small, crispy balls with spicy citrus and also a tender, moist serving of braised lamb that had to be a half-pound. I thought I’d woken up in Texas or something, the portion was so huge.

A very nice space it is, with a good wine list and friendly service. All in all, highly recommended for anyone looking for a boutique spot in Old Montreal.

(By the by, a new acquaintance I met for lunch at the cool-looking but not quite remarkable Gazette restaurant at the Westin told me he went onto hotwire.com and punched in a four-star hotel in downtown Montreal and got the lovely-looking Intercontinental for a ridiculously cheap $109. “I’ve used hotwire six times, I think, and asked for a four-star hotel in downtown Montreal. It’s come up with the Sheraton or the Intercontinental as the best deal each time." So there you go.)

Le St.-James is, quite frankly, another category entirely. It’s a former bank and the public spaces, especially the insanely beautiful XO restaurant (see photo), are out of this world.

I somehow snagged a room on the Internet for $225, and I think that’s about half the price it normally would be. Rooms have lovely art work and antiques gathered from all over the world. There also are lovely baths with great Molton Brown products and all the attention to detail you’d expect of a place that has been home to everyone from the Rolling Stones to Leonardo DiCaprio, who is said to have once rented the penthouse suite (wow – it’s absolutely stunning and absolutely IMMENSE) for two weeks. They also have a CD in the room called Jean Robitaille Hotel Le St. James Sessions and I've been listening to it over and over and have fallen in love with it; old-time and new-age jazzy intermingled with some killer riffs and great mood shifts.

I had dinner at XO last night, with mostly good results. The main course was seared duck breast on a bed of cocoa bean (the waiter said) cassoulet with wild mushrooms and veal sauce (I do believe). It was outstanding; tasty and nicely presented.

The appetizer ($16) was a bowl of microgreens with sherry vinegar and olive oil. The sherry vinegar is said to have been aged five years in bourbon casks, and it was tasty. But it was a simple bowl of greens with no nuts, no fruit, no nothing. It tasted fine but there was no texture change and very little colour but deep green. That’s a lot for the price, even considering the beauty of the restaurant.

The only place I’ve seen for dining that’s quite as opulent is the wonderful Merchant Hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland; another hotel carved out of a hefty bank hall. Le St.-James is perhaps glitzier and better lit, but the Merchant had more cherubs and more gold.

Either way, both XO and the Merchant make a smashing spot for dinner. Or a drink, which wouldn’t be nearly as damaging to your wallet.

Older folks who like the elegance and antique look would prefer Le St. James. Younger, hipper types (or wannabe's like me) might opt for the Nelligan. Both are solid choices, for sure.

 

 

A steamie time in fashionable Montreal...plus street bikes and Notre Dame

 

MONTREAL – Great shopping, sure. Lovely, fashionable folks to admire as you sip your caffe latte near Place D’Armes, sure. And great, old-time architecture.

This is a wonderful town, but what got me most excited yesterday was a pair of nice hot steamies.

I’m in town for a very short period and was wandering along St. Catherine St. looking for a place for a quick lunch on Sunday, not wanting to waste too much of a mostly decent afternoon indoors. Finally I spotted a typical corner spot not far from the University of Quebec at Montreal campus, and found what I wanted.

Hot Dogs Vapeur, otherwise known to English types as steamies.

Oh, I love Toronto's grilled hot dogs just fine. But I grew up eating what are easily the best steamed hot dogs in the world, those made by a San Francisco Bay Area (mostly the East Bay) chain called Caspers. They have great dogs with a crunchy casing and a just-right spice to them, and they’re simply steamed and served up to billions of loyal customers every day. I stop at the one near my Dad’s house on my in from the airport every time I go out to visit him in the East Bay. And I mean EVERY TIME.

Anyway, I was delighted on Sunday to gobble down two very unhealthy but tremendously satisfying steamies and a Diet Pepsi for a whopping $4.41.

It’s too bad we don’t see many steamies in Toronto. There used to be a steamie joint on Mt. Pleasant just south of Eglinton but it closed probably eight or 10 years back.

With the sun out, I tried renting one of the street bikes you can get for $5 for a day. It worked fine, but then I found some cool-looking shops to check out and parked the bike in one of the official locks. I went back and tried to get the bike back out but it wouldn’t work. The machine says you can re-insert your credit card and keep using the bike but somehow it wouldn’t work for me.

It might’ve been my fault but it seems a tad confusing. Too bad, as it’s a great concept.

More to come later on old Montreal, where I spent most of the day. But I also managed a quick trip into Notre Dame, and was blown away.

I couldn’t get too close as they were getting ready for a private mass, but I managed to snap a few photos from the back of the church. I’d forgotten how stunning and colourful the interior is; much more so than similar churches in Europe. Amazing, amazing place.

 

My Fair Lady at the Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake: What a show!

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE – I’d go again in a heartbeat.

Well, maybe not a heartbeat. But soon. And with a smile on my face and a tune on my tongue.

I had a friend in university who was in love with My Fair Lady and we listened to the soundtrack (on vinyl) over and over in 1974-75. You’d have to be tone deaf not to appreciate the music, but somehow I’d never seen the play.

That oversight was corrected on Thursday, thanks to a preview at the Shaw Festival down in Niagara-on-the-Lake (which is, by the way, already beginning to show its daffodils and banks of tulips – just in time for the peek-a-boo spring we’ve been having). It was simply outstanding.

Deborah Hay belts out a tune and does a great job with Eliza Doolittle, while Ben Campbell is absolutely first-rate as Henry Higgins, dripping with English upper class sarcasm and pretense. He’s also an excellent singer, which is why this production brings in Lerner and Loewe tunes that Rex Harrison didn’t want to sing in the movie, him being Rex Harrison and all.

They do some other updates as well, such as giving some of the London street folks a 1970’s punk rock look and letting Colonel Pickering, expertly played by Patrick Galligan, stir up a bit of an interest in Higgins’ delightful mother. Doolittle’s father is a true ham in the best sense of the word and is marvelously played by Neil Barclay.

The music, of course, speaks for itself.

Galligan met with several travel media types after the performance and talked about the production and Shaw and the Rolling Stones and acting in general. He said this is his first musical, and he doesn’t do badly as Pickering in the pipes department. He’s no Campbell (whom he lists as one of his best friends) but he doesn’t have to be.

Galligan said he enjoys playing new parts but also gets a charge out of putting his own spin on tried-and-true characters such as Pickering.

“We all play a part some time that someone else has made iconic,” he said. “You can’t be intimidated or you’d run out of interesting things to do.”

Galligan, a dashing sort, has turned Pickering into something more like a hip and caring 50-year-old, versus a stuffy man of 70 or more. And it’s a nice touch.

As for the Stones, he said he found out last year that Mick Jagger is a George Bernard Shaw fan when the Shaw Festival asked him if they could use “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” in one of their plays. He said “yes” quickly and the music was used in Doctor’s Dilemma.

I didn’t know the public can get tours of the Shaw Theatre complex, but we got a sample of what the public can get for a measly five bucks, and it was a huge treat. We got to see folks making some of the incredible costumes they use in various plays, including some over-the-top, multi-coloured outfits  for the Ascot race scene – one of the highlights of My Fair Lady, which runs from May 25 to Oct. 30. We also watched a couple of other workers weaving human hair into fitted wigs that actors will use.

Sherry Naismith-Jones (see photo) is a licensed hairdresser who has been at the Shaw for 33 years and says it takes her 30 to 40 hours to weave four or five colours of human hair into a realistic, fitted wig. It takes a lot of patience, but she seems to enjoy it, and it’s always a kick to chat with someone about something they love. (Mind you, the ONLY thing I didn't really like in My Fair Lady was Eliza's hair, which looked too much like something from the 1920's for my liking, but there you go).

My suggestion is that you do yourself a favour this spring or summer and head down to Niagara for the Shaw. Catch My Fair Lady or one of the other shows (they have three Shaw offerings this year as they celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the festival: Candida, Heartbreak House and On the Rocks, plus such notables as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and My Fair Lady, which is of course based on Shaw’s Pygmalion). Stay in one of the Vintage Hotels such as Prince of Wales or the Pillar and Post or Queen’s Landing, which has a great patio overlooking the Niagara River, and try some of the local restaurants and pubs. I had a fab calamari and pizza dinner Thursday night at the Old Winery on Niagara Stone Rd. before heading back to T.O., and I’d recommend it to anyone.

 

 

 

Great dinner at Escabeche at Prince of Wales Hotel, Niagara-on-the-Lake

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE - With all the talk of royal weddings and all, it was a good day to check out the Prince of Wales Hotel.

I don’t get down to Niagara as often as I’d like to, mostly because of the infernal QEW, but it’s always nice to get out of the city and check out this small, green, manicured corner of southern Ontario. The excuse this time was a visit to the Prince of Wales and a preview of My Fair Lady at the Shaw Festival later Thursday.

A group of us were treated to some Wednesday afternoon sparkling wine and then I got my first-ever “wrap” treatment at a spa. I’ll write about it more soon in the pages of Star Travel but suffice to say it was a citrus and tea procedure that left my skin soft as a proverbial baby’s bottom.

I had a chance to stroll around the town for a bit afterward (word of warning; a lot of shops close very early down here, as in 5 p.m. on a weekday in April) and then we were treated to a fabulous dinner by chef Robin Little, with help from the wonderful sommelier, the highly engaging Fred Gamula, who gave us a brief tour of the 8,000 bottle wine cellar.

Gamula said it’s hard to keep up with folks who want him to stock their wines.

“Everybody and his brother is coming in to the hotel with local wines” they want us to stock, he said. “I took one rep down to the cellar the other day to show him and said, ‘Great, but where would you want me to put it?’”

Gamula says Ontario wines, especially the reds, don’t get enough credit. The reds can be tricky on their own, some of them, but generally are great with good, he said.

We had a marveoulous 2009 Coyote’s Run Pinot Blanc with a butternut squash soup with truffle ravioli (see photo) at Escabeche, the Prince of Wales restaurant. There also was  aCave Springs 2009 Riesling with roasted beet salad, balsamic and goat cheese foam (I’m a little tired of the foam thing myself),

The third course had Henry of Pelham Baco Noir reserve with lovely pheasant on a bed of sautéed red cabbage with bacon powder, then a chocolate tart with port or a yogurt panna cotta with fruit for dessert.

Definitely a meal to remember, topped off by a half pint at the Irish Harp (great Irish pub down the street from the hotel) and a nice night at the lovely Prince of Wales Hotel and a morning café latte across the street at Balzac’s, which isn’t as atmospheric as the one in the Distillery District of Toronto but still features awesome coffee.