Drinking the "sourtoe cocktail" at Yukon reception ... farewell to sunny Edmonton

EDMONTON - I gave in.

I've been out west at the annual Canadian Tourism Commission's GoMedia session. Last night, in honour of next year's event being in Whitehorse, the Yukon tourism folks put on a big wingding with dancing can-can girls, a dynamite band, some Yukon beer (I really liked the India Pale Ale) and ... the sourtoe cocktail.

For three years, I’ve resisted putting the words “Sour Toe Cocktail” into the paper. For those who don’t know the story, the Downtown Hotel up in Dawson City that serves up a cocktail that features a preserved human toe. It’s quite vile, actually; quite long and brown and you can still see the toenail. Gross doesn’t begin to describe it.

They have a keeper of the toe, if you like, named Captain Dick, and he places the weathered digit into a glass and fills it the liquor of your choice and you down it. Not only do you down it, but to get a certificate of accomplishment you have to let the gross, wrinkled, mottled, scuzzy toe touch your mouth.

“You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow," the saying goes, "but the lips have gotta touch the toe.”

They dehydrate the toes and preserve them in salt. Kinda like having a human margarita, if you will.

Some folks even wrap their lips around the thing but I wasn’t ready to go that far. I did, however, line up and sign my name and had someone put the toe into a glass of Crown Royal for me, then gulped it down and let the toe rest against my lips, albeit briefly.

I could’ve used vodka or rum, but I like to think using Crown Royal makes it a more distinctly Canadian experience and the flavour of the toe balances nicely with the caramel notes of the Crown Royal. I guess you also could say it becomes a true Whiskey Sour, too.

Not only did Yukon put on a great show, they had a fabulous band with the best name I’ve heard in years: Sasquatch Prom Date. They mostly did rockabilly and Johnny Cash but they also tossed in some other stuff, and it was a fabulous time, even if I didn’t join Robin Esrock in donning a traditional Yukon dancing girl outfit and performing the can-can on the dance floor.

The CTC’s Go Media showcase is in late May next year in the Yukon, and I’m hoping to make it. It looks like one of the real iconic and beautiful places in Canada.

I'm told it's the size of California but with only 35,000 people. Compared to, what, 38 million?

FAREWELL TO EDMONTON

It was a lovely day, indeed, out here in Edmonton. Actually, EVERY day the last week was phenomenal, with clear skies and warm temperatures. The trees are changing colour nicely, albeit with more deep  yellows than orange or bright red.

Still, being down on the river on a warm day in September is a real treat. And I come away with a much greater appreciation for the city than I had before. And that's the point of travel, isn't it? That and meeting some great folks, such as friendly bus drivers and the poet laureate of Winston Churchill Square, Mr. Kevan Lyons.

Lyons is a guy who sits at the square nearly every day and writes poetry as a way to help him combat his gambling addicition. Look for more from him and more on Edmonton in general in a coming story in Star Travel.

Look for more on my blog tomorrow about interesting tidbits I learned about Canada this week....

 

A surprisingly good meal and a great waiter in Old Montreal - check out Modavie

MONTREAL - Sometimes it's good to be surprised.

My wife and I were on our way back from Halifax to Toronto and opted to stay the night at the Residence Inn at the Montreal Airport. I thought we should stop in Old Montreal and eat dinner on the way, versus trying to find a place out in Dorval.

I had written a story about Rue St. Paul for the Star not long ago, so that was my natural starting point once I found a place to park. (And while I'm thinking about it, who's in charge of parking in Montreal? The signs make no sense. I drove in circles trying to find a place to park on the street but couldn't tell if it was legal. Then, when I followed the signs for what I thought was a city parking lot on the waterfront I ended up in a small lot across from the Science Centre that cost $8 an hour. The signage was abysmal.)

Anyway, we walked up from the port and the first restaurant we spotted was a place I had noticed earlier this summer, a wine bar called Modavie. I'm usually suspicious of places that call themselves a wine bar as I feel the food won't measure up, but the menu had beef and lamb galore and we had just finished eating every kind of seafood we could find in Halifax, so we decided to give it a try.

A waiter quickly came over and escorted us to a table and proceeded to charm us to death. His name is Lorenzo, and he was smooth and friendly and chatty and personable and knowledgeable about the menu and the wine list. Possibly he's the best waiter I've ever had, and I mean that sincerely. Just a tremendous guy.

The lamb chops were good but the lamb shank was out of this world; tender and smoky and resting in a lovely sauce with perfectly cooked veggies and a small wedge of potato.

Perfect food.

There was a jazz duo as well, and the singer was quite good, so that was a bonus.

I noticed on the menu that the restaurant has a twitter feed (@modavie), so I fired up my Blackberry and sent out a tweet and acknowledged the great service. Two minutes later, Lorenzo came over and said the owner of the place, Bruno, had spotted the comments and wanted to give us a free glass of wine to say thanks.

Very nice, and very much appreciated, Bruno!

I don't know about the rest of the menu, and I can't promise you'll get Lorenzo to serve you, but I highly recommend the place. It feels like Old Montreal without being too touristy, and it's perfectly situated on one of the greatest streets in North America...

 

Canada's first true links golf at Cabot Links ... Modavie Montreal's great waiter

CAPE BRETON, NOVA SCOTIA AND MONTREAL - Forgive the multiple datelines/placelines, but I've been jumping around the last couple days.

After spending a few days in Halifax, I made a quick dash up to Cape Breton on the weekend to play the 10 holes they have opened for now at Cabot Links golf course near Inverness. I'm happy to report that it's a glorious layout; Canada's first true links course on the shores of this wonderfully atmospheric island. The full 18 should open around July 1 of 2012, but for now they've made up 10 holes for folks to get a taste of links golf.

It's hard to get a true feel, given they're using a variety of holes from what will become the true front nine and back nine, but I"m happy to say that Ontario entrepeneur Ben Cowan-Dewar has pretty much nailed it with a course that wanders up and down along this glorious coast with a tremendous variety of holes. There are short par three's, including one that goes right down to the sea, and long par-four's bordering the beach, with the waves only a few yards aways. There's a double-green and the greens have enough swirls and bumps to make Scarlett Johansson jealous. Add in some gnarly rough, a few pot bunkers and a great, modern clubhouse with tremendous views of the glorious Atlantic Ocean and you've got something special.

It's awesome to play a true links course, as it's a vastly different game from the usual North American way of playing golf. For one thing, a bad shot that trickles along the ground is likely to roll at least 75 or 100 yards. On the negative side, you might find yourself hitting your 180-yard club 170 yards and then watch the ball roll another 30 yards and tumble into a nasty, green-side trap.

It's a lot of fun. And so is doing a bump-and-run seven-iron onto a swirling green and watching the ball roll up a big incline on the green and then roll back down and around towards the hole a la Tiger Woods at Augusta. It's creative golf that makes you think and rewards inventive players, and isn't that the way it should always be? It's bound to become one of the great success stories in Canadian golf, so hats off to Cowan-Dewar and all the great folks out on Cape Breton.

More to come in next year's Toronto Star golf magazine. And, if you need more right now, check out the story Ian Cruickshank did for me in Star Travel a few weeks back....

MODAVIE MONTREAL WINE BAR

Every once in a while in this job, you get lucky. After staying Sunday night in Moncton, I drove through the rain to Quebec and stopped for dinner in Old Montreal. I was here earlier this summer and wrote a story about Rue St. Paul, a glorious street in the old part of town.

 I had walked past the Modavie Wine Bar a couple of times on that trip, but Monday night was the first time I'd stopped in. I was immediately glad I did, as the waiter, Lorenzo, made a great impression. He was friendly and jovial and fun and laughing and attentive and served up some great lamb chops and a lovely, rich lamb shank with perfect veggies.

They also had a lovely jazz duo on display; something they do every night (albeit different bands).

I was so impressed I sent out a quick Twitter message to the restaurant, having spotted their Twitter "handle" (@modavie) when I looked at the menu. A few minutes after sending the "tweet," Lorenzo came over and said the owner, Bruno, had spotted my message and wanted to say thank you with a free glass of wine.

Isn't that nice? Some folks are skeptical of Twitter, as a few folks use it for purely personal (and often stupid) reasons. But I think it's a marvellous tool, and it certainly showed its power Monday night in Montreal.

More later this week on Halifax and Nova Scotia....

 

Check it out, for sure...

 

Outstanding Hawaiian band Makaha Sons coming to Toronto ... What earthquake?

Just listening to this Makaha Sons song via YouTube is making me smile. And they're coming to town in a few weeks as part of a Hawaiian/Polynesian entertainment extravaganza.

There are few things better in the world than the mellow sounds of a Hawaiian singing group. The rhythm sounds like the gentle beating of the waves on a golden beach, and the harmonies are spectactular. It's a warm, wonderful and engaging sound like nothing else I've found on earth.

The great news is that The Makaha Sons will be at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre - Kobayashi Hall on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. This “Evening of Aloha” will include performances by the Children’s Ukulele Ensemble, local Hula Dance Schools and other surprises.  Net proceeds from the concerts will go to the Children’s Ukulele Program directed by Juno Award Winner, Melanie Doane which gives a group of elementary school children from the Toronto School Board the chance to experience the joy of music through the ukulele.

Local organizer Pam Pitz has been working like a madwoman to put this show together, and I love her dedication. In a press release, she explained that for nearly three decades, "The Makaha Sons have committed themselves to perpetuate traditional Hawaiian music throughout the world. They are recognized as one of Hawai‘i’s premiere Hawaiian musical groups, maintaining a vibrant sound, full and rich with harmonies that only they can create. Their incomparable vocal arrangements and delightful stage presence filled with comical antics have won the hearts of thousands of fans worldwide."

Indeed. Check them out on YouTube. Better yet, pick up a ticket for the show and support Hawaiian music here in Toronto. Tickets are $45.00 and are available by cash or certified cheque/money order through the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Box Office at 416-441-2345 or On-Line at www.ticketweb.ca (type in "The Makaha Sons.")

For more information: www.eveningofaloha.webs.com, www.makahasons.com, www.melaniedoane.com.

And for a little added fun, check this YouTube video of Melanie Doane and James Hill doing "Avalon" on a pair of ukeleles. You can't help but smile at something that's that much fun. I hadn't heard of James Hill but this B.C. artist is outstanding. Hope he comes to Toronto some time soon.

THAT'S NO EARTHQUAKE...

Well, okay, maybe 5.8 is something spectacular in Virginia. And there's no doubt there was some damage caused in Washington D.C., although reports that the Washington Monument was suddenly leaning like the Tower of Pisa were quickly rebuked as a figment of someone's imagination.

There was a little shaking going on. But when you grow up in California, 5.8 is barely a blip. And it's not much compared to the one that shook Ottawa last year. THAT was fairly noticeable in Toronto. But not Tuesday's mild shake.

To hear people in Toronto talk about it like it was some major event was beyond silly. My favourite spoof was former Star Travel writer Reb Stevenson, who found an old photo and posted it on her Facebook page.

Oh, the humanity...

VIRGIN AMERICA ADDS NFL, NCAA

Now THIS is something worth celebrating. USAToday reports that, to beef up its sports content in time for the football season, Virgin America is adding more network channels to its in-flight entertainment system.

"The California-based airline, which is one of the few carriers to offer seatback TV for domestic flights, says the NFL, college football and other sports games televised on NBC and FOX in the New York area will be broadcast live starting this month, adding to its current broadcast of ESPN and CBS content."

Too bad they don't fly into Toronto any more. Damn. I doubt Air Canada or WestJet will bend over backwards to give us our NFL fix....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fabulous Jakes at Treasure Beach, Jamaica...Also Dougie - and the Pelican Bar

TREASURE BEACH, JAMAICA - Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I hadn’t made up mind on where to spend my final day in Jamaica. So, a few weeks ago I put out a note on Twitter asking for help. Sure enough, someone sent me a note and suggested I try a hotel on the south coast called Jake’s, in the community of Treasure Beach.

What a find. It’s a real, well, treasure that most definitely has a sense of place. It’s quite casual, with a small lobby area in an old wooden house and colourful furnishings. The rooms are a hodgepodge of styles; mostly stucco with wild, creative designs that use everything from conch shells to old bottles. They also have spacious patios and outdoor showers and, in some cases (mine, for one), an outdoor bath.

I had a unit called Octopussy 2 with a fabulous, Moroccan-style rooftop patio with blue and white striped chaise lounges. Old tree branches were used to create a bit of a canopy for shade over the lounges and also were stuck in the ground upright between units for a privacy screen.

I loved the outdoor rainfall shower, which gave me a great view of the ocean about 10 feet away. Ditto the bath, as I rarely bathe in an old-fashioned claw tub steps from the surging Caribbean. I was in the shower when a small boat went by a couple hundred meters off shore, and all I could do was wave.

They have a great restaurant on site and dining is either under cover or on a patio shaded by giant almond trees and bougainvillea and other tropical plants and with a nice view of the saltwater pool and the ocean. They also own the funky Jack Spratt’s next door, which serves up seafood and pizza in a place that's decorated with reggae memorabilia. I had a pizza with jerk sausage that was easily the best pie I’ve eaten outside Naples. Not too spicy but wonderful and smoky and a pretty good crust.

The woman who designed most of the resort is Sally Henzell, who was the art director for the classic Jamaican film The Harder They Come. Her late husband, Perry, who attended McGill University for two years, was the director, and her son, Jason, pretty much runs Jakes and also is building a massive sports complex nearby for the community, partly with the help of Canadian government funding (for which he is very thankful, by the way).

It’s wonderful and quiet and remote – about two hours down a mostly crummy road from Negril or two and-a-half hours from Montego Bay. There are colourful fishing villages nearby, and a couple decent beaches with ramshackle, colourful bars.

Oh, I almost forgot the legendary bar on the property, Dougie’s. It’s manned by the affable and talented Dougie, who’s been there for decades and makes a fabulous rum punch. And, thanks to some kids from Kentucky at the resort on Friday night, he knows how to dance "The Dougie." More on Jake’s to come in the pages of Star Travel, for sure.

If you’re so inclined, you can pay $20 and get a guy to take you out in a small boat for the 20-minute ride to the Pelican Bar, a famous spot made up of old driftwood and boards that sits on a reef about a kilometer from the shore, near the town of Black River. It’s a great place to stand around in the surf and suck back a Red Stripe, and you’re sure to meet some interesting folks. If nothing else, you can sign the giant Canadian flag inside or check out the Manitoba and New Brunswick license plates above the bar.

On our way out to the bar, a huge kingfish jumped out of the water and arced through the warm Caribbean air like a basketball shot. It had a good two or three-second hangtime and had to have sailed 30 yards in the air. Even our seasoned boat pilot, Captain Joseph, was hootin’ and hollerin’ about it.

I got a kick out of the drive down to Treasure Beach from Negril and from Treasure Beach back to Montego Bay, as we passed colourful posters tacked to telephone poles for India trips, exotic dance halls and beach parties. One of them read “Wet Dreams – All White Beach Party.” I never did get the bottom of the poster, but it sounded pretty crazy.

I also marvelled at the shacks at the side of the road that have been turned into small businesses. Great names, too, like Tingling’s Market. Clive and Judith’s Beer Joint and First and Last Cook Shop.

If you don’t use up your camera’s memory card in places like this, you’re not trying.
 

Royal couple in Alberta ... Big days for (of Sherlock Homes) and the Beatles

Freelancer Roberta Avery checks in on the royal couple's stay in Alberta.

Media reports that William and Kate stayed overnight in the honeymoon cabin at Skoki Lodge brought back memories of my own visit to Skoki in 2005.

With no electricity and no running water, the words rustic and basic come to mind, but it's also a stunningly beautiful setting on an Alpine meadow high in the Rockies and the welcome I received from managers Leo and Katie Mitzel was, well, fit for a queen.

Not sure if the Mitzels are still there – they were in 2009 when my husband visited - but if they are, I wonder if  Katie cooked them her famous wild salmon with fresh tarragon.

I stayed in the honeymoon cabin on the second night. It was like something straight out of a Heidi novel. The wooden bed covered in thick duvets was soft and comfortable, but the floor of the cabin sloped so much it was easy to imagine that you would slide right out of the front door. Not a happy thought after a nocturnal visit from a grizzly tromping on the front porch.

Then there is the question of the outhouses. The Metzels did their best to keep them clean, but you still had to brace yourself against the overwhelming smell.

There are reports that the cabin was fixed up and a new bathroom was flown in for the royals If that's true, hopefully it will still be there when I next visit.

I always thought that Skoki would be heaven if it just had a flushing toilet.

Meant to get this report from Toronto Star reporter Petti Fong into the blog on the 7th. Mea culpa. But think of me as 364 days early....

Edinburgh, SCOTLAND – Had he lived and had he been a real person (not necessarily in that order), Dr. John H. Watson, Sherlock Holme's faithful companion, would have been 159 years old yesterday.

Some devout Sherlock Holmes fans have tracked July 7, 1853 as the date when Watson was born which gives the fictional character a link to his creator. On this day in 1930, Arthur Conan Doyle, the Edinburgh physician turned writer who created Holmes and Watson, died at the age of 71.
During his time in medical school, Doyle met the men who would inspire him to create Holmes and Watson.

At a current exhibit at Surgeons' Hall Museum in Edinburgh, there are photographs, letters and articles about Doyle's connections in the city and details of his relationship with Dr. Joseph Bell, his teacher in medical school and another physician Dr. Patrick Watson.

“I thought of my old teacher Joe Bell, of his eagle face, of his curious ways and his eerie trick of spotting details,” wrote Doyle. “If he were a detective, he would surely reduce this fascinating but disorganized business to something near an exact science.”

A photograph of Bell, in a deerstalker hat and cape, looks eerily similar to the portrayal of Holmes by actor Basil Rathbone (see photo) in the black and white movie versions.

In Doyle's medical school class notes, he wrote about an exchange between Bell and a patient who walked into a clinic. Using his observation skills, Bell was able to even before talking to the patient, assess the man had been in the army, a Highland regiment specifically, and had recently been stationed in Barbados.

It's the kind of assessment that Holmes would have done with startling accuracy much to the amazement of his sidekick like the time Watson returns for a visit and the detective correctly deduced he went for a walk in the country a week ago, was quarrelling with his maid and had gained seven pounds.
“You would certainly have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago,” Watson once told Holmes.
Dr. Patrick Heron Watson, the real life counterpart to his fictional namesake, was an assistant to Joseph Bell.

Later, the Edinburgh physician who received his medical licence at age 22 went to the Crimean War where he became a war surgeon just like the fictional Watson did during a rotation in Afghanistan. The real life Watson eventually became a physician to Queen Victoria and later King Edward VII.

The Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell exhibit called The Real Sherlock Holmes include some of the author's first writings including his first published article in the British Medical Journal dated to 1879. Conan Doyle poisoned himself taking a dose of gelsemium over a period of days to see what kind of effects it would have on him.

“I determined to ascertain how far one might go in taking the drug and what the primary symptoms of an overdose might be,” he wrote.

Sherlock Holmes would have been proud.

The Surgeons' Hall Museum is located on The Royal College of Surgeons' campus on Nicolson Street in Edinburgh.

And now for something completely different. Back to Jim B...

A GREAT BEATLES MOMENT

I spotted something on Twitter the other day to say that July 6 was the day Paul McCartney met John Lennon, and that's DEFINITELY worth celebrating.

For those unfamiliar, McCartney was a young lad and went to a neighbourhood party called the Woolton Fete at St. Peter's Church in Liverpool. There, John Lennon was up on stage wearing a checkered shirt and singing for a local "skiffle" band called The Quarrymen.

Paul tells a great story about how Lennon (see photo) was singing "Come Go With Me" but ad-libbing - as only Lennon could, I think - lyrics about going "down, down, down, to the penitentiary."

"I liked that," McCartney has said in numerous interviews. "I thought that was very clever."

Lennon got McCartney to play "Twenty Flight Rock" for him and, I think, show him how to tune his guitar properly and that was enough soon after to get Paul an invitation to join Lennon in The Quarrymen, who eventually morphed into the Silver Beatles and then The Beatles.

They became somewhat popular.

Gotta get myself to Liverpool soon to check out the Beatles sites. I'm told the city has gone through tremendous changes and is now quite something to see.

 

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Roger Daltrey croons on a cruise? Also, western Australia working hard for biz

I've heard of rock and roll themed cruises, usually with slightly lesser-known bands hanging about to mix with their fans and such. But an item in USA Today Travel got my attention today by reporting that cruise ship passengers on the Queen Mary 2 noted that esteemed rocker Roger Daltrey, lead singer for The Who, took to the stage at sea recently and belted out "Pinball Wizard" and "My Generation," which, back in the day, was a challenge against the very sort of people who took cruises instead of snorting coke and jumping off stages and lighting their guitars on fire at hippie music festivals.

I don't know, but sources tell me Daltrey did a reworking of "My Generation" for the Queen Mary crowd.

"People try to put us down, just because we cruise around, Trips we take don't look bold, hope we don't die before the buffet gets cold."

Just a rumour...

WESTERN AUSTRALIA LIKE AVIS

Spotted a fairly stupid beginning to a pretty good story on Forbes.com today. The writer does a nice job talking up how Perth and other parts of Western Australia are working to get more tourism. But he starts off the piece with a rather inane comment, asking "Why don’t the majority of travellers to Australia tend to have a Western leaning?"

I got news for you, bud. IT'S A BLOOMING LONG WAY, THAT'S WHY!

Most North Americans get only two weeks of vacation a year. It's already a honkin' huge hassle to get to Sydney from, say, Toronto or New York. It's not many folks who are going to get up, have breakfast, fight the traffic to Pearson, wait in line at the airport, clear security, take a five-hour flight from the eastern seaboard to Los Angeles, wait three hours for their connection (or more), take a 14-hour flight to Sydney in economy with obnoxious, seat-slamming people in front of them and bad airline food and then land in Australia and think, "Gee, let's skip the Opera House and Manly Beach and Melbourne and the Coast Road" and take ANOTHER five-hour flight across the enormous country of Australia and check out Perth.

Don't get me wrong. I've never been to Western Australia, but it's tops on my list for my next Australian visit. I've seen the Barrier Reef and Sydney and Melbourne and the outback, not to mention ultra-fabulous Lord Howe Island WAY off the shore of eastern Australia. But I haven't seen Perth or the magnificent, long and lonely beaches of the west or the Margaret River wine region. And I'd dearly love to do that. Perhaps sneak in Adelaide and the Barossa Valley, too, or even take the train across the Nullarbor Plain.

CATHAY PACIFIC BLITZES TORONTO

Cathay Pacific is celebrating its new, daily, twice-a-day non-stop flights from Toronto to fabulous Hong Kong. From May 16 to June 12, the airline has wrapped nearly every available Union Station surface with advertising to promote awareness of the newly expanded schedule. The advertising creative is centred around the airline’s unique “People and Service” campaign, featuring real-life employees.

On  June 1^st and 2^nd the company’s visibility at Union Station will spread its wings further as commuters visiting Union Station will receive a memento from the on-site Cathay Pacific Street Team, according to a press release issued today.

It's certainly an attractive airline and the convenience of getting to Hong Kong on a non-stop is enormous...

 

 

Vienna Philharmonic makes a rare visit to Toronto, with Atom Egoyan on hand

Star guy Adrian Brijbassi took in a performance of the amazing Vienna Philharmonic on the weekend. Here's his report.

Atom Egoyan and his wife Arsinée Khanjian were among the concertgoers treated to a rare and remarkable performance by the Vienna Philharmonic at Roy Thomson Hall on Sunday afternoon. The orchestra’s first appearance in Toronto since 2006 was also its only Canadian date on a six-city, eight-show North American tour that began on Feb. 25.

Conductor Semyon Bychkov, a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, led the musicians through a stirring interpretation of three master works: Franz Schubert’s “Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major”, Richard Wagner’s epic “Tristan and Isolde” and Bela Bartok’s sublime “The Miraculous Mandarin.”

“The Wagner was just fabulous,” said Egoyan, director of “The Sweet Hereafter” and “Ararat.” 

Khanjian, a Genie Award winner, said the entire show “was like poetry.”

Considered one of the world’s finest orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic features the best of the best of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Once accepted into the Philharmonic, the musicians are in for life.

The concert brought out classical music fans, including several visitors from Austria. Among them was Astrid Pockfuss of the Vienna Tourist Board, who is in town for a brief stay to promote her beautiful city. Along with the ever-present markets and coffeehouses that Vienna is famed for, Astrid says there’s a growing arts and club scene.

The Viennese are also looking forward to celebrating a couple of milestone birthdays next year. Gustav Klimt would have been 150 in 2012 and his most famous work, the oft-imitated “The Kiss”, will be the key part of a series of exhibitions looking at the artist’s work and influence on Europe’s modernist movement around the turn of the 20^th century.

The other big anniversary will be celebrated by the same group of men (and one or two women) who just wowed Toronto. The Vienna Philharmonic turns 170 in 2012 and while the musicians tour often, seeing  them in their hometown would be sweet.

And speaking of sweet, the much-loved Sachertorte made it from Vienna, thanks to the Hotel Sacher, and was served at a post-concert reception at Roy Thomson. If the music, art, culture and history of Vienna don’t convince you to go, this decadent dessert just might.

 

Star Travel Grand Tour hits a jazzy note in Paris, Musee d'Orsay, Le Bristol Hotel

PARIS – It wasn’t what I expected. And I couldn’t have been happier.

When someone from the French tourism office in Canada suggested I take in a jazz brunch on Sunday, I had pictures of a bunch of guys Woody Allen’s age bopping on the clarinet in front of a well-heeled group of visitors at a semi-swanky hotel room. Or something like that.

 
Instead, when I arrived at a place near the Marais district called Le Reservoir, I was mildly surprised – in the best possible way – to find a funky room with stone walls, wooden columns painted with white and red roses, red and gold chairs and a well-used, wooden floor. They had a large buffet with everything from eggs and sausages and croissants (natch) to tasty couscous, pasta, chicken, parma ham and various salads.

There was a jazz trio on the stage, fronted by a dimunitive woman with jet-black hair and a slinky outfit, belting out everything from “My Funny Valentine” to a souped-down, jazzy version of “Light My Fire,” an excellent number and a perfect one given that the writer of the song, Jim Morrison of the Doors, is buried in these parts.

The drummer was good and the organ player, who bore a striking resemblance to Raptors’ coach Jay Triano I thought, was exceptional. There were a lot of young people in the audience, most of them French-speaking, so it definitely felt like an “out of the way,” authentic Paris experience versus something with all the tourists from Ohio clambering off the bus. Not that I have anything against Ohio, so please don't start the letters....

It’s called Jazz Brunch – www.reservoirclub.com is the website – and it’s highly recommended. It costs $25 euros, about $30-$35, and that’s pretty good considering all the food and the entertainment, plus a barrel of red wine that’s there for the taking.

They operate on Saturdays and Sundays, late morning, from September to June, on a small street called Rue de la Forge Royale. Even my cab driver, possibly the nicest man you’ll ever meet, didn’t know. But he pulled out an old-fashioned map (no GPS, thank you) and figured it out, clucking his tongue and puffing out air in that funny way French people like to do when they don’t quite know what to say or want to fill in a gap in their thoughts.

(I don’t know about you, but I can’t quite figure out the way Parisians hail a cab. Rather, I can’t figure out when one is free. They all seem to have little lights on the top of the roof, but I can’t tell whether the light means they’re free or they’re not free. They all seem to have the little light on, but some have folks in them and roll past and others are vacant. Beats me. Either way, there are plenty of them and it’s only about $15 bucks to take a 10-15 minute ride across a generous section of town. They start at only a couple Euros on the meter, compared to, what, $4.25 in Toronto these days?)

The afternoon was spent dodging the odd bit of rain – it was pretty thin and it sure beat the freezing rain and snow on Saturday – and checking out the small streets and shops in The Marais. It’s a part of town I hadn’t seen before, but it might be my favourite; nice shops but not overly twee, and not terribly expensive as Paris goes.

I had a dynamite hot chocolate at a place called Café de Philosophers, with a thick gooey patch of pure chocolate in the bottom of my cup, topped with as much steamed milk as I wanted to add and just a single sugar cube. Divine on a cold winter’s day.

I also spent some time at the Musee d’Orsay, one of the great treats of this incredible city. It’s a former train station, as most folks know, that now houses some of Frances’ most treasured art works, including a lot of Impressionist works. They’re doing some renovation, so 53 of Claude Monet’s works are, sadly, on display elsewhere. But there were still several Monet paintings on display, as well as a lot of Van Gogh, Sisley, Degas, Renoir, Manet and others.

Seeing the paintings alone is a huge treat, but to see them in a glorious, high-ceilinged, restored train station with all the natural light in the world and a fabulous mixture of textures and building materials is simply marvelous. And, at least on this Sunday, it was free.

 

Thanks to the folks at Le Bristol Hotel in Paris for an absolutely phenomenal room and a wonderful couple of days. I’ll have more to write about the hotel (with pics, of course) in the new year as part of our “Great Hotels of the World” package. The rooms are exquisite and the garden is lovely, even in winter. And it's a great part of town, just a couple blocks from the Champs Elysees but much quieter. The food at 114 Restaurant is very good, and the lobby bar is a great place for a coffee or a drink, including the Matignon: lemon juice, fresh pineapple cointreau and tequila. Yikes.

More to come on Paris on Dec. 18 when we present our final Grand Tour destination in the pages of Star Travel. And look for another Paris blog entry Tuesday....

 

 

Buenos Aires: Argentina city a fitting member of Star Travel's Grand Tour club

Star travel writer Adrian Brijbassi recently returned from Argentina as part of Toronto Star Travel's Grand Tour series. Here's his final blog posting.

 BUENOS AIRES — God, tango and Maradona. 

The three iconic symbols of Buenos Aires are just about everywhere in this energetic city of 3 million. In San Telmo, Buenos Aires’ oldest neighbourhood, they begin to converge. San Telmo features the city’s most important churches — including San Pedro Gonzalez Telmo Church, named after the patron saint of sailors — and some of its favourite cafés, bars and restaurants. Plaza Dorrego is loaded with beer gardens, artists’ kiosks and the occasional tango session. 

To get the real feel of tango in the city, though, you have to head to San Telmo’s neighbouring district, La Boca. The highlight of the artsy and sometimes rough barrio is Caminito Street, the birthplace of tango. This is where the city’s obsession with the dance is on full display as café after café has its own performers providing free shows and encouraging guests to come up and take a turn.  

“The tango is part of our culture. It’s unique to Buenos Aires. It’s part of who we are in this city,” says Leo Lentulus, a public relations manager for La Yunta de Caminito, one of the more popular tango cafés on the street. “There’s nowhere else in Argentina where you will find people as passionate about tango.” 

And few where they’re as mad about soccer. A couple of blocks from Caminito Street is La Bomonera Stadium, where Diego Maradona did some of his finest work on the soccer field. Murals to the superstar are on nearly every wall and on Caminito Street portly Maradona impersonators mix with the svelte tango dancers in a campy display that tourists seem to adore. 

You’ll find there’s a lot more to Buenos Aires than the soccer worship, dancing and churches, though. The posh neighbourhood of Recoleta features high-end shopping, five-star hotels, terrific restaurants and the famed Recoleta Cemetery, where Eva Peron is buried under her family name, Duarte (see photo). The president’s house, the Casa Rosada, or Pink House, is in Plaza de Mayo, the main square in the centre of the city. The Pink House got its colour (and name) when paint that contained cow’s blood (to protect it from humidity) was first used on its façade in the 19^th century. Fittingly, it is currently home to a woman, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. 

More great architecture is on display in the form of the Colon Theatre, considered one of the finest in the world, and the Puente de la Mujer, or Woman’s Bridge, in the restored Puerto Madero neighbourhood. 

With so many great areas to explore and so much to see and do, it’s hard to believe Buenos Aires almost didn’t make it on our Grand Tour list. It was the last destination added to our itinerary, substituting in for Rio, which was crossed off because getting an entry visa to Brazil means giving up your Canadian passport for at least 17 days —  not something you can do when you’re going around the world on a deadline. So the Paris of Latin America it was as the South American representative. Buenos Aires proved not only deserving, but that it should be considered second-best to no other city.