The title might have you thinking that Ginger and Nutmeg are trying to fund their travel-based lifestyle via lottery tickets. Although, the lotto might not be a completely outlandish idea, Nutmeg felt her writing energy could be better focused on a 2320-mile river journey and some sweaty palms.
Avignon is a must see on almost every tourist’s Provence travel agenda. Whether you are a practicing Catholic or not it is impossible to ignore the fact that the seat of influence for this religion was based in Avignon for almost 100 years. Pope Clement V arrived from Lyon, without the intention of remaining he stayed and eight others followed.
Château Pesquié is Provencal postcard perfection, with the soaring limestone summit of Mont Ventoux as a backdrop and a leafy canopy of plane trees shading the entranceway to the bastide. The Provencal name pesquié is a derivative from Latin “pescarium” meaning fishpond or basin.
There are only 10 keys to the rooms at Palácio Belmonte yet every key opens the door to the palace. Not everyone will fit the glass slipper, but no one will sleep with a pea in his or her bed.
“We find three types of people: those who see, those who don’t see and those who want to be seen. If you belong to the first group you will love Palácio Belmonte, if to the second Belmonte might open your eyes, but if you belong to the third, you will feel much happier at the Ritz!” Source: Palácio Belmonte website
Having made an investment of 26 million Euros in reconstruction and devoted innumerable man-hours to this passion project the owners Frederic Coustols and his wife Maria are justified in their preference for appreciative guests at Palácio Belmonte.
Nutmeg met Paul and Karen in a beer hall, well maybe more like a beer Mecca, Dublin’s Guinness Storehouse – shaped like a beer glass the museum-archives-retail shop-restaurants eventually lead to draft taps in the sky at the aptly named Gravity Bar. Even if you do not like beer you must see the city views from this sky lounge.
Your Canadian Rockies hiking guide is dog-eared from multi-year use and too many days in a backpack. Yet a primal fear of heights has kept you away from rock climbing. Mount Norquay has the answer this summer.
Via ferrata!
According to three-time Canadian Oyster Shucking Champion Rodney T. Clark
“I thought oyster shucking was going to be the easy part!”
Timing for the grand opening of the Rodney’s Oyster House in Toronto in December 1987 may have been slightly dubious, barely six weeks after the stock market crash on October 19, 1987. However, according to the man himself it was not the bottom falling out of the equity market that caused consternation, but rather the fact that the day Rodney’s Oyster House opened on Adelaide Street was the same day the Canadian Ban On Shellfish began. What could have been a bad omen did not seem to matter – Hogtown was hungry for oysters and lots of them.
Elsie Reford would anxiously await the arrival of her seed package orders during Montreal’s dreary winter months. These precious parcels would arrive with the promise of future exotic plants from around the globe. Elsie would store the packets until spring when she and her husband Robert Wilson Reford would head to their home on Quebec’s remote Gaspé Peninsula.
If you had to conjure up a mental picture of Provence – what would it be?
Thanks to talented photographers who have turned their best shots into postcards, books and Internet sites, one of the most iconic images of Provence is the deep purple undulating rows of lavender plants.
Nutmeg has wanted to visit Portugal since the 1970s.
At that time, her parents spent their holiday venturing along the rugged Atlantic coastline and small roads in a Volkswagen (VW) van, sharing the driving and vinho verde (young wine) with some Canadian friends. It was their photos of sunny surf swept shorelines and red-checkered tablecloths that stuck Portugal firmly on Nutmeg’s travel bucket list.
