Farsighted Fly Girl

Besides the bohemian spirit and international vibe, what I love about Montreal is the zany street art. Yes, there are historic murals and lovely statues but what really excites me are the unexpected art scenes that pop up on walls and in alleys. I  last chronicled the city's  street art in 2014  and four years later, I discovered fresh pieces all around the city with Danny from Spade &  Palacio , which supplies non-touristy tours. Check it out: This rather creepy paintings stared back from a side street. I was thrilled to spot this Jackie Robinson tribute for when he played with the Montreal Royals baseball team. I learned that he played with the Royals in 1946, before starting with the U.S. National Leagues and that it was a mutual love affair between Jackie and Montreal. His wife Rachel described his year of playing in Montreal after dealing with the racial hatred in the U.S. as "like coming out of a nightmare, the atmosphere in Montreal wa...

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a huge fan of Quebec. I love the culture, the beauty and the hidden discoveries of the region. This week, I'll be traveling to The Laurentians, a mountain area just North of Montreal. Mont Tremblant is the main town, just brimming with charm, as you can see above. The region boasts 9,102 lakes, 103 rivers and two sprawling national parks. I'll be visiting the Mont Tremblant International Blues Fest as well as dipping into the Scandinavian outdoor spa in the Red River and exploring an alpine! aquatic! park. Please stay tuned!

For the first time ever, I will forgo, my first Quebecois love, Montreal and travel to  historic Quebec City. I'll check out the Le Festival de'ete de Quebec  (French hip hop!) as well as the UNESCO Word Heritage Site of Old Quebec City and all its cobblestone and walled charms. My visit is sponsored by  Quebec Tourism so I'll be diving into all aspects of Quebec City history and culture. I expect to be dazzled so stay tuned!

It's been a wild and wonderful year and I can sincerely say that I'm sad to leave all of the year's experiences behind. I've made some great connections and created unforgettable memories. Here are just some of my favorites: Exploring the rich and enchanting culture of Andalusia,Spain. The photo above shows a lovely courtyard building in Granada. Beauty was everywhere I turned in Southern Spain. The intoxicating charm of Martinque will always remain with me. The image above reveals just a glimpse of the island's magic, from the top of the famous town of St. Pierre. I was thrilled to visit Asia for the first time and Macau was a fascinating introduction. The people, the culture, the history and food supplied me with nonstop excitement. I think I'm still calming down from that trip. Montreal will always be a favorite city and I was as enchanted to visit this year as I am every time I go. I was lucky enough to catch the city's Caribbean pa...

I love the excitement and action of big city travel but I also love the relaxation and natural beauty of beaches. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to discover a beach just five minutes from the bustling streets of downtown Montreal. I caught wind of it as a guide was explaining the city's many parks and he casually mentioned the beach in Parc Jean-Drapeau.  My ears perked up. What's this? A beach nearby? As a certified beach baby, I grabbed my sunscreen and dashed over. A short Metro ride landed me at Parc Jean-Drapeau, which is actually two islands sprawled along the St. Lawrence River. Islands? You know I was excited. And the adventure was just starting because the park boasts tons of other attractions before you can even get to the beach. This pretty strip of tranquility beckoned me to sink my toes into the sand and lounge for hours. It was quiet, with just a few families enjoying the water. Before I located it, I found myself at La Ronde, the amusement park tha...

Montreal overwhelms me. In a good way. For art lovers like me who live for connections with artistic and cultural expressions, Montreal is truly a dreamland. There is absolutely no place you can go in this stylish city where you will not be surrounded by art in some form. Metro stations, sidewalks, buildings, cafes, schools, markets, everywhere you turn, you'll be greeted with visual, musical or performance art. Montreal actually enforces a law that at least 1% of  a building's budget must go to public art. I thought it was just me honing in on every art form but no, Montreal really is covered in art. I find that it's an uplifting feeling to always have art close by. I think that's one of the reason's that Montrealers always seem so good-natured and vibrant. The mural above, was created during Montreal's Mural Fest (There is a fest for everything art-related in Montreal) and drew me in with the vivid colors and trippy designs. This painting lines a w...

It's been three years since I've dipped my feet into the European charm of Montreal. I love the city's dynamic energy and elegant architecture. Of course, I also love the legendary Montreal Jazz Fest, the world's biggest jazz festival. Thanks to Tourisme Que'bec , I'll experience more of the city's gifts, from the also legendary circus arts festival, Montreal Completement Cirque, pictured above, to the museums and bustling neighborhoods. Montreal nightlife is the focus for this trip so I'll be documenting the exciting foodie scene as well as the nightclubs and non-stop festivals. I'm especially excited about pedaling through a night bike tour of the Mount Royal neighborhood and a visit to Bota Bota, the floating spa fashioned from an old ferryboat and boasting sublime views of the St. Lawrence River. So stay tuned for culinary, music and arts posts soon.

The beauty of Quebec's maritime region, the Gaspe' Peninsula, which wraps around the shore of the St. Lawrence River, is quite famous. You hear people rave about it every time the region is mentioned but I still wasn't prepared. Canada is a beautiful, sprawling country in general so I figured the experience would be similar to the other Canadian provinces that I visited. It's not. Gaspe' which means "lands end" in the Mic Mac language, is literally another land, a whole world apart from the other. I was constantly catching my breath at the sheer wonder of the landscape, to the point that I think I stopped breathing many times. Traveling around Gaspe's five provinces was like meeting individual members of a stunning family. Each one more gorgeous than the other. But it wasn't just the beauty, the purity and tranquility of the land seeps through the sea breezes. The people of Gaspe' have lived in the area for generations and the res...

Quebec's Gaspe' Peninsula exudes quintessential Quebecois spirit with lots of French-flavored traditions. I spotted this clown on a sunny afternoon at the harbor of the tiny village of Perce'.  Equipped with accordion, stylish hat and shades, she doesn't look like any clown you'd see in the U.S. She crooned French children's songs as kids scurried around, blowing bubbles and playing with balloons.   With the sun playing off the bright blue waves of the sea and a crisp breeze floating over the shore, it felt like a typical cheery day in this charming maritime province.

Besides maple syrup,moose are probably the most common symbol of Canada's expansive natural beauty. I've tasted lots of maple syrup but I've never seen a moose up close so I was excited to hike through the Gaspe Peninsula's Chic Choc Mountain s and track moose.  Chic Choc ( pronounced shick-shock) means impenetrable in the First nation Mic-Mac language and the mountains did indeed present an endless maze of jaw-dropping vistas that I certainly wouldn't have navigated without our sure-footed guide, Jean Pierre. We spotted a female moose (no antlers) early in our trek and I couldn't believe our luck. I was close enough to watch her delicately select leaves to munch but she didn't seem to be fazed by the presence of five gawking humans. Staring directly at us, she calmly marched away, convinced that there was nothing we could do to all 600 pounds of her. She personified the phrase, "large and in charge." The moose was huge but we ...

The stench arrives before you even spot them. Sailing to Bonaventure Island, absorbing the stunning scenery, you realize that you're near the world's second largest Northern Gannet breeding colony when the noxious aroma of pounds of bird poop accosts your nose. But the wonder of the spectacle of hundreds of thousands of birds quickly helps you forget that. Gazing at them from a distance, they don't even look like birds but blankets of white, covering slabs of rock. Even if I didn't know that these were birds I soon received sticky proof in the form of bird poop dropped on my shoulders from the 250 foot nesting cliffs. I was glad to arrive on the island and wander the pretty trails lined with lush greenery. We hiked through the cleared trails that lead to the birds. We hiked up hills. And down hills. And through forests. And we hiked some more. Finally, there were the birds. Flapping, squawking, flying, everywhere. Everywhere you tu...

The stunning vistas of the Gaspe region of Quebec is most often characterized by the massive limestone arch of Perce' rock. Rising from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it looks like a giant, prehistoric fossil, floating in the waves. Perce' rock ,which translates from French to "pierced rock," is part of Bonaventure Island so you can only view it close up by boat. At 289 feet high and 300 feet wide, it's a striking sight. Some locals say that the rock resembles a horse feeding and looking from a distance, I can see that. Although the rock is a beloved landmark for Gaspe, there are all sorts of sad legends attached to it. Various lovers, sailors and Iroquois chiefs supposedly died at the location and there is a melancholy vibe that floats around Perce' rock. To me, that wistful air just adds to the memorable beauty of the Perce' rock experience.