26/04 - Caen

Sunday afternoon, Caen, Normandy. We lingered in the empty streets. We carried our dirty clothes to the laundry. We chatted with an African student. We bought some food and water and returned to our room.

25/04 - St Malo

After dinner (mussels and fries and crepes) we enjoyed the evening sunset from the fortress of St Malo.

25/04 - Dinard

In the afternoon we took a bus to another fishing village in the area, Dinard. Sun-bathing, sailing, surfing, tide watching, hiking, swimming, painting... Dinard is simply the perfect place for writers, painters and holiday makers.

25/04 - Cancale

One of our main reasons to visit Brittany was oysters. A short bus ride from St Malo brought us into the fishing village of Cancale, just in time to beat the local tourists to reach Cancale's oyster market by the lighthouse. We consumed three dozens of fresh oysters in total, a bottle of super cider and some Brittany biscuits. Cancale's oysters are really cheap, with an average of around 4 euro per dozen, depending on the size. Other than oysters, the village has some charm on its own. We walked down to the oyster farms during low tides and enjoyed some pleasant moments by the sea.

24/04 - Rennes

We stayed a night at Rennes on our way to Brittany.

24/04 - La Rochelle

It turned out to be a very fine day when we reached La Rochelle, a pretty sea-side holiday town by the Atlantic. We dropped off our backpacks at a souvenir shop, had morning coffee and croissant at a cafe near the curved habour and strolled around the town and visited its famous fortress towers. We had lunch at the covered market, tried a few of the local oysters and we spent most of the afternoon relaxing in the beach area where children took sailing classes and adults sunbathed. It was, indeed, a very relaxing day.

24/04 - Farewell Cognac

I could still remember the pleasant smell of bread and cognac as we passed by the bakeries and wineries on our way to the train station before sunrise. A moment of sublime sensation.

A note on the regional trains in France: clean, efficient, comfortable.

23/04 - Cognac

You don't need to be an hardcore fans of Cognac XO or VSOP to visit the charming little town of Cognac. The main reason for us was the discounted accommodation we found online. By the time we reached Cognac, all the wineries were closed. To see all the famous cognac labels clustered in one place seems bizarre to us. We had a pleasant stroll in the town centre before dusk.

23/04 - Bordeaux

While we couldn't afford to carry another bottle of wine in our backpack so wine shopping was out of the scope, there were enough cathedral, architecture and antique fair to keep us busy for most of the day in Bordeaux.

23/04 - Cathédrale Saint-André, Bordeaux

Cathédrale Saint-André, mostly French Gothic with bits and pieces of the original Romanesque structure. Not as impressive as the cathedral in Strasbourg, but still worth a visit.

22/04 - Arcachon

We didn't make it to see the Dune du Pilat, nor the lighthouse at Cap Ferret. At Arcachon, we simply had a relaxing afternoon by the sea.

22/04 - Gujan Mestras

From Bordeaux, we dropped our backpacks at the hotel and decided to make a trip to the sea. Before reaching Arcachon at the French Atlantic, we stopped by the fishing village Gujan Mestras. There was only one reason to visit Gujan Mestras, OYSTERS.

22/04 - Farewell Sarlat

We get up super early for a train to Bordeaux. Extra effort is required to tour France's remote countryside.

20/04 - Sarlat Dinner

How could I leave out the photos of our dining experience of our first night in Sarlat? After a full day on the road, we were welcomed by the pre-arranged dinner at the hotel. We had the two local specialties: duck fillets and foie gras as the main course.

21/04 - Sarlat la Caneda

Sarlat, our base in the Dordogne, is a charming medieval town filled with restaurants and Foie gras shops. A late afternoon stroll in the town centre provided a perfect closure for our day, after the exciting visit at Lascaux.

21/04 - Prehistorical Caves of Lascaux

One of our main reasons to visit the Dordogne Valley was the famous prehistoric cave paintings. After a few hours of bus, train and stopping at Le Buisson, we reached Les Eyzies-de-Tazac-Sireuil at lunchtime. We hiked our way to the Grotte de Font de Gaume without tickets (though we tried to book online two days ago) only to find out that the day's 200 tickets were long sold out a week ago. At the tourist office in Les Eyzies, we were suggested by the staffs to visit the cave at Lascaux, the most famous prehistoric cave in the area. The cave of Lascaux attracted my attention ever since I was a few years old. From a child book I acknowledged the cave is a human wonder in the world. It would be such a disappointment if we failed to visit a cave during our stay in the area. We decided to call a taxi to Montignac, the closest village from Laxcaux despite we weren't sure how we could return to Sarlat after the visit.

At the ticket office in Montignac, the guy queuing behind us, who could speak some English, offered to drive us up to the cave entrance since it could easily took us over an hour to hike up the hill. We followed him to his car and met his wife, who was about 8-month pregnant. They drove us to the cave and we visited the cave in the same tour group. We chatted a little while waiting for our visit time slot. The couple lived near Limoges and worked at a national park nearby.

At 16:30, we finally stepped into the cave of Lascaux II. After some brief accounts on the history and geography of the cave (in French), the guide led us into the main cave where large bulls and horses in rich colours dazzling on the cave ceiling. Under atmospheric dim light, the surreal prehistoric figures came to life. From photographs, I could never imagine how moving the experience could be on seeing the Lascaux paintings in person. Since its discovery in 1940s, the cave paintings at Lascaux had created a big impact in art, history and tourism. Moisture from human breathe of thousands of visitors led to serious deterioration of the paintings, and the authorities were forced to close the cave in 1963. Lascaux II, a replica of the famous original, took a group of artists 11 years to complete. http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

After the visit, the couple were kind enough to drive us back to Montignac. Knowing that there wouldn't be any bus to Sarlat in the next two days, we could only choose between taxi (50+ euro) and hitchhike for our return trip. The couple took a piece of paper from their trunk and made us a sign "Sarlat". They dropped us off at the roadside where south-heading traffic exited the village. Every car passed by slowed down to read our sign, and it only took us 3 minutes to get onto a luxurious car of a businessman from Paris. We couldn't have better luck. The Paris businessman was constantly on the phone with his blue-tooth. After 1/2 hour winding through the French countryside, the car entered Sarlat at around 18:30. The businessman was super kind, dropping us off right at the townhall of Sarlat. The comfortable ride concluded my second ever hitchhiking experience.

21/04 - Pâtisserie shop in Le Buisson

We had two hours to spare at Le Buisson waiting for train connection. Near the station, we bought two cans of foie gras at a local butcher shop. Next to the butcher shop, we found a small pâtisserie shop and the pastries seemed very tempting. We couldn't resist. To us, these two pastries could well rival any dessert cake we have had at fancy restaurants and 5-star hotels.

We finished the pastries on a bench near the station. As we enjoyed our sweet, we were greeted with smiles and "bon appetit" by the locals.

21/04 - Lazy Cat in Le Buisson

21/04 - Le Buisson

On our way to see the prehistorical caves in the area, we stopped at Le Buisson again after brief bus and train rides. Le Buisson is a pretty and friendly little rural village. We enjoyed two delicious patisseries, bought two can of fois-gras and took a relax stroll.

20/04 - Lyon to Sarlat

It was a long day of train rides. We took the risk of numerous train changing to speed to Sarlat-la-Caneda of Dordogne in one day. Our original plan involved 3 train changes. However, due to a train breakdown, we ended up changing trains 4 times, and spent more than 13 hours on the road before reaching Sarlat at 21:00. Our route was as follow: Lyon to Montpellier, Montpellier to Toulouse, Toulouse to Agen, Agen to Le Buisson, Le-Buisson to Sarlat.

19/04 - Traboules, Lyon

Without Michelle, we could have easily missed the traboules when strolling in the Saint Paul area of Vieux Lyon. These hidden passageways inside old apartment blocks were used as trading shortcuts in the Middle Ages.

19/04 - Inflatable Mouse

A giant inflatable mouse designed by architect Jacques Rival floated on the Rhone River to remind the city about flooding.

18/04 - Lyon Architecture

Architecture wasn't the prime reason for us to stay in Lyon. We did, however, make a brief tour to see a few buildings in the city: Jean Nouvel's Opera House, Renzo Piano's Cite Internationale, and the area of La Confluence, the further site of a cluster of buildings which includes Coop Himmelblau's Musée des Confluences.

Thanksgiving 2009

We drove by the Springridge Farm in Milton today and had some fun at the Harvest Festival.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Toronto Nuit Blanche 2009

We took the TTC and got home just before 7am. What a night!

Frog's Dream

My project, titled Frog's Dream, has been chosen as one of the finalists in ReBurbia Design Competition, a contest to generate ideas that transform the declining North American suburbia. Online voting and viewing starts on August 10 and closes the following Monday. Please vote for me and take a look at the projects of all 20 finalists. There are really some great ideas: http://www.re-burbia.com/finalists/

Here's the statement of my project:

What to do about all those abandoned McMansions? Turn them into wetlands and natural water filtration systems for urban centers.

According to many scientists and climatologists, we are fighting a losing battle against climate change, loss of rain forests and wetlands and extinction of species. Historians who study Maya and Angkor have warned of an inevitable collapse to civilization when natural resources are overused in non-sustainable ways. Many real estate analysts have also predicted that a change of lifestyle, shrink of household size and a rise of energy prices will seal the final downfall of suburbia.

What would be the future of suburbia when McMansions are abandoned?

In response to the anticipated future, the Frog’s Dream project attempts to re-establish a sustainable relationship between city and suburbia. It proposes to transform the vacant McMansions, at the periphery of cities, into eco-water treatment machines, commercially known as Living Machines, in which a micro-ecosystem of plants, algae, bacteria, fish and clams are present to purify the water. A micro-wetland ecosystem will be formed around these mansions to sustain larger wetland animals and plants. The project also involves transforming the highway system into a multi-functional infrastructure that transports cars, trains and bikes, as well as forming a network to facilitate water transport between a city and its surrounding suburban wetlands.

The Frog Dream presents the idea of a highly concentrated city and its ring of suburban wetlands will hold the key to a green future.