Montreal Observations

Hope everyone's week is off to a good start! It's sunny and pretty warm here today...ah, spring. 

Last week I was in Montreal with my husband. We managed to arrive just after a 30cm snowfall, which was fine with us, just made it a bit trickier pounding the pavement all day! Stayed at Hotel Gault (pictured above), in Old Montreal, and I highly recommend it. The staff was amazing, the room was beautiful, and it was a 3 minute walk to a metro station. Perfect.

Here's a little of what we saw....

The view from Parc du Mont Royal.

A Spring/Winter wonderland at Parc La Fontaine. So beautiful in the snow, I can only imagine what it's like in the summer. 

We were pretty frozen when we came across this cozy shop, Fuchsia. Loved the coffee, and Chester the dog too. 

Notre-Dame Basilica was one of the most stunning churches I've seen.  

Fes and the Middle Atlas

I'm wrapping up my trip to Morocco with some images of Fes and the Middle Atlas mountains. A pretty amazing experience, and a little daunting at the same time. We stayed at the beautiful Dar Roumana, right in the medina, and were well taken care of by Vincent, the chef and manager, and Mohammed, the assistant manager.

Fes is the second largest city of Morocco with a population of about a million. We stayed in the ancient medina of Fes el-Bali, a labyrinth of over 9000 streets and it's car-free. Nothing but donkeys and motorbikes. This post is picture heavy so grab a drink....

The views from our riad, Dar Romana. Perfect spot to hang out. 

I don't think I'll forget the tanneries. I will never look at leather the same way again. This really has to be one of the hardest jobs out there.

A father and daughter making bread.


Loved having the chance to see these men weave. By the way, I never just took a picture without asking. It didn't hurt to leave a few dollars as well.


One of the entrances into the medina.

Hello Friday

Thanks so much for all the nice comments and emails about my Morocco and Paris posts. I have one more I'd like to share and it's all about Fes and the Middle Atlas mountain area. Still trying to digest that leg of the journey ;)

Have a great weekend...if you're Irish, I have no doubt you will!

A Few Days in Paris

Ah, Paris. I can't believe I had never been there before. To be honest, it hadn't been at the top of my list (weird), now I can't wait to go back. We only had a few days to explore, and these were some of my favourite moments...

The green chairs sprinkled all over the Jardin des Tuileries was a pretty fantastic sight. If it was this beautiful in February, and can't imagine what it's like in summer. 

Centre Pompidou was incredible. We checked out the Dali exhibit along with everything else it had to offer, including the beautiful restaurant. 

Marrakech and Essaouira

Happy hump day! Hope your week is going well so far. Thought I'd share some more of my recent trip. I have to say, it was all pretty fantastic but, to be honest, a little harrowing at times too. More on that soon ;)

While in Marrakech we checked out the souks and had a road trip to Essaouira, as part of our  Instant Love polaroid workshop. I have to admit, I'm not one for "bartering" or "haggling" when it comes to shopping, so I only dabbled in the shopping experience. Here are some of the colourful sights I saw and shot....

Shopping around the souks.

Instant Love at Peacock Pavilions

As I mentioned in the last post, I just returned from Morocco (with a short stay in Paris). It was an amazing experience. I went with my sister, Wendy, and part of our trip was a polaroid workshop with Jen and Amanda of Instant Love. There were eight other woman at the workshop as well. Loved them all. It was so nice to hang out with such an inspiring group of people. I'll be sharing more of our adventure next week.

We stayed at the Peacock Pavilions, owned by Maryam, author of Marrakech by Design and blog My Marrakech, and her husband Chris, an architect. The best hosts ever.  Here's some of our week at Peacock Pavilions....

One of the suites in the Atlas pavilion. 

The communal living room in the Atlas Pavilion. I loved this fireplace, and the chairs covered in vintage blankets.

This is a sample of our breakfasts every morning. I miss them so much. ;)

The ladies.

Henna and cocktail night. 

The Medina Pavilion, and yet another crush on a fireplace. 

Beautiful painted ceiling and pendant lights in a suite in the Medina Pavilion. 

Tiger, one of the many stray cats roaming around the property. Chris and Maryam collect strays ;) 

Some of my polaroids taken with my SX-70. 

I loved our stay. I definitely plan to go back, with my husband along next time. What do you think? Could this be a future destination for you? I'd love to know. 

As for the workshop, I highly recommend it, whether you're a pro photographer or newcomer. I thought it would be a fun way to introduce my sister to the world of polaroids, and photography for that matter, and it was. Jen and Amanda are great teachers and very easy to hang out with. No attitude, super helpful and hilarious. I miss them. 

I have so many images, so I'll post more on Flickr later this week. Back soon with another Morocco instalment!

janis

x

Adventures

Hello everyone! Just got back last night and trying to get caught up. I thought I had kept up on emails, but apparently I didn't do that great of a job. Understatement, really. ;) Looking forward to checking in with your blogs...I've seen some great sneak peeks!

Working on a few posts about the last few weeks, so until then....

Now, back to those emails I mentioned. Have a great day!

janis

x