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Issue 589 Volume 3 Number 89

The Ottawan

 

HELLO OTTAWA 

It’s Monday, August 15, 2022 and we are thrilled that the Carp Barrens trail is reopening as of tomorrow. At 3 km, we can evision ourselves completing it and the landscape is just wild
 

36 Hours in Québec City

Over the weekend we took an impromptu trip to Québec City to play tourists and enjoy a quick jolt of old world culture. 

At six hours’ drive from the western edge of Ottawa, it’s probably the farthest we would go for a weekend trip, but the drive was easy and aside from traffic jams in Ottawa and Montréal, it was stress free.

We arrived Friday evening and spent Saturday walking for hours, eating delicious food, and drinking flavourful local beer, before sleeping very well in a gorgeous boutique hotel. 

We splurged on the penthouse at Hotel Manor d’Autueil, a charming and friendly hotel in Vieux Québec. Our room included a reserved table on the rooftop terrace, where hotel’s resident cat Tyger the Bengal wandered by to greet us, albeit from a haughty distance. Tyger might have been standoffish, but the rest of the hotel staff couldn't have been friendlier or more helpful. 

After enjoying the hotel's continental breakfast on Saturday morning we headed out to soak in the rich history of the old town. We spent the morning wandering the Citadelle de Québec, taking not one but two tours, one of which took us into the Governor General’s residence, which is nestled next to a barracks. 

Next we wandered across the Plains of Abraham to the small but stunning Jardin Jeanne d’Arc, which had been recommended to us by our server at breakfast. 

By this time, although we had had vague plans of visiting the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, we had worked up an appetite. Leaving the museum for a future return visit, we walked down Avenues Briand and Cartier to Blvd René-Lévesque (which becomes Saint-Jean after a couple of blocks), looking for somewhere cheap and cheerful to eat (did I mention that we splurged on the hotel?). 

We quickly ended up at the Chez Victor location at 145 Saint Jean, where salads, burgers, and local beer renewed our strength. 

After lunch, we continued along Saint-Jean, stopping at several of the many bookstores dotting the way. We eventually reached our destination, the Breakneck Stairway that leads down to the shopping district of Quartier Petit Champlain, but before we started down the steps to join the throngs of other tourists, a poster for the Musée de Bad Art caught our eyes. Of course we had to check out the exhibition of carefully curated bad art; it was free, it only took about 20 minutes, and it was hilarious. 

We then joined the masses on the stairs down to Petit Champlain, where we checked out boutiques and ate fabulous ice cream from La Petite Cabane à Sucre de Québec.

We walked our aching feet back to the hotel, where we enjoyed a pint of beer on the rooftop terrace, did a bit of work, and relaxed. We finally headed out for a late dinner at Les 3 Garçons on Saint-Jean before turning in. 

On Sunday after breakfast and checkout we picked up some coffee and croissants for the road at the best dep ever, Le Marché D’Emma, and began the journey back to Ottawa.
 

Verdict: We both loved our speedy weekend, and wlll definitely return for a longer visit. 


This week

▪️The Capital Fair in Gloucester, which got underway on August 12, continues right through until August 21 at the Rideau Carleton Raceway. If you go today, admission is just $5. 

▪️Do you and your pals play soccer? You’ll want to register a team for the first annual Omer Gulder Memorial Charity Tournament, presented by Mamboleo FC, happening on September 10 at RA Centre Turf Fields (2451 Riverside Drive). Enjoy a day of footy, live music, food vendors, and even an after-party. The deadline to register is September 1. 

▪️Need some new art? Early bird tickets are now on sale for Wall Candy NOIR, running October 21 and 22. Make it an even cooler occasion with a ticket to the vernissage from 6:00pm to 10:00pm on October 21. You’ll have access to the art as well as the welcome cocktails and canapés, swag bag, and a live music performance. 

▪️Early bird tickets are also now on sale for the fourth annual Purple Tie Gala for Cornerstone Housing for Women. After two years of a virtual gathering the event is back to an inperson gala on October 1 at the rooftop of the Ottawa Art Gallery. Right now tickets are $100 but on September 9 they’ll rise to $145. If you can’t attend the in person event, at-home baskets are available for $75. 

 

Deals of the day

▪️Uppliva Sauna & Steam’s Summer 1 Hour Special is back. Enjoy the 1-hr Sauna & Steam Circuit - Rest & Recovery for $24 until August 31st. 

▪️We can’t believe we’re writing this, but there are 135 days until Christmas. Papa Jack Popcorn is offering the Bonne Maman Limited Edition Advent calendar for $48.99. It doesn’t actually contain popcorn; but rather jams, jellies, and marmalade. 

▪️Mens’ shirts and pants are on sale in the Rue Saint-Patrick Vente d’entrepôt/Warehouse Sale, until Saturday. Shop in person at 5524 Rue Saint Patrick if you’re heading to Montreal. 

We'll see you tomorrow – Martha and Darren
 

⚜️ Is there something that Ottawans should know about? Email to us at hello@theottawan.com. We read every single comment.

STATS

Weather: ☀️ Sunny. High of 27°, low of 13°.   

Number: 30,000. The number of people who took part in last years' ‘Cleaning the Capital’ campaign. Over 24,000 kilograms of waste was cleared in 890 projects. The idea is you get a group of friends, neighbours, or co-workers to plan for a day of cleaning. The City will provide gloves and bags, and will haul away the debris. And don't clean up leaves or branches! The woodland creatures need that. [City of Ottawa] [Registration]

Ottawan and Gatinois of the Day: Owen Hills and Jack Moore, respectively. The two are heading to London, England for the 2022 Pokémon World Championships. The two will compete against 500 players – and each other – for a US $25,000 prize. Pokémon is a   game using trading cards. There are all sorts of rules but basically, it's Snap. [Ottawa Citizen]

Quote: ‘It’s crazy. [The Ottawa police] are doing traffic stops, they’re doing community policing, they're doing criminal investigations. They're doing that smaller-scale police work that's focused on the residents of Ottawa. And they're being tasked, at the same time, with having the resources and the capacity to take on national security incidents. Very few other police services in the country are going to be tasked with that.’ – Carleton University assistant professor Jerald Sabin, who argues that Ottawa should be set aside as a Federal district, like Washington DC and the Australian Capital Territory. [Politico Ottawa]

SportsCPL Atlético Ottawa 0 – Pacific FC 1, last Saturday; Frontier League Ottawa Titans – Québec Capitales 6 – 2 last night, 6 – 4 last Saturday, 5 – 7 last Friday; CEBL Championship Ottawa BlackJacks 72 – Hamilton Honey Badgers 76, last Friday (And thus ends the BlackJack’s hope for 2022)

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WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

▪️There are 50 per cent fewer listings for rental units now than this time last year. That's 130 listings over 310 units last year, according to rental website RentFaster. The average rent for a two bedroom this month is $2048 versus $1826 last year. [CBC]

+ Related The City's planning committee will decide on August 25 if it will permit the demolition of an apartment building at 142 Nepean St. (Link just goes to the upcoming meeting list) This unfashionable building, which rents two bedroom apartments for $1,200 per month, would be torn down to make room for a parking lot to service an unbuilt condo development. 

+ Related We mentioned on Friday a landlord who said she could not safely rent out her Sandy Hill apartments due to them being across the street from a supervised injection site and that would be illegal. Now she wants the City to buy the property.

+ Related The Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry have launched a free-rent-for-a-year contest to encourage people to move there. The County's name is plural but it is only one municipality, if you are confused. [Date My County]

▪️Gatineau city councillor Louise Boudrias has died at age 62. Boudrias, representing the district of Parc-de-la-Montagne-Saint-Raymond, was first elected in 2014 and reëlected with 70 per cent of the vote. She had been on leave since January after a cancer diagnosis. [CBC]

▪️Hydro Ottawa wants your opinion about how it attempts to become a no carbon emitting company. The City owned utility plans to be net-zero by 2030. They seem very interested in when you are going to buy an electric vehicle and install your solar panels and how they can get a cut of the profits from that. [The Survey] [Ottawa Hydro]

▪️The people who run the City’s museums and historic sites want to know if you'd join a membership programme. They have a web form – good – and they ask things likes like how important are physical membership cards and printed newsletters. The museums and historic sites run by the City are: Billings Estate National Historic Site, 
Cumberland Heritage Village Museum, Fairfields Heritage House, Nepean Museum, and Pinhey's Point Historic Site.  [Survey] [Ottawa Museums and Historic Sites]

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