Nova Scotia

Today's matchup: Orlando: 93°F, Halifax: 57°F, or how to lose 36 degrees in under 6 hours!

We leave Orlando on a USAIRWAYS flight. Takeoff at 10:30 a.m., landing at 4:25 p.m. at Halifax airport, after changing planes in Philadelphia in under 40 minutes…
What a sprint! We had a good laugh.
First piece of good news: right at the border checkpoint we discover that Canadians speak English and… French (Yes, that's cool!).
Second piece of good news: Mag found us a hotel room at a really decent price for the five of us. Off to the Radisson, in a suite (uh… really, this is a suite?). Lovely ocean view.
Canada is ours for 10 weeks, and the city of Halifax for 2 days!

Halifax: out come the fleeces. We put away the swimsuits and go back to wearing pants.

Nova Scotia is like Scotland… only newer: fog and drizzle right on cue. All that's missing is the whisky and the pubs to drink our fill. Actually, they exist on this side of the Atlantic too, but we're not allowed in after 9 p.m. with the kids.
So we decide to call a babysitter for our Saturday Night Fever. No such luck: the little monsters explain that there's no way they're staying with a girl who doesn't speak French, on top of that in a hotel room they barely know.
So that night, we'll be thinking hard about our friends back in Lille drinking like fish (yes, we miss you guys), but we still treated ourselves to a nice draft Stella: after 3 weeks without alcohol, wow, does that taste good!!!

Halifax has 400,000 residents, one of the biggest fishing ports in the world, Canada's largest naval base, and it's one of the oldest cities in Canada (makes sense, since the European explorers landed on this side…)
We discover a pleasant city (the weather in the photos is sunny!): no doubt about it, we're not in the US anymore but definitely in Canada, and the architecture is there to remind us. We visit the harbor market and find a bakery run by folks from the Vendée (in western France). It's 9 a.m., so we pounce on the fresh rolls and croissants while the Canadians dig into pizza and bacon.
At first glance, Canada really is the land of respect for the environment. Everything is regulated. Everything is posted. Everything must be obeyed. Even the public trash cans have solar panels, because they compact the garbage on demand.
We spend those 2 days wandering around the harbor and through town: the botanical gardens, walks along the waterfront, eating out for lunch and dinner (in the morning, we go straight for bread and Nutella in the room), and of course, a visit to the Halifax Citadel.
So we walk 20 minutes uphill… and uphill… (well yes, citadels tend to be up high to overlook approaching attackers…), only to realize, at the ticket window, that we left the wallet in our hotel room!
No doubt about it, we Guyots are real winners!

Mag manages (bravely) to negotiate (in English) a discounted entry for us. We had about twenty Canadian dollars left in our pockets. In we go, it's in the bag!

We get the RV back!

Sunday, 8 p.m.: T-minus 12 hours!
Monday, 7 a.m.: I set off on a mission to pick up my wife and kids' house. The responsibility is… huge!
Actually, everything runs like clockwork. In under 2 hours, I've been to the broker, then the customs office, then the port.

I spot KIFONS (our RV, for those who haven't been following) waiting for me patiently, parked next to an Audi R8 shipped over from Holland. Without a second thought, I sign the insurance paper stating that the shipping went off without a hitch for our little home on wheels.
Here I am, alone, on Canadian roads, behind the wheel of my camper, which suddenly looks terribly tiny next to the trucks I pass on the loading docks. All I need now is some Johnny Hallyday (France's answer to Elvis) on the radio to complete the picture!

15 minutes of driving, and KIFONS is parked in front of the Halifax Radisson.
The valet laughs when he sees this RV taking up the guest drop-off area.
He quickly realizes it's no joke and that we're about to load our luggage, fast.
Juju, Alex and Alice run up and hug their house on wheels. It's pretty moving. Mag is thrilled. So am I.

We leave Halifax and head for supplies at the first Sobeys we find. Fridge filled in under an hour. We find gorgeous fresh vegetables. All good!
Mag decides to take us north. We set off on a 1-hour drive, during which we get back the feeling we loved on our 2-week trial run in February: no doubt about it, we're abroad, but in our own home. The kids are back in their own rooms. All good.

Time to find our first overnight spot. We drive down to Little Harbour and Mag asks the last fisherman around whether he'd mind if we spent the night there… Honestly, I don't know how she does it, but it's Bingo: he invites us to his place, in his backyard, front row on the Ocean: it's magical.
While parking, I still managed to tear down the neighbor's phone line. I'm really going to have to watch the RV's height: 11 feet 4 inches is a bit tall. "Accidents happen to everyone," he tells me with a smile. Really cool neighbor. I still refrain from asking whether he has a Wi-Fi connection to lend me.

To celebrate this first evening, we open a bottle of bubbly (I managed to sneak a few good bottles on board – about forty), which we share with our host. I decide to give him one so he can share it "romantically" with his wife. The kids play soccer in the yard with two balls lent by our host family. We check out the beach. It's peaceful. We sleep like babies.

We wake up late, around 9 a.m. We walk down to the harbor (about 130 feet away). We meet the fishermen coming back from their night at sea. At 10:30 a.m., the wife of our favorite fisherman brings us 5 cooked lobsters, freshly caught overnight. What a treat. Nova Scotia is pretty cool after all!