It’s official! We took second place in The Ninjamatics’ 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards in the category of Arts & Culture Blog. Lots of East Coast bloggers made the shortlist and went on to win in their respective categories. Take a second to visit the site for a full list of the winners. Thanks again to my co-blogger Lauren Oostveen and to all of you readers for your support. We’ve got more bloggers on the site this year, focusing on the Coffee Q&A series but expect occasional posts about living on the East Coast still.

One of the fun highlights of this trip to Provence was attending the Roman Games in Nimes. You know how Civil War reenactments are popular south of the border? Well, picture that except on a much more epic scale. The fully operational Colosseum in Nimes was the backdrop for a reenactment of an actual Roman Game with participants from all across Europe. As spectators, you could even rent costumes for the day and wander around town dressed as different classes of Romans and Gauls.

It was a great event for history buffs and families. There really was just a little bit of something for everyone. I’m pretty sure there must be some YouTube videos of us wandering the streets of Nimes in full costume though…

The best-preserved Roman arena in France.

Roman legionnaires, Celts, the Imperial Court, auxiliaries, cavalrymen and war chariots were all in full costume in celebration of ancient Roman civilization.

Before the Games began, the Colosseum was open for kids to participate in Gallic or Roman training.

Part of the "Ludi" games, famous throughout the Roman Empire.

Coming up: a couple restaurant reviews. For more pictures of Provence, visit my Flickr photostream.

As promised, here begins the recap of my fabulous vacation in the South of France. Before we get there though…

Cokebaby and I took a direct flight to London because when you live in Halifax you’re limited in your flight choices to Europe unless you want to backtrack to Toronto/Montreal/New York and lose an additional 2 hours there, 2 hours waiting, and 2 hours back this way. That’s without delays. No thank you.

In London, instead of sticking around for a connecting flight we decided to take the Chunnel to Paris for an overnight before meeting with Cokebaby’s sister and family in a village called Le Thor. We’d been to Paris once before. That was in the years when smoking was permitted at the airport which meant we were greeted immediately by that awful stench of stale nicotine. Apart from that, and unscooped dog poop, it was a lovely city then and a lovelier city now (less smoking in public spaces and more diligent canine overseers).

Paris, like Toronto, has something of a reputation to the neighbouring towns and countries. Even en route to the city the British man traveling next to us with his teenage daughter made rather an unkind observation about Parisians. I can’t say that I agree. We really didn’t have any trouble or experience unpleasantness. Maybe that’s partly to do with our ability to get by in the French language. By no means are we fluent but at least we gave it a try, sometimes more successfully than others. I equate it to those years I spent working in retail when American tourists expected to get change back in their currency. When in Rome…

In any case, Paris. We were there for my birthday! We spent the day walking around, taking in familiar sites, eating, drinking, and just taking it easy. That’s the great thing about revisiting a city. There’s no pressure to try to fit it all in. We even made an attempt to see the Catacombs but it was too late in the day and the line too long so we wandered off. Here are a few photographic highlights:

Reminds me of Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

Most of the area around Forum des Halles was under construction.

The building housing the City of Paris's administration.

A view from the east garden.

One of many sculptures.

Another statue and series of columns in front of the Palais du Luxembourg.

Next week: Le Thor and the villa, Avignon, and some ancient hill villages.

As part of Word of Mouth night at the Neptune Theatre, Cokebaby and I attended The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh last week. Going into it, we knew very little about the play besides the write-up. After making a date night out of the evening—dining at Pipa Restaurant first (a review coming later)—we were pleasantly thrilled by both the quality of the writing and the acting.

(Photo credit: Applehead Studio)

Martin McDonagh is best known to me for writing and directing In Bruges. The Beauty Queen of Leenane is a dark comedy in the same vein. It’s actually part of The Leenane Trilogy of plays, each one dealing with rather grim circumstances.

Here’s the blurb for this first play in the series:

Trapped by her old cantankerous mother, 40-year-old Maureen finds an opportunity to escape when a chance comes along to find love and make a new life for herself. Her mother however has other ideas, and her interference sets in motion a chain of deceptions and betrayals, heart-breaking tragedy, and savage irony.

The acting on the part of the entire four-person cast was really superb but particular props go to the mother Mag, played by Mary Colin Chisholm. The role could have easily been portrayed as over-the-top but she was able to keep that instinct in check and instead present a wholly believable, fully irritating villainess.

Even the set design was brilliant in its simplicity. The whole play takes place within a shabby little kitchen giving the illusion of being trapped within that house with the mean old woman. Tricks of light established different moods and times of day seamlessly.

The play itself is signature McDonagh: darkly funny and at times tragic with unexpected twists. I highly recommend checking it out although it’s definitely not for the feint of heart. The Beauty Queen of Leenane is playing at the Neptune Theatre until March 20.

In exciting news for a sleepy Sunday afternoon, East Coast By Choice just got nominated for the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards in the Arts & Culture, Life, and Placeblog categories!

So, I guess it’s game on in terms of bringing you even better content this year, hey?

As always, if you do have suggestions for what you want to see in this space drop us a line. Or feel free to check out our submissions guidelines for East Coast Guest Posts.

A big thanks to everyone who follows the blog and to the peep(s) who nominated us.

[It's a small world. Even though Disney kind of took over that phrase with the saccharine song, the words ring true in this part of the world. As this next guest post shows, a smaller community simply brings with it access of all kinds.]

By Philip Moscovitch

(Photo credit: Philip Moscovitch)

Back in the mid-90s, my partner Sara and I were living in Montreal and thinking about moving to the country. Trouble was, to get to an area rural enough for us, we’d have to drive well over an hour outside the city. If either of us had to commute for work, we’d be in trouble. Plus, available housing seemed to be either unaffordable, or in a state of near collapse. Neither option was all that appealing.

So we moved to Nova Scotia. Thirteen years later we’re still here, living in a 100-year-old home overlooking St. Margaret’s Bay, with about 30 acres of woodland in our name and much more stretching out for miles behind our property.

Part of what we wanted when we came to the Maritimes was easy access to the natural world. But I’ve also really come to appreciate how friendly people and the small scale of this place combine to provide access to all sorts of people and experiences.

Need to talk to your member of the legislature? Mine is a cabinet minister; I have her personal email address (which she encouraged me to use) and whenever I’ve raised a concern, she responds.

Like pomp and vice-regal ceremony? Not my cup of tea, particularly, but I’ve still managed to attend a couple of events at which the Lieutenant-Governor was present, and after she visited our local elementary a few years back, she wrote a personal response to a girl who lived near us. That made a huge impression on her.

Want to go wilderness canoeing? The Tobeatic Wilderness Area provides over a thousand square kilometres of raw nature. I can drive there in a couple of hours.

Interested in star-gazing? There are truly dark skies within an hour or two of driving, and reasonably dark ones right here in our own yard, where we can easily see thousands of stars on a clear night.

And, of course, if country living is not all that far from the city, the reverse is also true. It’s pretty easy to get to town anytime you want. When I have a gig that requires me to work in downtown Halifax, I’m facing a modest, 45-minute commute. That’s how long it used to take me sometimes to get from our Montreal apartment to my job at the National Film Board. And that was bumper-to-bumper, not the relatively pleasant drive from here to the peninsula.

I remember realizing that we really were living in a different culture soon after the birth of our third child (the only one born in Nova Scotia). We’d sent the paperwork to Vital Statistics to register his birth and hadn’t received a birth certificate. Concerned that it may have been held up, I called the department and was immediately transferred to someone in the appropriate department. After I gave her our son’s name she said, “Oh yes dear, I saw that one. It went out today.”

Philip Moscovitch is a freelance writer, editor, broadcaster. You can connect with him through his website, www.moscovitch.com, or follow him on twitter @PhilMoscovitch.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Kung Hei Fat Choy

Today marks the Lunar New Year for 2011. It’s year of the rabbit (a.k.a. year of the Cokebaby). If you’re interested in your horoscope for the year check out this site where you can enter your birthday and it will generate a one-paragraph overview.

Me, I’m a Wood Tiger and this is my outlook for the year:

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The good news is that this year’s ruling animal, the Rabbit, is one of your complementary signs. The bad news is that the year’s element, Metal, has a destructive relationship with your sign’s element of Wood. In plain English? You’ll probably have a so-so year with 5 favorable months, 3 neutral, and 4 unfavorable months. But don’t get discouraged – as a Tiger, you have the guts and gusto to face challenges like a Mortal Kombat fighter. When you’re not engaged in battle, it could be a good time to lay low and borrow some of the Rabbit’s reserve. If you plot your course ahead of time, you’ll be able to navigate the changing waters of this year with grace and agility.

Also, for anyone interested in ringing in this new year, the Chinese Society of Nova Scotia will be holding a banquet at the Marriott in Halifax on Saturday, February 12.

Have a great year!

Waiting for our train to Bruges

What can I say about this lovely city in the Flemish region of Belgium? It’s an absolutely breathtaking Medieval town that seems almost untouched by time. As we entered the old city for the first time and walked down cobblestone streets, I got a sense that every building must have had a story to tell.

Absolutely everything is scenic from the squares around just about every corner to the canals filled with white swans. On one of our tours (to be recapped next), Cokebaby and I actually also saw one of two black swans that were imported from Australia.

Even our hotel, Jan Brito, was the former residence of a baroness. We stayed in a standard “Knight” room but they offer grander suites where you can feel like a Baroness, Marquis or Duchess. The shared enclosed courtyard with a marble statue in a functioning fountain was a nice touch. If we hadn’t been so exhausted by the end of each day (and itchy from bed bug bites) we probably would have made better use of that space. As it was, we enjoyed a few photo ops there.

Along the canal

In town there are plenty of cafés and restaurants, many of which are overpriced for full sit-down meals, particularly around the main square. We were lucky enough to wander off the beaten track and find a great spot attached to a hostel (more on that in the food post next week). Throughout the town for the most part though, beer was priced at a bargain compared to anywhere else we’ve travelled. That probably has something to do with the fact that Belgium produces something close to over 8,000 different beers.

Then, of course, there were the windmills. Although modern ones dot the skyline in the new part of town, the old ones that line the canals are quite picturesque and well worth the extra footsteps to get there.

In retrospect, it looks like I'm wearing a sexy monk outfit

One of the more tranquil walks was within the confines of the Beguinage monastery where signs instructed visitors to be silent. And it’s not like the streets of Bruges are overly crowded, at least not while we were visiting, but there was something about that enforced quiet that made the walk all the more memorable. This was especially true when the bells in the church began to ring and we watched as a Benedictine nun ran across the courtyard to join her sisters for service.

One eyesore that has to be mentioned is the Concertgebouw (modern concert hall). Although it was short-listed in an international architectural competition, it’s frankly quite hideous and shows a disregard for the beauty and historic integrity of the old town.

Coming up this week: Quasimodo Tours shows the best of castles, chocolate and beer one day followed by a sobering trip through Flanders Fields. Then I’ll highlight some of the bizarre things photographed in both Amsterdam and Bruges.

Next week: The long-awaited food post. Believe me, I’ve got some yummy things to talk about.

At a canal-side patio enjoying a Kriek

Amsterdam is probably one of the least likely places I thought I’d be taking a vacation based on the limited information I knew about the city. You know, what with the Red Light District and the not-quite-legalized cannabis. We’re more of the historic and cultural sites, yummy foods and tasty beverage kind of travellers.

So, how did we wind up spending four days there? Seat sale. Yes, the lovely people at Icelandair made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. Our original plan was to spread our vacation around BeNeLux, primarily in Belgium but the airfare made all the difference. Since we were flying into Amsterdam anyway we decided to look into what the city had to offer.

For one: art. The Rijksmuseum is currently restoring the main building so Dutch masterpieces by the likes of Rembrandt and Vermeer are on display together. Not “The Girl With The Pearl Earring”, which we found out after is in the Hague. At a cost of € 12,50 it’s a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Pulleys are still used to transport items

Amsterdam also has beer: namely Heineken. Since it’s just around the corner from the museum, and we were thirsty, we decided to pop in. Not as grand as the Guinness brewery which we toured on our trip to Ireland last year, it still provided an hour or so of beer history. Plus, two glasses of their finest were covered in the cost of admission.

The most entertaining part of the tour was a sort of virtual reality “ride” in which you are the beer from scratch to bottling. There’s also a green screen in front of which you can sing Karaoke and send a video card home to friends. You know, if you’re into that sort of thing. (The rest of the food and drink experience I’m going to leave for my last post of the series.)

Scenic view

Amsterdam is also home to some unique architecture. Due to the of lack of space, houses were built quite narrow, not more than nine meters wide. Many residences were also businesses. As a result they have a pulley outside to move larger objects to upper floors.

And let’s not forget the tulips! The floating flower market or Bloemenmarkt offers an amazing array of the loveliest flowers. We brought back all kinds not just for our garden but as souvenirs, including the gorgeous Black Parrot. You simply have to ensure they have a health inspection certificate for Canada.

Then, of course, there’s the seedy underbelly. Part of a walking tour we did one morning was through the Red Light District. Among other things, this is where we saw our first instance of a public urinal for men. Women still have the decency to go indoors and often have to pay for that bit of privacy.

Overall, Cokebaby and I agree on one fact: Amsterdam is a great starter city for anyone who’s thinking of visiting Europe for the first time. Pretty much everyone speaks English (there are as many tourists are there are locals at any given time), the cost of food and drink is reasonable, and it’s small enough to get around on foot easily provided you have a good map. Friends of ours loaned us a copy of Top 10 Amsterdam which also came in quite handy. And I’m also pretty sure it would be easy to fake speaking Dutch. So many of the words are similar to English that our running joke upon seeing a new word on a sign was, “Guess what the Dutch word for [FILL IN THE BLANK] is?”

Next week: a day trip to Alkmaar for the last cheese market of the season and on then on to a charming place called Brugge (a.k.a. Bruges).

Can you start a conversation about books, writing, reading, or related topics? BookCamp is coming to Halifax and we’re looking for people to lead unconference style sessions. Think of it like PodCamp only catering to bookworms. It’s not just for insiders though. We’re looking for bloggers, writers, readers, etc.

Drop me a line by e-mail at kimberly.aliasgrace [at] gmail [dot] com if you’re interested.

To register for the event, which takes place on Saturday June 5 at St. Mary’s University, please RSVP on EventBrite.