Il pleut à boire debout

Il pleut à boire debout (eel pluh ah bwar duh-boo) : it's pouring rain; it's raining cats and dogs

The literal translation is it's raining so as to be able to drink standing up. This has always been one of my favourite idioms because of the mental image it evokes. I've always imagined it raining so much that the puddles flood up to one's mouth. But in reality the idea is that it is raining so hard as to be able to drink by turning your head towards the sky.

As I work on the Quebec side of the National Capital Region, I have today off for la Saint-Jean-Baptiste. Mais il pleut à boire debout. While the seemingly endless months of grey rainy weather in Vancouver seem oppressive, I've discovered I quite enjoy the occasional Vancouver-style downpour in Ottawa. This is something I first realized about myself the morning after I got back from Toronto last spring and it was raining. It hadn't rained at all while I was in Toronto, so it seemed too dry.

Last week I did an Indigenous walking tour of Ottawa in the pouring rain. I hadn't anticipated the rain so I was caught without an umbrella. Despite the rain, I really enjoyed it. As I have been saying: I'm from Vancouver, if we waited for the rain to let up, we'd never do anything.

(photo of Paris in the rain by Rebecca Plotnick available as a print via Etsy)

The Yellow House

Last weekend I finished The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Provence by Martin Gayford. It had been on my list of books to read for a while, probably since hearing about it closer to its publication date, so I decided to bring it along as my reading on my flight to Ottawa.

The Yellow House is beautifully written. Gayford sweeps the reader away with his storytelling that one almost forgets the tragic ending that awaits. Even though I've long admired Van Gogh's art, after reading The Yellow House, I feel I understand him and his artistic mission better. He was trying to capture emotion in colour.

Despite the tragic end, Gayford doesn't leave his reader on a down note (something the Van Gogh Museum might improve on). Gayford discusses Van Gogh's posthumous success and recognition as a great artist, his mental health as it likely affected his art, and the fate of the Yellow House in Arles. Gayford leaves us with the impression that Van Gogh's brief stay in Arles was in medias res in the history of the town and art.

While in France, I had taken a brief trip to Arles to retrace Van Gogh's footsteps. The town of Arles actually has a "Van Gogh Trail" pamphlet that indicates a number of sites that the artists painted so you can compare the view. Like Les Alyscamps:

There are 10 sites marked on Van Gogh route, though we didn't visit them all. As I recall, it was a bit tricky to find some of them, or some were a bit on the outskirts of town. You can see the other sites here.

One thing I couldn't believe was that Van Gogh's Yellow House no longer existed. It had been bombed during the end of the war. Although there is a gallery dedicated to Van Gogh's time in Arles, la Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles, I am shocked that nobody has undertaken the task of building a replica of the yellow house to serve as a museum, akin to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.

(Van Gogh's paintings of the Yellow House and Les Alyscamps public domain via Wikipedia)

OttawAwesome

I've now been in Ottawa just over a month so I thought I'd share a few of observations about how it's been so far.

1. I didn't really have any preconceptions of what Ottawa would be like before arriving. I'd visited before -- once as a child and again on my way back from France in 2011 -- but both visits were only a couple of days. All I knew was that Ottawa is a government town.
2. But Ottawa is so much more than the obligatory snapshot of the Peace Tower.
3. In fact, I find it a lot like a larger version of Victoria in terms of architecture and vibe. 
4. I've managed to survive the heat and humidity--so far! When I first arrived at the beginning of May there was still a bit of a chill in the air; it was almost as if I had gone back in time season-wise. The following weekend, however, spring came in full force, lasted for about a week, and it's been summer ever since.
5. I'm liking the frequency of the lightning storms here. It's not a spectacle we often get in coastal Vancouver.
6. I live a 5 minute walk from a river-front beach that is just about as gorgeous as Vancouver beaches.
7. I've also enjoyed lake swims. In fact, I think I am discovering a love of lakeside beaches. I think I'll be spending more time in my bathing suit this summer than the previous several summers combined.
8. Compared to Vancouver, the cost of everything here seems way cheaper! It's almost become a running joke with my intern colleagues when I remark on how much cheaper something is in Ontario than Vancouver. Apparently that's just what things cost when you don't live in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
9. All of this has made me realize that there are other places in Canada in which I could live happily. 
10. I think this might be part of my long break-up with Vancouver, because wow is my home city getting me down these days.