There are lots of cliches about Paris, one of which I’ve happy titled this blog post with and vacationed on the premise of. But none are more oft-used than “The city of love” and I’m happy to report that I’ve fully embraced that one too, by recently getting engaged there to my longtime boyfriend. But is there a more romantic place in the world to do so? The cliches, as it turns out, are mostly true: people kiss and makeout all over the place, unabashedly. Hand-holding is rampant. The women are beautiful and stylish. Even the moms. No Lululemon mom-pants here – the stroller ladies are just a hot as the strollerless. The food is amazing and the cafes cozy. The language is bewildering but enchanting nonetheless. And shit is expensive. Like, really expensive, which is not romantic, except it makes you appreciate nice and cheap things like just walking around and enjoying each other’s company. (The museums are the exception. They are strangely affordable compared to here in North America.) It certainly is a city to fall in love with, and to.

The one cliche that couldn’t have been less true was the ‘city covered in dog crap’ one. Contrary to its depiction in Sex And The City, the city is not covered in it. It may have been in the past, but I saw merely a few turds the entire time we were there. Because spending the trip wiping poo off my shoe, a la SJP, would have been decidedly unromantic.

As can be seen by my recent posts, my boyfriend and I just returned from a week-long vacation in British Columbia on a snowboarding trip. The weather was amazing and almost every waitress we had was very nice, but outside of that, the service we experienced was quite often terrible, which I thought was weird, given the current economic climate.

Air Canada was the first offender, which is especially awesome since Canadian airlines are expected to experience an 86% profit loss this year. We arrived at the airport, checked in at a kiosk, printed our bag tags, and went to line up at the main counter. Before we could reach it, an Air Canada employee rudely re-directed us to a single counter across the lane. It was because we had oversize bags, she said. We questioned this, since Matt flew with a board only two weeks ago and it wasn’t an issue, but she quickly barked, “Trust me. I’ve been working here for 20 years. You go over there.” There was only one counter open and a huge line, which got bigger by the second. It was February, ski season, and everyone had oversize luggage. So we had to wait half an hour in line to check our bags (only to be told it didn’t matter that our bags were oversized because they were pre-registered) while the six check-in counters across the lane were almost empty.  Nice way to treat your winter travelers, Air Canada. Glad to see that Canada’s ski-resort tourism business is so important to you.

Hotel staff (off resort) were just as bad.  One receptionist rolled her eyes when we asked directions to the ski hill. Rolled her eyes! And at one of the ski hills, a lift attendant yelled at us because we boarded an empty gondola while he was busy chatting with his bros instead of doing his job. I know you don’t get paid much, resort staffers, but we’re paying up to $75 a day to be there, so we expect civility in return.

Now, I don’t expect to get a medal becuase we went on vacation, but this is a recession and Canadian tourism is down. And we were out spending money. So how ’bout treating the customers you do have with care? And while I’m at it, BC should get off the ‘Toronto sucks’ train. As one woman put it when a Golden store clerk commented that we (Torontonians) “invade” BC: We spend money. Lots of it. I don’t see much of a point of running a business in a tourism town if you only want BC residents to come to it. Good luck with that.

Photo: Flickr

Sightseeing in Las Vegas is one of the very few things you can do there without spending money, so we spent an entire day walking up and down the strip. Highlights:

• Booze Walks: Everyone walks around with booze. Why? Because they can.
• Escalator Overload: The urban planning in Vegas has one mission: to get you into casinos without your explicit consent. Every sidewalk/walkway ferries you indoors, sometimes even before you know it. You can’t even cross the street normally here, you have to go up and over, on walkways that lead directly into casinos. It’s like being in Disneyland, only everyone has giant margaritas.
• Vegas has the Cleanest, Most Available Washrooms in America. It was like a dream come true.
• It Takes All Kinds: From fat people on Segways to chain-smoking grannies, Vegas is probably one of the best people-watching destinations on the planet.
• Photo Gallery HERE.

Travel note: Getting here is cheap. Rooms here are cheap. Doing ANYTHING here is very, very expensive. E.g.: Starbuck’s Americano: $3.60, bottle of Bud: $7, Muffin $3.50, roller coaster ride: $14, gambling: sneaks up on you; Criss Angel/Cirque: $150 or more.