Storyline: Advantures in our back yard
Welcome to Paris, the prettiest little town in Canada, according to one magazine, nestled at the confluence of the Nith and Grand rivers (“grand” is a bit of a stretch). There is no direct connection of its name to Paris, France. The founder of this town, Hiram Capron, was Vermont native.
So why Paris, you ask? Well, apparently local gypsum deposits were used to make plaster of paris. This quick-setting plaster was first so named for the plaster made using gypsum deposits mined from Paris’s Montmartre. Hence, Paris Ontario was named by Capron after a type of plaster that was named after Paris, France.
There is a lot going on for this small town:
Paris is known as the cobblestone capital of Canada: cobblestone structures still standing include about a dozen well-maintained houses, 2 churches and various garden walls. The stones were taken from the local rivers. For the history buffs: the first cobblestone structure, St. James Church, was built in 1839; the town was founded ten years earlier in 1829, and gypsum was discovered in 1793. There is more: the first long distance call as we’d describe it today was made from Brantford, Ontario, where Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, to Paris Ontario. 10km mind you, but for the times a 10km transmission was truly long distance. That was in 1876, just two years after the telephone was invented.
Other facts: Walter Gretzky, father of Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, attended school in Paris. Numerous films or TV shows have either been shot there or some of the scenes were shot there.
The town is also known for its numerous restaurants and cafés, bakeries, cheese and gift shops, of which we sampled exactly none, thanks to Covid.
Located between its two rivers, this peaceful town is surrounded by stunning nature with over 100 km of trails around or nearby, and the only Carolinian (broad-leafed deciduous) Forest in Canada. If you visit in the summer, post-Covid of course, you can try Whitewater rafting too. There is also the Penman dam, named after textile magnate John Penman, and the first stop on our visit, with a great picnic area for warmer days.
In 1999, 149 years after its incorporation, the town lost its municipal status and was absorbed into Brant County.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I had planned our first day to the dot. The small scenic roads, the stops, some to a specific parking lot, the activities. To warm our meals we’d run the generator, which is a bit noisy, so the parking lot had to be big enough to allow this activity without disturbing the peace of others. Or it had to be in the fields by the roadside somewhere. There were not many destinations on the map for day 1.
In Paris I had selected the big parking lot of the Two Rivers Stadium, next to The Paris Museum & Historical Society, just before the bridge over the Grand River.
The idea was to have lunch, then cross Grand River and walk through the town, cross a pedestrian bridge over the Nith River and do the Nith Trail in the Lion’s Park.
The day started slowly. We had loaded the van the previous evening, except for the water and some valuables. It was quite a chilly morning with temperatures well below freezing. Since we were heading that way, we decided to stop by and wave to our Cuban-Canadian friends in Burlington. They had not yet seen Doranya. Then I had selected to continue north on Walkers Line to Britannia Rd and continue zigzagging on the scenic secondary roads, avoiding the bigger towns and cities. We were at the community centre’s parking lot in Paris around 11 am. It still was rather chilly and very windy outside.
We walked along the short muddy and icy trail to the Penman dam, then returned and crossed the Grand River to the city centre. It is Covid time. Not sure to which health unit this town belongs, and therefore what are their Covid restrictions, but everything was closed and streets almost empty. It truly looked deserted.
No people, an occasional car and another “tourist group” like us admiring the bridge over the dam. It was already lunch and, completely frozen, we decided we’d had enough for this visit.
We stepped into a balmy 25°C/77°F Doranya and our freezing bones thawed in no time. We know now, that if it is sunny our van can be quite warm, even if it’s cold out.
We’ll definitely revisit Paris after Covid, in the fall perhaps.
It appears, as we’d find out later, that to tour Europe in Ontario, we had to visit other continents too. Our route to Vienna led us through Delhi (pronounced “Del-high”).
But not before we stumble across Scotland. Apparently, Scotland and Oakland, less that 4 km apart are known for the last battle between American and British troops on Canadian soil in 1812. According to Wikipedia, in 1846 Scotland had a population of about 150 people. Didn’t look like there were more today. A reference in “Ontario Rural Routes” reads:
“The place was founded by the Malcolm families, Scottish pioneers, and first known as Malcolm’s Mills. The post office opened in 1852 as Scotland, the name having been suggested by Janet Graham.”
There were some small structures in the vicinity of Delhi that looked strange to me. These were ruins of tobacco huts. There is a tobacco museum in Delhi, which is the heart of the tobacco country.
Tobacco having fallen out of favour, many local farmers have turned to other crops, principally ginseng, but also soybean, blueberries and others. Despite the attempts to diversify, the area is still economically stressed.
… and:
Welcome to Vienna, a small village just five kilometers north of Port Burwell where Big Otter Creek empties in Lake Erie. The village takes its name from the birthplace of Samuel Edison’s wife. Capt. Samuel Edison is the grandfather of Thomas Alva Edison, who we know as the inventor of the electric light bulb. During the 1840s and 1850s Thomas Edison was a regular summer visitor at his grandfather’s home.
We parked at the community centre and wandered through Vienna, which seemed undisturbed by the developers of the huge monster homes we observed elsewhere on our trip.
Tranquil and quiet. Again, perhaps due to Covid, we saw no one around. We made a short stop at Port Bruce, a place as drab as any others on the still frozen lake, and then headed to Copenhagen.
We just drove through Copenhagen, seemingly overtaken by developers, with big new houses and a golf course near by. The founder of this hamlet was Charles Kuntze from Denmark. In 1851 he bought 200 acres of land in Malahide township and build a hotel named Copenhagen Inn. For some time, the community was called Kuntze’s Corners, however when a post office was opened in 1870 it was renamed to Copenhagen.
This concluded our tour of Europe without leaving Ontario, day 1. It was time to find our overnight location, which I had also researched and planned to be in the parking lot by Port Stanley’s (Falkland Islands? – A) Little Beach.
We arrived there just before the sun set over the town’s skyline. This was the first place where we saw people wandering around. Lots of them: parking their cars next to Doranya, they’d walk their dogs, or let their kids run on the beach.
Some would just talk on their phones; some probably had a little snuggle with a friend… They kept coming and leaving probably all night.
After a short walk and a few snapshots, we were ready for dinner and our first night boondocking.
Mom used to drag Dad (as much as she could drag since he was the driver) to Paris on a regular basis. Some of the patterns and wool for our many sweaters came from the Mary Maxim store based there.
And he lived for several months at the “Y” in Brantford before the rest of us came over…told us all about A.G. Bell and the telephone.
Diana and Alex – I thoroughly enjoy your well written blog and your economical writing style. Came across your introduction to Paris and was reminded that despite the historical references to Gretzky, Alexander Graham Bell et al centered on this picturesque community you might also find the history of the Grand River (formerly called the Ouse by homesick Britons) to be worthy of further study and exploration. I recommend starting with Wikipedia diatribe about the Haldimand Proclamation. Looking forward to having your Beyond cross paths with my CrossFit in coming COVID-free explorations. Cavan.
Hey Cavan, what a small world! It’s a circuitous route from a FB group to our modest blog. When I (Diana) first saw a new subscriber I though the name sounded familiar, but couldn’t make the link at the time. Thanks for you nice words. We’d love to get together when the world reopens, and meanwhile will definitely check out your recommendations. Cheers!
Cavan, you gave us another idea for a road trip, perhaps in May when the spring beautifies the little towns and villages. We can follow the Grand River from its source to its mouth at Port Maitland. Of course more epic would be to follow the St. Lawrence from source to mouth. Hmmm. What about the Fraser?