The Other Paris
You’ll probably think I’m lying when I say I went to Paris this weekend, but it’s true. And it took me less than an hour to get there from Hamilton, Ontario. How’s that for high speed travel? The Canadian version of the "grand Pa-ree", Paris Ontario, is a little town (pop. 11,000) in Southern Ontario, near Brantford. The connection between it and Brantford is more than geographic; there’s an important historic link between the two. While Brantford Ontario is famous as the “telephone city” (the site of Alexander Graham Bell’s home (the Bell Homestead) and the first long-distance telephone call), people sometimes forget that Bell had to make his call TO somewhere… and this was it! A bronze plaque on one of the stores we visited on Grand River Street (the main drag) proudly announces this. The call was made on August 10, 1876. The town is known as the Cobblestone Town because of the use of that material on some of the heritage buildings. Lots of gorgeous old Victorian mansions. The downtown is pretty, and has maintained many of its 19th century buildings (some complete with tin ceilings!), except for one unsightly gap where a couple of new, brutish buildings have been used as infill (”what were they thinking???!”). The shops include many gift shops, a bookstore, a large linen shop, an office supplies stores and several clothing stores. Our favourite was a chocolate shop, Chocolate Sensations. The town’s most famous store, though, isn’t on the main drag; it’s a few kilometres out of town: Mary Maxim, which sells craft supplies and gift items. 
We had a delicious lunch in the elegant dining room of the stately old Arlington Hotel. Built in the 1850s, the hotel dominates the main drag. It’s fun to imagine people dressed in the fashion and finery of their era — the late 1800s, for example — cracking jokes and striking deals under the chandeliers or cozying up to the fireplace on a brutally cold winter day.The Grand River runs through the town, backing right up to the rear ends of the shops along one side of Grand River Street. Many of the buildings sport balconies that hang over the water. The Cafe de Paris has a patio overlooking the river. Unfortunately, the Grand in this area isn’t very clean and in spots has an unpleasant odour. Perhaps in the future they’ll clean up this part of the river and enhance the beauty of an already charming little town.
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