Sunday Flaneur Fun: Nature, Bakeries, Art, Libraries!
The “Everyday Tourist” doesn’t need to travel to another country, city or town for a fun “travel” experience. One of our favourite things to do is flaneur (wander, explore) local neighbourhoods to see what is new, and without fail are rewarded with some fun flaneur finds and/or hidden gems.
This past Sunday morning was no exception. We drove just 5 minutes from our home and parked the car on Canmore Road (not to be confused with Canmore the town, i.e. the popular tourist town next to Banff National Park about an hour away) next to West Confederation Park.
Bypassing the busy new pump park where dozens of youngsters were enjoying the bike track, with parents and grandparents cheering them on, we headed down the gravel pathway. Almost immediately, all the houses and street sounds disappeared and we were in the middle of the great urban outdoors. After stopping for a few minutes to enjoy Mother Nature in the middle of the city we moved on. Soon we emerged back on a quiet, tree-lined street enjoying the mix of home and garden designs from the ‘60s to the present.
FYI: On the way back we discovered a mysterious dry stream in the park that would be a great place for a picnic or to just sit and enjoy nature. Kids would love playing hide & seek or climbing the fallen tree trunks.
Fun Flaneur Finds
Our first fun flaneur find was a “little free library” designed to mirror the design of the mega infill house in the background. (Side Note: I am a sucker for the 100s of “free little libraries” around the city. Have some great reads in them e.g. “Our Towns” by James and Deborah Fallows.) Then continuing to wander, we ended up at Brentwood Mall, so we could mail a couple of letters – yes we still use snail mail.
Wandering past the colourful (fun) new University City apartments, we saw a sign for a bakery in the distance and like a dog on a bone I had to check it out. Bliss & Co is a modern nut-free cupcake bakery with a bit of a Japanese twist i.e., Japanese breads.
Just past Bliss & Co we were surprised to find a very thoughtful public artwork by Jan Beringer tucked away on the back side of one of the residential towers facing Blakiston Park.
“Community Keystones” is a giant steel circle (approximately 6 feet in diameter) divided into five triangles each containing a few huge stones that represent the area’s different geological rock types – sandstone, siltstone, shale, dolomite and limestone.
They also represent the five phases of the University City mixed-use residential development, as well as the five core modes of urban transportation – light rail, bus, bike, vehicles, and walking – that are all nearby.
It never ceases to amaze me how much public art there is in Calgary and some of the odd places it is located. This piece is a hidden gem that deserves to have a more prominent location within the development.
More Fun Flaneur Find!
Continuing our walk, we found a few more “little free libraries” as well as some other fun urban artifacts (see photos).
Hidden Gem Find
But the BIG find was Minuet Café in a tiny mid-century strip mall at the corner of Northmount and Charleswood Drives.
Minuet Cafe is at the end of this commercial corner and is hidden by trees and a retaining wall - you can easily miss it.
And after flaneuring for about 90 minutes, we were ready for a coffee! But, once inside, we couldn’t believe our luck. The display counter was full of yummy looking pastries. Who could resist? Not us!
We ordered two Americanos and a plum hollandise tart to share. To our delight the coffee came in large funky cups with coordinated but not matching saucers. We loved the quirkiness!
While we were enjoying our coffee, tart and the soft classical music, the owner/baker came by our table to ask, “how we were enjoying our tart.” This immediately led to the question “What’s with the hollandise in the tarts?” We were surprised when we first arrived that many of the tarts included hollandise (that is his spelling) in the name, which confused us.
He tried to explain to me something about a “3-nut” recipe for a hollandise sauce, but it made no sense to me. A quick Google check found nothing about a Hollandise sauce so perhaps it is his own concoction. No matter we loved our plum tart and continued chatting.
Turns out his name is Shane Hon and he is an European-trained pastry chef who recently moved to Calgary from Toronto where he worked for many years in major hotels.
But with his kids now grown up he wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of TO and create his own café.
He chose Calgary for his café (which specializes in German-influenced handmade cakes and Cochrane to live.
FYI: Minuet means a slow graceful dance, an appropriate name as one of the things we enjoyed was the soft classical music that was very relaxing and refreshing compared to what you hear in many cafes these days. We will definitely be back. And yes we got an apple tart to take home.
Everyday Tourist Tip: If we weren’t walking, we might have got the tart sampler pack – buy 4 tarts get one free!
Last Word
It always surprises me when Calgarians say they are driving out to the mountains for a bit of nature and to get away from the city. For us we can easily get our nature fix in one of the city’s 7,000+ parks and green spaces and enjoy the thrill of our hunt for fun flaneur finds and hidden gems at the same time.
Ahhhh….the joy of being an “everyday tourist.”
Here are some other fun flaneur blogs:
Vancouver Fun Flaneur Finds: Bookstores, Pizza, Hospital, Cafes