(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

For today’s post, I’ve collected some unused photos from Lyon, France…and some closing thoughts on that trip.

A couple of months ago, I explained the reason for my trip to southern France. In a nutshell, I was hoping to qualify as Switzerland’s representative in a couple of international lawn bowling competitions. I’m happy to report that the trip was very successful in that regard. And it has some exciting travel implications too!

I’ll be playing in the European Championships in Llandrindod Wells, Wales, in September 2026. And I will also be playing in the Champion of Champions Singles event in Barham, Australia, in later 2026. I can’t wait to go!

And that leads more broadly to the key “learnings” from this trip. Once again, pursuing one of my interests took me to an almost random place in the world. I certainly had never heard of Largentière before. While I obviously had to focus on my bowling competitions while there, I also found myself in places that I otherwise would never have visited. In those places, I saw fascinating things…and ate fascinating food too!

As much as I have pursued “bucket lists” in the past, I am becoming more convinced that random destinations are equally satisfying. I first tried this approach in 2014 when I decided to take my next trip to the place with the best seat sale. That ended up being Ireland, and it was a wonderful trip. I had a lot of fun preparing a detailed itinerary in a very short period of time.

Going somewhere unexpected doesn’t carry the burden of unrealistic expectations. Would I ever be disappointed if I went to Denmark solely for the “Little Mermaid”…what an underwhelming sight that turned out to be! Actually, Denmark was another destination that was picked somewhat randomly (in an attempt to use up frequent flyer points), and turned out to be a lot of fun too. I certainly never expected that I would collaborate with Yoko Ono while I was there.

So, if you have any suggestions about great things to see and do in Southern Wales, or near Barham, Australia (a few hundred kilometres north of Melbourne), drop me a line. I’ll be visiting those places next year and I’m sure each one has something truly special to offer.

This is the last post relating to my 2025 trip to France. I’ve really enjoyed sharing all of those stories on this blog. But I’ve been travelling around Ontario (and, briefly, Quebec) for the past couple of months, so I will have some more local content coming soon!