Philippe’s Paradise City – Sea, mountains, boats, kites and Asian food

“Can we live in this city?” is a typical question we ask ourselves every time we visit a new country or city. After living in 6 countries and travelling to many places, we have been always “prospecting” a new place to move to or live in. The more we travel and the older we get, the higher our expectations get.

After the 2nd day in Vancouver Philippe and I concluded that this is one of the most livable cities we have visited so far.

The sea, the boats at the Vancouver Bay, the kites (we happened to bump into the Vancouver´s annual kite festival at the Vanier Park) and the very high quality Asian food (even difficult-to-be-impressed Yasuko was happy with Japanese ramen and Chinese dumplings) make Vancouver “little paradise”.

Criteria for our paradise city:

1. The sea and the mountain: Philippe loves the sea and Yasuko the mountains, so the place has to have both to keep both of us happy.
2. Good, affordable Asian food: Vancouver is amazing in this regard!
3. 10 hours away from Switzerland and Japan: reasonably far away (in our standard)
4. Wind for sailing, wind for kite surfing, wind for model airplane slope soaring – did I say wind?
5. An open, modern, multi-cultural society
6. Friendly and laid-back people