SAMOËNS, FRANCE - A snowy Tuesday night and, as usual, it’s standing room only inside Covey’s, a small Irish pub deep in the heart of the French Alps. It’s quiz night. But this isn’t your typical après-ski crowd.

PARIS – Visit Paris’ Left Bank and you’ll expect to see iconic names like Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots and Brasserie Lipp. Monickers such as The Moose, The Great Canadian Pub and (on nearby Ile St. Louis) The Beaver, however, may seem a bit out of place.

LONDON - Australian friends were coming for the weekend and my wife was busily planning the itinerary: “I thought we’d go to the Changing of the Guard in the morning, then walk back to Trafalgar and go to the National Portrait Gallery. Then over to Harrods, and maybe finish up on Oxford Street for a little shopping. That okay with you?”