Melora Koepke

A comprehensive online guide to Montreal written for National Geographic Traveller’s Places of a Lifetime franchise: “Je me souviens” (I remember) is Quebec’s provincial motto, and history is present everywhere in Montreal, a city teeming with architecture and culture from the past three centuries. Canada’s second largest, third oldest, and most cosmopolitan city is also a […]

Almost Grown: Paul Merrick, whose firm is one of several designing Vancouver’s Olympic Village, thinks his beloved city is finally outgrowing its architectural adolescence. If cities are like human bodies, as Paul Merrick says, then West Vancouver is the city’s long left arm thrown out into Burrard Inlet. Marine Drive, the road that hugs much […]

New York’s master of pork buns visits Montreal to hawk cookbook, Banh mi By the time I get to meet David Chang, the interview has been put off twice because of what a good time he’s having in Montreal. Chang, whose four Manhattan restaurants – Momofuku, Ssäm Bar, Milk Bar and the new-ish, two-Michelin-starred Ko […]

All Sex Workers want for Christmas is a Charter Challenge, etc Why is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Émilie Laliberté’s Christmas wish list? Our cover model is a sex worker and spokeswoman for Stella, Montreal’s community organization by and for sex workers. There is still a long way to go before sex workers […]

I’ve been missing Mexico lately, maybe it’s the winter in the air in Montreal. Here’s an article about museums in the D.F. I wrote for onAir, Air Canada’s newsletter. A few stolen moments contemplating Rivera’s splendid four-part Carnaval de la Vida Mexicana – a riot of colour and emotion that stretches across a north wall […]

Five stops on my crustacean vacation in Sydney, written for onAir, Air Canada’s monthly newsletter. 1. To get myself in an aquatic frame of mind, I start by heading to the venerable Sydney Fish Market, the city’s source for all things fishy since 1945. It’s also the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere and […]

Francis Ford Coppola’s most famous scenes may be set in New York, but he’s been a Californian since his days at UCLA. In 1972, when he started work on The Godfather, the director set up operations on Kearny Street in San Francisco’s North Beach neighbourhood. An acclaimed vintner and hotelier, Coppola also finds the time […]