Susanne After my historic train travel experience on the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield Steam Train I decided to explore the surrounding neighbourhood. The Casino du Lac Leamy, located in Gatineau on the other side of the Ottawa River, is less than five minutes away from the train station and is one of the official locations for Ottawa’s famous Tulip Festival and this year, it is the main location for the World Flower Summit that is being held in Ottawa.
The Casino de Lac Leamy is right next to the five-star Hilton Lac-Leamy Hotel, which offers an urban resort experience 10 minutes from downtown Ottawa on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. The hotel itself features 349 rooms, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a luxurious spa with 17 treatment rooms, a fitness centre and a game room, a variety of meeting rooms as well as a restaurant with an outdoor patio. A conference centre, 24-hour room service, a cigar lounge and a number of boutiques round out the services at the Hilton Lac-Leamy Hotel. The city of Gatineau is the center of Quebec’s Outaouais travel region and offers quick access to a variety of urban and nature experiences in the immediate vicinity.
The Hilton Hotel and the Casino de Lac Leamy
The Casino du Lac-Leamy is a regular official component of various Ottawa festivities, and this year again it is an official location of Ottawa’s Tulip Festival. Even more special is that this year Ottawa is hosting the 23rd World Flower Summit. This international event is organized by the World Flower Council, an organization dedicated since 1983 to furthering the cause of world peace through the beauty of flowers and the sharing of knowledge among those who have chosen the floral industry as their profession.
The Casino, fully decked out in tulips
Juzaburo Sekiye, the founder of this organization and a citizen of Japan, had a dream of furthering the cause of world peace through sharing a love and knowledge of flowers…”making a flower the symbol of peace and culture without regard to country boundaries.” His dream became reality in 1983 with the first summit meeting of the Pan Pacific Flower Culture Conference in Gifu, Japan. The conference was later renamed The World Flower Council, and has since enjoyed continuous growth. Since 1983, WFC meetings have been held in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, the United States, the Philippines, Latvia, and Indonesia.
A floral beauty
