Good morning,

Firstly this is my first post and thanks to all posters in the past... I am finding the information invaluable.

We are doing a very quick initial recce of Halifax and Ottawa areas at the end of May. The Halifax quick visit is all sorted with the aid of information found on here, on the other hand we just don't know where to have a look in Ottawa area.

We are not expecting to make any sort of decision following this trip - just get "a feel" for living in the area.

We currently live in Devon so we are not quite country bumpkins but we are certainly not planning to live in a city - however I need access to a city for work.

Can anyone suggest a good suburb/small town/village for us to visit for a day to help us get a feel for the area? We are a family with two children (10 & 8) so schooling is important as is quality of life.

Thanks in advance for all suggestions.

MarkM.

It's a little early in the day but the lazy slobs down in Ottawa will crawl out of bed eventually to give you some answers.

It will help if you can come up with some rather more specific questions. By itself, "quality of life" doesn't mean much. It's too subjective.

Try to focus on things like commuting distance/time, type, size and cost of housing, size of community, access to leisure and shopping amenities etc. We'll be able to help you better then.

Sorry, can't help with any places outside Ottawa but my daughter is at university in Ottawa and lives 'downtown'. I visit for a couple of months at a time. We both love being here, our house is minutes away from the canal and it takes us about 20 mins to walk to the city centre. Ottawa doesn't feel like a big city at all so don't feel you will have to live out of town.

Thanks for the pointer.

Picking up from Souvenir's comment... we are used to living in a small town by the sea and have never lived in a "city". I am quite senior in the IT field, and I will be looking for work in Ottawa itself, so a commutable distance is a requirement. As for leisure, shopping etc we are happy to travel to these things but a local "community feel" would be advantageous where the girls can get involved in guides and the like. Schools are a big consideration with an 8 and a 10 year old. Ideally we will be pushing them to French immersion so a completely French school is not out of the question but not the preference. As for us as parents, OH is a linguist for a Paris company but working from home in the UK and I would probably be working downtown so being on the Qubec side is possible but not ideal.

With regards to houses etc, in an ideal world we would be looking for a 4+ bed house on a large plot and we have been quite surprised at the very close proximity of other houses in most suburban areas. I suppose that they are no closer to each other than in the Uk but here we have fences and hedges. Maybe it is just fear of the unknown and "you don't know what you like if you don't try it"... so we won't rule anything out.

Picking up on Ottawaharvey's point... thankyou, we have never really considered living in the city itself - would be fantastic to be able to cycle (in the summer) to work.

Again any ideas gratefully received.

Hi Mark,

I can speak on my experience on the Burbs out west, we got here 2 and a but years a go and moved to Kanata as work was in the hit tech business park in north Kanata. We had a great time but the house we bought was in an established area and all the kids were 15+, we have now moved 7km down the road to Stittsville to a new house, where all the kids are much younger and the oldest is 12 and lots of young kids. This suits us as our daughter was 2 a few months back.

its been like day and night between the 2 areas regarding interactions with neighbors and kids!

I know a few people that have been down the "big lot" route, if that is what you are after you will have to look outside the new subdivisions to places like Ridgeside farm, for 2 acre plots. There are ups and downs to this too.

PM me if you need more details on areas out west.

We too were shocked by how close these 2500 sqft houses are placed next to each other! In the UK a house of that size would normally be on at at least a 1/4 acre not a postage stamp. I think its just the builders getting more and more greedy, but there is less grass to cut! (the other 1/2 of the year its just covered in snow!)

Another common theme in the expats i know in the area is the being seduced by the property sizes and costs. I was warned about this, fell into the trap ,and hence 2 years later sold our first house and downsized to a house that has space we use.

Cheers

Andy

Living on the dark side has plus and minus points. Houses are cheaper here. Income tax is higher. You will likely be much closer to downtown Ottawa than you would if you lived in the Ottawa burbs. Cycling is big. Real big.

I'm not sure if you simply move straight to the QC side (different system). Your kids would almost certainly have to be educated in French, unless you went private.

Maybe take a look at Aylmer when you are here.

I think Souvenir hit the high points of 819...am I one of those lazy Ottawa slobs who just got out of bed.

Aylmer would be my 1st choice on the dark side with Thurso being near the bottom. Wakefield and Chelsea, QC are very nice and that is where the 'large' plots are. With large plots comes lots of time travelling as nothing is within walking distance and the sprawly nature of the places makes interaction with neigbhours limited.

There are some nice homes with character in Alymer south of rue Principale near the marina. There is even a place called the British Hotel (bit of a dodgy dive though) and a really cheap dep for beer.

My hairdresser lives in Aylmer and raves about it. She has very limited french, but her kids have picked it up easily and they are now tri-lingual (french, english, russian).

Where is Ridgeide Farm..I'm in Bridlewood area of Kanata.

The big lots come with big costs on things such as maintenance and property taxes and your commuting costs. There is no public transit in many of those sprawly sub-divisions.

Has the OP considered Manotick or North Gower for a town within commutable distance that is an actual community. If they want to go 'french' they could try Casselman or Rockland, Ontario...prices would be a lot cheaper than the 'tick' or North Gower but the housing stock sometimes leaves something to be desired.

Ridgeside Farm is another development like Vance farm by Landark, they are north of the business park on March Road, actually quicker to get to the hitech area than from bridlewood. Very nice area and houses but jeeeze you need some money to buy there! A friend bought there and they only turf about 20ft around your house, the rest will cost you $$$$s to get done!

Once you have the 2 acres turfed, I hear a good amount of time is spent cutting it!

We were in Bridlewood for the last 2 years, did like it, just found a better house for us in Stittsville!

Yes, as immigrants in Québec your children have to be educated in French.

However, look out for "alternative" and "international" schools that may have more English.

Alternative schools are a fabulous idea and mix some of the best ideas of Maria Montissori, Frenais etc. They have mixed age groups and are very project focused.

International Schools are for high achievers and are essentially there to push children down a very academic path. Of course there are downsides to that approach.

Private schools in Québec are, I believe, subsidised by the government, so watch out if that is a path that doesn't interest you. If you live in a community with a private school it's bound to draw some of the high achievers out of the state system.

The other thing to be very wary of too in Québec is that the school board (Commission Scolaire) will attribute your child to a school, usually the nearest to your home. If you want to move to another school you'll need a really good justification. Therefore choose your home AND children's school at the same time.

Did it again!

Thanks for the precision!

International Schools and private schools are not for everyone. They suit a certain type of character. Unfortunately say "high pass rate" and many parents will clamour to get their kids into them - even if the child would be better under an alternative approach.

It cracks some kids up and they choose to work in a dépanneur....

You're of course right about the link between parents' achievements and getting kids into a private school - but I would say generally a private school will try to cherry pick first high achievers which will generally remove a large proportion of them from the state system.

That's not to say there are no high achievers in the state system and no low achievers / disruptive elements in the private system.

I'll also making no judgements on this either, just pointing out things the OP should consider.

Thanks everyone, some good ideas here.

M.