Early in 2025 when Jon said to me “I’d like to go to Paris” I was a little surprised, not because either of us has anything against the City of Lights, but because he was actually referring to Paris, Ontario. We have traveled through Paris on the train on our trips to visit friends and family, but I had never thought of it as a destination in itself and quickly laughed it off. Not long after, I realized we should think about planning our 2025 vacations. We already had a Rocky Mountaineer trip scheduled with my family in April so we considered doing something close to home for a summer vacation. I did some research but everything I came up with was something we had already done before or seemed too difficult to manage transportation-wise, as I don’t like spending long periods in transit. Fate stepped in and I got a notification that ZZ Top was touring in our area. There were dates in Toronto in a venue far from downtown, in Windsor where my sister lives and in Hamilton. Last year on our hiking trip we cut some of our Hamilton hiking short due to rain and fatigue, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to visit the trails we missed last summer. As Jon and I started planning routes we discovered there is a trail from Hamilton to Brantford to Cambridge, and that trail passes right through Paris! Jon’s dream could become a reality and it was all thanks to ZZ Top!
As we looked into the trails we were happy to see that they were easy and did not require us to walk on busy roads much in order to make stops in the towns along the way. We planned our route and our stops based on our desire to not have to walk too much in any given day (this is leisure for us, not punishment!) and decided we would stay in Hamilton for 2 days, Ancaster for 1 day, Copetown for 2 days, Brantford for 2 days, Paris for 1 day and finally, Cambridge for 2 days. In Cambridge we would stay at Langdon Hall, a resort that has an acclaimed restaurant that we had wanted to try for years. We felt it would be a relaxing and luxurious way to spend the last days of our trip after over a week of hiking.
Once the accommodations were booked we went about our usual research on restaurants and made reservations. We even snagged a spot at a BBQ that was scheduled at Langdon Hall on June 30 and were happy that the timing worked out so that we could experience their Grand Tasting our first night and the BBQ the second. We were very happy with the plan and waited for June 21 to arrive but when it finally did and we were experiencing the first massive heat wave of the summer, we were a little concerned that our entire trip would be ruined. Luckily we always have backup plans!
On June 21 we didn’t have any plans to do any hiking anyway as we were traveling to Hamilton and focusing more on eating, drinking and watching baseball that day. We took the GO Train to Harbour West station in Hamilton and walked from there to our hotel. On our way to the hotel we passed an Italian street festival and made a mental note of its location so we could return later in the day.


After dropping off our heavy bags we realized we were hungry and even though it was only 1:00 and our lunch reservation at Berkeley North was at 2:00, we decided to try our luck at getting in early. The restaurant wasn’t super busy and we were seated right away. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos at Berkeley North, but I can report that everything we ordered (mushroom dumplings, teriyaki eggplant, BN salad, club sandwich with fries, matcha cheesecake) was delicious, the service was excellent, and we would highly recommend it if you are in Hamilton!
After lunch it was time for the Blue Jays game so we set out looking for a bar to watch it in. We made our way to Hess Village, an area that we used to go out frequently when we still had friends in university in Hamilton (throwback!) Hess is still a fun, bar-lined street but we didn’t see anywhere that looked like it had a television so we continued our search.

We found a bar called Odds that looked promising, alas they were closed for a private event. We moved on to a pub called the Pheasant Plucker and it had everything we were looking for: a TV with the Jays game on and cold beer. We settled in and watched the Blue Jays win against the White Sox while having a pint of local Fairweather beer. A great way to spend a very hot afternoon!
Next we made our way back to the Italian Heritage Festival where a band was setting up to perform. We had another Fairweather beer and listened to the band until it was time to head to our dinner reservation at Maisy’s Pearl restaurant. Maisy’s Pearl was recommended to us by a friend some time ago and we made note since we are pretty big fans of oysters. Our dinner at Maisy’s Pearl was a highlight of the trip thanks to amazing food, a laid-back atmosphere, great wine and excellent staff. We had a chat with the bartender and oyster shucker about our hiking plans and they had great recommendations for us which we baked into our plan.

After dinner we walked back to our hotel and turned in for the night. The next day we would do a day hike near the Devil’s Punch Bowl and attend the ZZ Top concert that sparked the idea for the trip!