Thousand Islands, Ontario

Stretching from Kingston to Mallorytown Landing, this pretty region contains 1800 islands dotting the St Lawrence River between the US and Canada.  The islands are individually owned and have houses of various scales of grandiosity on them.  Some of the grand summer mansions stand as monuments to the lavish lifestyles of wealthy tycoons who popularised the resort area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

We did a one hour cruise and took countless photos of islands big and small.

Possibly the smallest inhabited island.

Definitely the smallest international bridge in the world.  The bigger island is in Canada and the smaller one is in the US.

Somehow the smaller islands are more interesting than the big ones with the mansions.  Building a house on a small partially submerged piece of land is infinitely more tantalising than building a grand mansion

But this grand mansion back on the mainland in Brockville on the way to Kingston is worth mentioning.  The former house of Senator George T. Fulford is a late 19th century Edwardian mansion once again demonstrating how the rich lived.  But once again, we were there on the wrong day.  Tours inside are available every day of the week except Mondays.

This Italianite house in Kingston was for 13 months  in 1848 the home of the former PM of Canada Sir John McDonald.  We did tour it inside.  The architecture is unusual and exceptional and it is a lovely house but quite dark inside.