Other things

Life here is not all dog walks and drinking beer, as nice as that sounds. Here's a few other things we've been up to:

• Apartment hunting. Clay is online a lot looking at various realtors' sites in search of a place to rent near where we are currently staying. We are going to look at another place today.
• Language exchanges. We've been to three different events since we've been here with a mixture of foreigners and French natives. They are partly social gatherings and partly an opportunity to practice language skills, English or French. They all have have a slightly different format and focus, but what they all have in common is that we've met a lot of nice and interesting people.
• Physical therapy. I'm seeing a therapist twice a week as I was doing back in the states, working on rehab of my right shoulder rotator cuff. The approach is slightly different from what I was getting at Ivy Rehab. It's more "hands on," shorter sessions, and a lot less expensive which is good because I'm now paying for it out of pocket.
• More filming. The film crew came from Paris again yesterday to record some aspects of our daily life in Lille, including a trip to open a local back account. That's a big deal because we need it in order to get a phone and we need both a bank account and a phone to get taken serious by realtors in our apartment search. Not all banks are welcoming to foreigners. 
• Concerts. We've been to several local classical music concerts. There's a music conservatory in Lille with a wonderful performance space where we saw a violinist and pianist last week. The cathedral holds free concerts Saturday evenings.
• Shopping. We hit various local markets at least a couple times each week for fresh fruit and vegetables. The small, local grocery stores don't have much selection of that because most people shop at the markets. There's a lot more available at them as well, but we're mainly hitting them for fresh produce now.
• Cooking. The film crew guy showed me how to use the oven yesterday so I can finally start cooking something besides eggs in a frying pan. I've been saving up a lot of recipes I want to start trying out.
• Museums. We've hit two local museums after purchasing a year long couples pass that gets us in for free. That's nice because we don't feel that we need to try to see everything in a single visit. We can, and will, go back from time to time. We went to the Beaux Arts museum just to see an exhibit of 16th century Flemish paints featuring festivals, such as the Braderie, a local tradition dating back to that time that has now grown to being the largest flea market in Europe. It is coming up the first weekend in September.
• Learning French. I can't claim that I'm doing much, but we went to see the location of the class that I'm enrolled in starting 8 September. It will be three hours per day, five days a week for eight weeks. 
• Medical. Clay ventured into the medical world of France this week with a visit to an ophthalmologist. He found the doctor and made the appointment online. He had a very thorough exam and then talked to an English speaking doctor who had practiced in Miami. As with my therapy, we were paying out of pocket but the cost was so much less than it would have been in the U.S. 

That's all that comes to mind at the moment. We are staying busy and enjoying ourselves.

My first breakfast creation since learning to work the oven.

The conservatory's concert hall.

Bailey having a roll in the grass.

Gare Lille Flandres  (the train station for local/regional trains)

Gare Lille Europe (the train station for the high speed international trains).

There is also a big shopping mall located here.

Both train stations are nearby and next to one another. The local metro system is also in the same area.

Interesting things in the woods

There are three main tracks around the Citadel that are paved. Well one of them is a crushed gravel track but it's essentially paved. There are also myriad trails through the woods that intersect the main routes and each other. They often bring about happy surprises.

This is a very creative use of fallen logs. It's shaped like a giant turtle with some big logs carved to look like the head and legs, and a large mound of forest debris forming the shell. This has been around for a while and the "shell" is actually beginning to cave in from the decay of the material used to form it.

This is a better view of the head especially.

The outermost path runs along the canal, which is still fairly active. 

I see canal boats on it most days.

This is a massive Cooper Beech tree.

They have constructed a circle of large logs around it.

There are a lot of mushrooms of some sort sprouting out from the roots all around the tree.

More mushrooms on a dead but still standing tree.

This is another whimsical use of a downed tree and decaying wood, this one shaped like a crocodile. 

There's a large open area that apparently was used as an informal and impromptu party place at one time. There are apple trees planted on part of it now and I saw probably a dozen of these pretty green birds.

They appear to be tropical birds, some sort of parrots, that escaped and have established a colony.

We saw them in London also and I've heard that there are many in Paris as well.

This is in the dog park but I see these throughout the woods in other parts of the Citadel as well. Two upright posts with smaller branches laid horizontally between them. They some a sort of fence or wall that decays and naturalizes over time.

This is the pile of stones that Bailey is standing on in the first picture at the top of this post. If you look at the flared bottom of the stone in front you can tell they are slices of columns from some old structure. They are great for Bailey's "ups."

A mallard above, a coot below.

There are lots of exercise or workout stations along the trails. These are great jumps for Bailey.

Some storks at the Citadel zoo. I haven't visited it yet, but some of it is visible from the trails.

A Great Blue Heron on the canal. They have built floating surfaces in some places for wildlife to use.

Here's another one of those fence/wall structures. I think there's a name for these but I don't know it.

Heron in the top of a tree along the canal.

There's a lot of large logs that Bailey will jump up on and walk along. There is also a lot of water, fragments of old canals. Some of them are open for dogs to swim in, but Bailey is not a water dog.

Loose strife and cattails are a very pretty combination.

Dog park, city gates, etc.

Bailey and I have been hitting the dog park in the Citadel every day, at least once. We don't stay long but she's met several dogs and has had no problems. We've been doing a LOT of walking, averaging over 20,000 steps per day since we arrived. I am sleeping better than I have in years and I hope I'll be losing some weight. 

This big log in the dog park has a tunnel carved through it, so she has the option of doing "up" or "through." She's doing well with both commands.

She enjoys some off-leash time even if no one else is there.

We see the sheep cutting the grass every day.

The livestock guardian dog (that lump in the grass) seems to have a pretty easy job.

Some of the local wildflowers are familiar.

There are three of the old city gates still standing. I would argue that really there are only two because the Paris gate is a reconstruction built for a visit by Louis XIV. The two older gates are in our neighborhood, the Porte de Roubaix (the road to Roubaix) and the Porte de Gand (the road to Ghent in Belgium). I visited both in the last two days walking with Bailey, and today with Clay as well.

Porte de Roubaix (from the outside)

The view from inside the city.

Porte de Gand (from outside the city gate)

From the city side. There seems to be a restaurant on the top.

From outside the city walls.

The routine we seem to be establishing is to have breakfast in the morning and then I take Bailey out for a long walk, 5-6 miles or so at the Citadel. We usually do a shorter walk in the evening, and occasional pee breaks during the day depending on what we are doing. There are two dog-friendly grassy places very nearby for quick walks.

Bailey this evening at the Belgian Beer Project, where we stopped after the walk up to the Port du Gand. 

Clay was with us on the evening walk and she seemed very happy to have us all together.