Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Further settling in

Nothing big to report, just further settling into our new apartment, city, and life. Today is one of our two anniversaries, this is the "legal" one, 11 years ago at the Fluvanna County Courthouse, but we really date our relationship as 29 years old. We are going out to eat this evening at a place that is out of our normal price range. That's how old folks celebrate. 

We got two rugs delivered today and they look nice. I think we'll be getting a few more from the same company. It's making our apartment looked more lived in. We've also purchased a printer and have a bunch more stuff being delivered from |IKEA on Friday. We've finally worked out an organization system for the closets so we know where to find things. All the suitcases are empty and stored away but we still have a few more things to bring over from the old apartment. We are beginning to get the kitchen stocked and doing a little bit of cooking at home. 

Bailey continues to demonstrably earn and establish her title as the Most Fun Dog at the dog park. Today we walked in and found probably seven dogs just standing around with their owners doing nothing. She had them all running within the first two minutes and everyone had a good time. She's still spooky about city traffic and sounds, but our new place is only four blocks from the park and it's a pretty quiet, low-stress walk to get there, at least most of the time. I take her out early in the morning to poop and pee and then we go out for a long walk and dog park visit in the afternoons when I'm home from class.

We went to an afternoon concert at the opera house this week. It was weird, discordant music and people were laying on mats on the floor throughout (we sat on a long bench on the side of the room). It's something the new opera director is trying and they had a good turnout for it. We went mostly for the experience and to see the inside of the opera house, although we still haven't been in the central theatre part. This was part of a series of concerts they are doing and we have tickets for at least one more. We'll see actual opera there at some point as well.

We went to the Lille Street Food Festival last weekend, lots of food trucks and breweries. It was nice.




She has really been enjoying walks on the long line through some of the open fields in the park.
It gives her the chance to roll in the grass and hunt small creatures like she used to do in our pasture.


A quiet time at the dog park.

Cementing her title as Most Fun Dog.





The kitchen is very small but functional. The refridgerator (on the left) is huge by European standards.

The empty space under the counter is where a dishwasher could/should go, but after buying the refrigerator, washer, and dryer, we decided to wait on a dishwasher.

My only real cooking so far as been breakfast dishes, above and below, and I only have time for that on weekends. 


A few shots from the concert at the opera house this week.
This is a side room, outside the main central theater. 



Those laying on mats on the floor could stare at the ceiling, which was better than the music.

A piano, cello, clarinet, flute, and violin. The group calls itself dissonArt and makes strange sounds on their instruments. 

Bailey, leading the chase

Queen of the hill, and Most Fun Dog



I can't say that she's loving city life, but we are finding ways to make it fun, and she's more attached to me than ever. 

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Proof of (good) citizenship

Bailey has been registered with France and has her own passport already, but yesterday we received another certificate for her — the Canine Good Citizen Certificate. Bailey had taken and passed the test before we left the states. I can confidently state that her good citizen skills have improved during her time here. Initially I was very hesitant and cautious about taking her to the dog park, but she has proven herself to not only a good canine citizen, but also Most Fun Dog. 

A lot of the dogs who come into the dog park don't seem to know how to play. Bailey tries with every one of them but backs off if they aren't interested. The other day we hit upon a good play group and she led five or six of them in a chase around the park. The other owners seemed very happy to see their dogs run and play. A lot of the dogs that come there are puppies and she's good with them too. She still meets new dogs with her hackles up, which I'm not crazy about, but we are seeing less of that and a faster transition into play mode. Yesterday a woman was there with her pup, a five month old long-haired Weimaraner. Bailey got her dog to play and she remarked about what a nice dog Bailey was. That made my day.

Not all of the fun dogs come into the dog park. There is a big open field near the dog park and many folks just let their dogs play there, often off leash. I'm not prepared to go off leash with her but I bought a 20 meter long line and I tried her out there with that attached to a harness. There were no dogs around at that time but she enjoyed being off leash in the open space and rolling in the grass.









Like any proud parents we put her certificate on the mantle over the fireplace.