Out and about in Lille

I don't have much to say, but I have accumulated quite a few pictures from recent walkabouts in Lille, both with and without Bailey. We are heading to Cologne, Germany on Sunday for a few days to visit their Christmas markets so I needed to offload these pictures before we go. 

This is the belfry in Lille. It was built as a watch tower. You can go up it, but we did not.

The fleur-de-lis is the symbol for Lille, this one is at the mayor's office. 

Fun fact about France, all marriages take place at the local mayor's office. You can have a church ceremony as well, but it's not the official event and it has no validity without the civil event that occurs at the mayor's office. We were just visiting there to see a local arts and crafts sale.

The Porte de Paris

An interesting old house we walked past. See that smallish sign on the wall to the left? Those are found  on registered historical monuments about town.

Back at the Citadel on a sunny day. We are out here walking twice a day, rain or shine. There have been more cloudy days lately but I seem to take more pictures in those rare moments of sunshine. Even when it does rain, it's usually not raining constantly all day long.

This is the home of Charles DeGaulle's grandmother where he was born. The very next day they hustled him off to the church down the street to be baptized. The house was an interesting museum. They owned a factory of some sort nearby but the house was not particularly large or ostentatious. 

This little piece was in one of the bedrooms. We have an identical piece of furniture that we bought at the broderie back in September.

We had some luck finding good play companions for Bailey this week. This dog was fun. He appears to be part greyhound or whippet or something. He was fast and gave Bailey a good run. I'm finding myself trying to figure out the walking schedules of certain dogs so we can encounter them on the playing field. The sun goes down at 4:45 p.m. now so it's tough finding people and dogs to play with in the evenings although one night she ran with a dog in the dark.

A mute swan on the canal.

I'm guessing that this dog may have trouble finding good play partners because he's a big chonky bully-looking boy. He's about Bailey's age and they had a really good run.

I am fascinated by the canal and I love watching canal boats. This was a particular busy morning.

I made a walk to and through the Christmas market last night because I needed more steps to hit my 20K daily goal.

Wet weather walks

We've had a week of cold, wet, cloudy weather and I've been told (warned) to expect this type of weather for much of the winter. I'm not getting as many miles in on our daily walks, but we still get out at least twice a day and Bailey seems satisfied by that. She's not keen on wet weather either, so she's content to wait for it to stop. 

The raincoat I ordered for her was too small so we sent it back and ordered a new one. She's really good about wearing it and has received several compliments from strangers whenever she's worn it. She is also really good about letting me wipe her feet and legs off with a towel when we get back home. It seems that rain is possible or even likely whenever it's cloudy even if rain is not in the forecast so it's best to be prepared. We have seen a bit of sun now and again, however, and we really appreciate it when it happens. Here's a few pictures from this week.

Our friend the grey heron.

On an evening walk.

My new orchid. I'm getting into houseplants for the first time in years.

Sunshine! On a very chilly morning.

That's the big playing field behind her. It was covered in mist and fog this morning.

The cold and wet grass didn't matter when she found a friend who wanted to play.

Another sunny moment crossing one of the pedestrian bridges over the canal.

We had dinner here with a couple of new friends one evening.

I haven't yet tired of this view.

She hopped up onto this stump as if asking me to take her picture.

This morning's walk was our longest in a while and we were both happy to meet this border collie who wanted to run and play.

The dog's owner spoke enough English that we were able to converse.

We both agreed that each other's dog was the best running companion we had found for our own.