Still standing

A few people have contacted me recently because it's been a month since my last blog post. That's the longest I've gone without posting anything since I started this blog in 2008. First, all is well. No problems here. We've recently sailed past the ten month mark and will soon be looking at our first anniversary as French residents. 

There's a few reasons I haven't been posting. A few weeks ago we took a short trip to the Loire valley and visited a lot of chateaux. It was great and I came back with a LOT of pictures, so many that sitting down and organizing them proved to be a task too daunting and time-consuming for this retiree. So they have sat but I didn't post anything else because I thought I should get to them first. The second reason, I guess, is that I haven't really had anything to write about or anything different to post. Bailey and I walk twice a day, every day, but always the same place. She doesn't mind that and I really don't either, but there's not much variety in our routine and a lot of sameness in my pictures. 

We do keep fairly busy, however, and have been doing a deep dive in the French medical system (no problems, just getting set up with new doctors and routine exams and tests  appropriate for our age). Lille's gay pride event was at the end of May before Pride month even started. We've been to a few concerts at the opera, taken another history walk in another part of town, and gone on a couple of excursions by bus to points along the Deule. Spring still feels like spring. We had a few uncomfortably warm days but nothing like the temps I've seen and heard about back in Kansas and Virginia. The thing I really love about living at a higher latitude is the long days; sunset isn't until 10:00 p.m. and we are still a couple weeks away from summer Solstice. 

I will get around to posting the chateau pics from the Loire valley, but for now, here's some of the sameness that we've been enjoying. 

Looks like a lilac, but they are done blooming. This is something else.

Our turtle friends. We see them quite often on this spot.

I don't know how long poppy season lasts, but I hope it's all summer.

The Napoleon bridge after dark. 

At the Pride event.

We heard that the Pride parade was more political this year.

But, when has Pride NOT been political? Maybe some day.

On a wall on a street in Lille.

The local gay bar.

A stuffed duck at the brewery at the end of our street.

More springtime in Lille with Bailey

Spring marches on. The days are still getting longer. Sunset this evening is at 9:20 p.m. We went out at 10:00 p.m. last night and still wasn't completely dark. I've been pushing Bailey's second walk to later and later in the evening when the crowds are gone so she's more comfortable. Yesterday I did my longest bike ride to date, about 25 km or more. Between the walks and occasional bike rides my step count has been averaging about 25k per day for the past couple of weeks, and yet, I'm not losing weight, which annoys me. 

Clay received his French driver's license in the mail yesterday. France has an exchange program with certain U.S. states, which include Virginia, so no test was required. Mine is still somewhere in the bowels of French bureaucracy, but it was submitted after Clay's, so we aren't yet worried. We are going to Tours next week, where we will rent a car and spend a few days touring chateaux in the Loire valley. Bailey will be going out to her camp while we're away. 

We went to an afternoon concert of music by Bach and Beethoven played on a pianoforte. We are seeing The Magic Flute at the opera the night before we leave on the trip to Tours. Friday was another holiday here, Victorie, celebrating the end of WWII. We were lucky enough to catch part of a wreath laying ceremony at the war memorial just a couple blocks from our place. 

The buttercups are still beautiful and there are more poppies coming out every day, as well as that beautiful, wild-growing, yellow iris along the canals. And the water lilies are beginning to bloom!

From our walks:

From the concert:

The instrument

The venue

The program

More from our walks:

From a mid-day walk around some of the community gardens in town.

Peonies in someone's garden plot.

One of these signs addresses protection of hedgehogs in the gardens.

From the Victoire 1945 ceremony:

And from this morning's walk:

There's more of this iris in bloom each time we walk by.

Hard to photograph, but these are clusters of pink and white flowers growing from cracks in the stones above the water and cascading downward. 

Clay read something yesterday that said that Napoleon Bridge was the only covered pedestrian bridge in France. It is in the park around the Citadel. 

Waterlilies beginning to bloom

More of those pink and white wildflowers

Bailey is very content to sit with me for a while when I want to rest. 

She tells me it's time to go when she gets bored.

And just for fun:

My U.S. friends might want to save this for the upcoming Fourth of July.

One of France's contributions to science, and democracy.