Spring flowers and more

Spring is in full swing around here. It's been absolutely gorgeous for the past week, clear blue skies and no rain. Bailey and I are walking more than ever. Clay and I took another walking tour of Vieux Lille (old town) last weekend. It was a repeat of one we've done before but I still learned some new things or remembered things I had forgotten. We also went to a big plant sale, but it was mostly outdoor plants. It was still nice to see, however, and we saw redbuds in bloom being offered for sale, and I think something that was a dogwood tree as well. They must not be native to the area however, because I haven't seen any in the woods on my walks with Bailey. 

Pollen is crazy high and I'm taking a steady dose of two different allergy medications as well as eye drops to control the constant watering of my eyes. The apartment is getting warm on sunny afternoons because the large windows in two rooms face towards the west. We got some room darkening curtains that I think will help. 

We had a surprise call yesterday from the videographer who was with the television production crew who met us upon arrival in France last summer. He was in town working on another job and staying at the motel just down the street from us. We met him for beers yesterday and are having dinner with him this evening. This afternoon we are going to meet someone else (half of another queer couple) who have also relocated to Lille from the US. Clay is very active in several Facebook groups and meets a lot of folks that way. 

It's hard to believe but April first was the beginning of our ninth month here. We have recently submitted paperwork to renew our one year visa for another year. We are leaving on Sunday to spend several days in Paris, the first of what I expect will be many trips there. 

This was my only purchase from the plant sale. It's a Green Man, a mythical figure from Celtic folklore I believe. This one is good sized, made of concrete, and I intend to grow moss on it. I'm not sure where I'll hang it, however. It would look best on a brick wall. 

I'm really impressed by how they maintain and manage the wetland and green spaces around the Citadel. They have even created nesting places for waterfowl in areas that are protected from humans but still near enough to be observable. 

Becoming more French

Back at the end of January I did a post about Bailey "Becoming French." The first of April marked eight months since we arrived and I'm happy to say that we are making some progress toward that goal as well. Clay's language skills continue to improve, which is more than I can say about my own. He has also made strides towards getting us French drivers licenses and will soon begin the process for renewal of our long stay visa. Our plan is to take one out of town trip each month visiting places around France and the rest of Europe. In about another week we are going to Paris for several days. We did a short tour of an observatory at a local university this week and are going to another concert at the opera house this evening. 

We were eligible to apply for coverage under the French health system after three months. Clay did so, of course, but the French bureaucracy is not known for speed. However, we were both recently accepted and I recently received my Carte Vitale in the mail. We've been paying for doctor visits and medications out of pocket, but the costs are so much less than in the U.S. that it's been barely more than we'd have put out for a co-pay back in the states, and often even less. With the coverage evidenced by the Carte Vitale, we will be reimbursed for 70% of the costs in most cases, and we've recently signed up for a "top up" policy that will cover that remaining 30%. It seems not unlike the arrangement of Medicare Parts A & B, plus the Medicare supplemental policy that I had in the U.S. after retirement. However, the top up policy that covers both Clay and me is costing less than I was paying for Medicare Part B and the supplemental Part N that covered me alone. I'm in the process of dropping those policies because it makes no sense to continue paying for them. 

And then there's the food. I've eaten more varieties of cheese in the past eight months than I've had over the course of my entire life. The cheese sections in stores are huge. I've always made quiche but now it's my standard breakfast most every day. Clay picked up our first piece of Le Creuset cookware on an after christmas sale. That's significant because I really mourned the loss of my cast iron dutch oven and the other cookware that we left behind. Our copper All-Clad arrived on the pallet, however, so that and the new Le Creuset have helped me get over that loss. One of the first things I made in it was carbonnade flamande, a Flemish beef stew made with beer. It turned out very well and I'll definitely be making it again.

In other news, spring continues. We had some cooler weather last week but now it's warming up again. Trees are leafing out all over. Bailey and I are walking more than ever and I think she's enjoying it more than ever. 

I make a quiche at least once a week, cut it into 5-6 pieces and have one for breakfast most days.

It's a great size for soups too. 

This is carbonnade flamande in the making.

Harold (or maybe Harriet) the heron. 

Mistletoe seems to be rather common here. Some of these balls looked huge.

The bluebells are wild and they show up randomly throughout the woods on our walks.

Downspouts on an old building.

Bailey likes going to the water's edge but she does not go in, and I'm glad.

Squirrel spotting.

Playing with other dogs on our walk.

Another catch up post

I can't believe we are almost to the end of March already. I need to share some pictures and events before they become too dated.

This is a pair of swans I saw swimming along the Deule canal last week. They were apparently a pair. The one in the picture above was looking left and right, scanning constantly but looking very relaxed and casual. The one in the picture below was looking straight ahead and plowing forward, looking very determined.

The arrival of the pallet

When we were back in Virginia in January we arranged a shipment of a small pallet containing the last of our personal possessions, things we had left there in storage when we moved. That pallet arrived and suddenly we had a lot more things. It was sort of a mixed blessing. Some of the things I was very glad to have, particularly some of my tools and the pictures and artwork we had saved so we now had something to hang on our walls. But some of the stuff had come along simply because I couldn't bear to part with it or because we couldn't figure out what to do with it, so tossing it in a box for the pallet was the easiest thing to do. When I unboxed those few things and put them on a shelf it was kind of depressing to see that that was all I had to show for 60+ years of living. I know that "things" aren't what a life is made of, but still . . .  

I perked up when we started hanging pictures. That had the effect of making the whole place feel more like home. 

These will all be mounted on this big wall.

The final day of filming

The pallet arrived on a Friday and the following Monday we had the final day of filming for the television documentary. (For anyone who doesn't know or forgot, they are creating a documentary about new immigrants to France, featuring four different couples/families. In addition to us, there are people being featured coming from Australia, Japan, and Cuba. Likely air date will be sometime this fall.) They have been here on four prior occasions and for this one they wanted to see how we were settling in. We hosted an apero (French happy hour) and invited a group of Clay's beer friends. They filmed us preparing for the event and filmed the event itself. It was a nice gathering. We are glad that the filming is over.

I didn't take pictures during the event, but here are a couple pictures of the cheese board and other food we served. Ten large bottles of beer were also consumed.

Another night at the opera

We went to a Philip Glass opera, "Les Enfants Terribles." It was weird, but the staging was very creative and we enjoyed going. 

Series Mania

Lille hosts an international event every year where new television shows are premiered. We got tickets and attended three of the English language shows. I liked one very much, another not so much, and I walked out of the third after the first fifteen minutes (too depressing). One of the shows (the second) includes one of the stars from Big Bang Theory (Simon Helberg - a/k/a Howard) and we also went to an interview with him. It's a good event for the city, bringing a good form of attention and I suspect a good amount of cash, and it was interesting to attend. All the events are free. 

Bailey's walks

Bailey and I continue our twice daily walks around the Citadel, but the focus has changed somewhat. We still go by the big field at least once on every walk and we frequently encounter a good number of dogs and people there. However, except for a good run with a whippet a couple weeks ago, Bailey hasn't played with anyone there in several weeks. Instead, she's really enjoying her off-leash time on the wooded trails and that's where we spend most of our time. If we encounter dogs while walking, she will frequently try to engage in play if it's a dog she deems worthy. Some dogs approach her to play and she isn't interested, but if it's the right dog at the right place in the woods, she loves to give it a run. I stopped trying to figure it out, especially since it may all change again next week. 

We have had some cooler weather and a couple of very foggy mornings this week.