Moving to France

Hi all and welcome to my new blog. I'm not entirely sure where this one will go or how long it will hold my interest (I stuck with Out of Fellowship for 80+ episodes - an unusually long attention span by my standards). But I thought it would be a good idea to start fresh here as Lolly and I begin our 3-year adventure in Paris.

The trip from San Francisco last Wednesday was a little tough. Lufthansa was on strike in Frankfurt and that tripped off a series of difficulties that resulted in us getting to Paris late and our luggage getting here even later. But our bags were delivered the next day and none too worse for the wear.

The major immediate adjustments include:

1. Seriously ramping up my French skills - I already see improvement in reading and speaking it, but hearing it ... that's another story.
2. Adapting to city life. We live in the center of Paris in Montparnasse. It's a mix of old "postcard" Paris and urban big city Paris. Let's just say that it's not as quiet as the Oakland Hills.
3. Teaching Junior to operate a leash. When I put the leash on him, he looks at me like he's never seen me before and freezes in place. I tried dragging him but he just plants all four feet and and skips along -- as if we had him stuffed by a taxidermist for the purpose of taking him for a scrape around the city. What a loser.
4. Sleep cycles! Ouch.

Here are some photos of our neighborhood ...

This is the building where we live. Our apartment is the one near the top with the balcony.





This is the street on one side of our apartment:



This is the scene that greeted us as we left our apartment in search of wifi this afternoon; some type of French Critical Mass: