CHEMIN

I popped over for a short trip to Paris recently to catch up with my mother (who regularly visits France to see her family). As opportunities to catch up with either of my parents are rare these days, I booked us a lovely room in my favourite part of Paris; Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter.

IT'S ALWAYS SUMMER IN PROVENCE

I recently went on a short trip to Vergeze, a small sleepy village in the South of France. Time to shed the heavy coats and get a welcome respite from the northern cold snap.

FORET

Fly agaric toadstool

During my most recent visit back to France, I took the hound for an autumnal wander in the forests of Saint Amand les Eaux (Parc Naturel Régional Scarpe-Escaut). Decent forests are pretty few and far between in the north so it was a nice change to get out and about in a woodland. Lots of mushroom and toadstools on display, so I tried my hand at a little microcosm style photography.

STORMS OVER CALAIS

I've never been a fan of the industrial town of Calais, in Northern France. It serves as a port to get to and from the UK but I haven't yet found any other reasons to visit. However, I do think their belfry is one of the nicest in Flanders. Snapped this shot on my way back from my interview over in Kent - it had been a totally manic and rushed day full of crucial transport connections and stumbling around unknown territory. I took a moment out before heading on the train home to breathe in and look behind me, and was treated to a lovely bit of stormy dark-light.

I'll soon be heading over the sleeve myself as I did get a job offer following this interview...they were even happy to hold the position for me until I'm back from my trip to Australia! More changes afoot...

CANAL

water! the horrors!

One of the advantages of having a brand spanking new puppy to try and keep trained and/or exhausted is getting to know some local scenery. I walk down by this canal near our apartment a lot, and the enclosed pathway has been very useful for teaching the pooch a bit of off-leash training and recall. It's quite a pretty walk and great for keeping watch on the unfolding spring season...and I imagine that without the persistent prod of a pooch that wants some outdoors time, I would never even have found out about it.

EVEN MY DOG HAS A CHIROPRACTOR

I've never had a dog before. In fact, I've only very sporadically had cats and have never had the occasion to take any of them to the vet. However, being as I am a newly responsible, mature and adult dog owner (read 'wallet on legs') I have had a couple of recent visits for booster shots and the like. This last visit came with a singularly bizarre witch doctory chiropractic session where my fairly confused and generally overexcited dog was treated to some reiki style micro manipulations from the local vet who, as far as I could tell, appeared to be casting out localised stresses with dramatic flourishes of her wrist.

Oh well, he's no more or less insane than usual.

CHAMPAGNE-ARDENNES

During the Easter break we bundled up the puppy for a short trip to the nearby region of Champagne-Ardennes in north-eastern France. Still a bit on the damp and nippy side, it was nevertheless a great couple of days away and the pup behaved surprisingly well (helped along by many hours of running through forests...but not crossing tiny streams...absolutely not. Not even rivulets....tell me again how spaniels are meant to like water??)

EASTER AT MEERT

The pricey but exquisitely turn of the century chocolate, pastry and tearoom known as Meert is the jewel in the Vieux Lille crown. However, aside from popping in for the occasional packet of old style syrup filled waffles (gaufres), it's not an experience I can readily afford. But window shopping is free...(and they're pretty chill about letting you take photos).

SOCIALITE

It appears that owning a dog in France is like obtaining an open pass to converse with any and all strangers you meet on the street. Whether you want to or not...you have little choice in the matter. While his little cocker eyes don't fool me for a second (well, apart from that bit that saw me forking over a bunch of cash to buy him), they seem to work wonders on all passers by that either have a dog, had a dog, want a dog or are quite simply insane. Being, as we are, in France, this figure is somewhere around the 98% mark.

NORTHERN BRICKS

Even when we're new to a place, it's often the case that we'll go from active observer to passive viewer very quickly. And usually the more common a feature is, the less likely we are to really see it.

Here in northern France, brick architecture reigns supreme. We're drowning in them, from red brick buildings to cobblestone streets, the streets of northern French towns are a pixelated tapestry of squares and mortar. Squint your eyes a little and it all blends into one homogenous mass of baked earth blocks.

GRANDE ARCHE DE LA DEFENSE

Designed by Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen

RETRACING OLD STEPS

It was my first time back in Paris since leaving definitively about a year ago. Whereas once I was cynical enough to be rolling my eyes at the enchanted tourists, I was myself finally able to appreciate it again for the city that it can be. The edges of bad memories of being pushed and shoved about in the metro softened by observing people actually being courteous, by not riding the peak hour lines or times, by not having to be anywhere at a particular time (except for the train station Anne, except for the train station...)

THE HUNCHBACKED CAT AND THE BLUE SHEEP

The hunchbacked cat

Rue des Deux Epees (Two Sword Street), Rues des Chats-Bossus (Hunchbacked Cats Road), Place des Oignons (Onion Place), Rue du Bleu Mouton (Blue Sheep Road)...if there's one thing you can say about Lille, it's that the street names and architecture will give you no end of distraction. The end of a small era is drawing to a close - that of my first experience living in the dead centre of a city (I've only lived rurally or in the nearby suburbs of a city before) and it has been fantastic - especially as a cyclist/pedestrian.

BRADERIE

It's all action in Lille at the moment as this weekend welcomed the nationally famous 'Braderie de Lille' (where the city basically transforms itself into a giant open air flea market). It takes place every September and about 2 million people show up and expect to be fed.

LILLE 3000

October kicks off the anticipated 'Lille 3000' festival. A new biannual cultural festival starting this year, sort of like a fringe festival, but with a cultural theme. This years theme is Bollywood, and for the last couple of weeks, 12 of these 8 m high elephants have been greeting me every morning on my way to work. It's been surreal. It's been beautiful. Mostly I've just been wondering why all cities can't have these kinds of features everywhere, all the time.

ART AND INDUSTRY

Once a municipal pool done in extravagant art-deco style, the 'piscine de Roubaix' has since been transformed into a museum although has kept many of the interior features of its former incarnation. I've been meaning to visit this spot for ages - a stunning must-do of Lille tourism tucked away unexpectedly in one of the city's less interesting suburbs. In much the same way as we all don't get around to visiting cool local stuff until we have a guest (why is that?) I took my mother here on her most recent trip over.

SCENES FROM THE GRANDE PLACE

I live a short hop, skip and jump from the dead centre of Lille, and its gorgeous 'grand place'. Every summer it's closed off to cars and becomes a pedestrian only zone. One of my favourite things about this city is the architectural mashup; baroque, art nouveau, art deco, medieval and modern. Most buildings are something worth looking looking at (including the one I live in, even if it is likely to be in breach of building health codes).

THE ACCIDENTAL MARATHON

Some shots from that 'accidental' 50 round trip cycle around the Baie de Somme, including the Parc de Marquenterre

SUMMER MELT

wtf?
Originally uploaded by Nyx.

Hats for Dogs

Hello digital internauts! Been a while, but my lazy ass bone has been playing up again.

So, y'know, it's been hot. And if it's not the heatwave, the hezbollah or Zidane's headbutt it's not news. And heat means a couple of major changes here in France - first is the transformation of old people into sort of geriatric houseplants (have you misted Madame Tartempion yet this morning?), the second being the bone melting epidemic amongst small dogs transforming them into a canine rag mutts.

This weekend past was July the 14th, which, like most historical celebrations in any society around the world, means a chance to drink more alcohol. I went to some northern beaches in the pas de calais region, soaked up the faux tudor and tacky souvenir shops, watched dogs get carried and witnessed some nightmarish toddlers face meets chocolate icecream incidents.

HOUSEWARMINGS

Current view of our internal courtyard - it's coming along gradually, and has finally evolved slightly beyond the the three primary colours of moss, putty and cement by some orange marigolds and an ornamental kumquat given to us as a housewarming present. Crossing fingers that it doesn't turn up its leaves and die within the first month (considering my criminal track record with nursery plants that are any older than 6 months and retail for anything over 20 euros  - just ask my recently departed ficus). It's only because they load them up with chemicals and grow them in perfect hermetically sealed greenhouses (i.e. their 'ideal growing environment' or some such rubbish), so that the minute you put them into the real growing world (where they might get too over or under enthusiastically watered, the pollution diluted stuff filtering through the dirty window doesn't actually count as light, and there's dust clogging up their stomatas), they just go and die ungratefully on you.