Paris 2018

Jess was invited to present a workshop at a conference in Paris in November and as the dates lined up perfectly with my school reading week, and thanks to Shae's willingness to watch the kids and the puppy, I was able to go to Paris with him! It was the first time in Paris for both of us and we only had three days together so we crammed as much in as we could.

We stayed in an Airbnb flat on the seventh floor of an old stone townhouse in a neighbourhood quite close to the Eiffel tower. It had no elevator though so it was a tough climb at the end of a day full of walking!

Jess took this photo looking up from the bottom of the staircase.

On our first day, we were pretty tired from the overnight cross-Atlantic flight so we just explored the Eiffel tower neighbourhood for a while. It was a chilly, foggy day but our timing was actually pretty good: we arrived a week after a bunch of world leaders had gathered in Paris to mark the 100-year anniversary of the end of WWI, and we left just before the city erupted in "yellow vest" protests.

The next day, we decided to visit the Musee de l'Orangerie, a small art gallery near the Louvre since we didn't feel like we had time to go inside the Louvre but still wanted to see French art.

The Musee de l'Orangerie is also next to the Place de la Concorde, which is the place depicted in a large painting hanging in our living room. It is the place where many important historical events have happened, including the execution of Marie Antoinette. We wanted to try and take a picture of ourselves standing in the same place the painter would have stood when he/she made the painting. Apparently a lot has changed in the decades since it was painted though because we would have had to stand in the middle of several lanes of traffic to get the same perspective. These photos are the closest we could get. I hadn't realized that you can see a perfect view of the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe from the Place de la Concorde so that was cool to experience a full view of the place.

We walked by the Louvre (it's so huge!) and then walked along the Seine to the Notre Dame cathedral on the Ile de Paris.

We arrived too late to climb up to the top but we did get to go inside.

We had one more stop before our day was done: there is a yarn shop I knew of that is famous for its beautiful hand-dyed yarn so we took the subway to La Bien Aimee so I could pick out some yarn to bring home with me.

On our last day there together, we finally got a sunny day. We started out by heading to Notre Dame so we could climb to the top of one of the towers.

First, the dreaded seven flights of stairs:

With the stairs at our flat and the stairs at Notre Dame, we definitely had our fill of stairs that day! After the cathedral, we headed to the Catacombs but arrived too late. So instead, we wandered around the Cimitiere de Montparnasse, the burial place of many French artists including Guy de Maupassant, Baudeliere, Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoire.

After that, we went to a park (Jardin du Luxumbourg) where I would have loved to sit (and rest my feet!) for hours but strangely, it closes at 5 pm so we had to leave shortly after we arrived. Though we did happen across the miniature model used in the construction of the Statue of Liberty so that was cool to see.

This isn't the apartment building we stayed in but it looks nearly identical. We saw many similar building all across the city.

We passed by the ruins of ancient Roman baths on our way back to the Ile de Paris for supper.

After eating at a charming restaurant near Notre Dame, we capped off our trip with a nighttime boat cruise on the Seine. The boat took us from the Ile de Paris over to the Eiffel Tower and back. All of the buildings along the river are lit up so the city really lives up to its nickname as the City of Lights. We had no idea that the tour was timed to take us past the Eiffel Tower at the exact moment the lights get turned on to "sparkle mode". It was a fun surprise.

Back at our "home" metro station at the end of a long day:

I headed home the next morning and Jess stayed for a few more days to do his workshop before coming home too.

He had a bit of spare time and went to the Catacombs and back to the Eiffel Tower for more photos.

Puppy Update

Raising a puppy has been a big challenge. Our cute little labradoodle is full of energy and mischief. She's sweet and friendly and we all adore her but she isn't the most obedient. She's an escape artist who loves to explore and thinks it's hilarious if you try and call her back or even chase her. Her favourite game is figuring out a new way to escape the backyard and run off down the street. There are a lot of coyotes in our neighbourhood so we always keep a close eye on her and definitely don't trust her off leash yet.

Her house training is finally complete (knock on wood) and we've successfully trained her to knock a bell hanging from the back door with her nose whenever she wants to go out. That actually took a long time because she's a very timid dog and was scared of the bell for the longest time. Now she loves to ring the bell, whether or not she needs to go to the bathroom because she knows it means we'll let her out on her rope. She loves to wield the power of her bell.

She's also a lot better at bite inhibition than when we first got her. She doesn't bite anymore except gently in play. Especially with Hudson. She loves to bite his clothes and pull on him when he wrestles with her. I'm pretty sure she thinks Hudson is just a funny looking puppy because he plays with her just like a fellow puppy.

We also got a surprise when we took her to the vet to get spayed, as we found out she doesn't actually have female reproductive organs. It looks like she's intersex and probably has male chromosomes but never developed external male organs. So we decided to keep referring to her as a she since she still looks like a she.

She can't really be trusted unsupervised around the house yet but she's getting way better than she used to be. She has destroyed many small items left around the house including toys, mittens (hand-knit!!!), a laptop cord, and magazines. At first, she had a really hard time controlling her bladder whenever she was the least bit excited. It meant that whenever we went out and then came back home, she would run up to us and then pee at our feet. Thankfully, this is now a pretty rare occurrence.

22nd Anniversary Trip: Crowsnest Pass

To celebrate our anniversary, we left the kids (and the puppy!) with Spencer and Hannah in Raymond and drove to Blairmore where we stayed for a few days. From there, we visited Frank Slide, Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, and went hiking around Blairmore. It was great to spend time together in the mountains.

A Summer Day at Pembina - August 2018

Pembina River, not far from our home, is a slow moving, shallow river that is fun to splash in on a hot summer day.