As I was scrolling through my pictures for this post, I noticed there's a very common theme going on with us lately. It's feeling like summer is wrapping up and we're living like fall is a day away, I guess hoping to coax the seasons into changing.  

We're taking advantage of occasional rain showers to cool things down enough for us to enjoy an evening bike ride. 

I've been putting our oven to work roasting late summer vegetables and baking everything under the sun, including a massive fig tart.  

I've also been regularly working little-by-little to finish up some hibernating knitting projects, but after learning a new craft this past weekend, my needles have been temporarily replaced by a borrowed loom.  I can't tell you how gratifying it is to finish a scarf in under three hours.  If you ever get a chance to take a weaving class, do it! It's incredibly easy, and I doubt you'll ever regret learning how to turn yarn into fabric.  

And finally, Avienne has been learning so many new things lately. Walking is her biggest accomplishment of late, but she's also so close at perfecting her dismount.  It's so cute (and slightly terrifying) to see her spin around from wherever she's sitting to get her feet down first, then smile and clap with pride when they hit the floor. She's becoming a real toddler, and it's so bittersweet.

The weekend after Avienne's first birthday, we celebrated with a party at our house with friends and family. Our place is pretty small, so I was a little worried about how everyone would fit and if anyone would be uncomfortable celebrating in our cramped quarters. It was definitely cozy, but we managed to fit in and enjoy the company of friends and family all at once.

I started planning Avienne's birthday about a month in advance. I'm not really good at picking themes, so we thought it would be nice to have folks over for our favorite mealtime - brunch. I dusted off all of my crafting supplies and rediscovered my creative side when I set to work on the party invitations. I had so much fun making them, I even started daydreaming about having a greeting card business. (Maybe someday!)  We invited a handful of friends over who have babies, too, so we figured having a party at 11:00 versus later in the afternoon would suit their weekend schedules better.  In the end, I think it worked out pretty well for everyone.

I mixed up some fruit, bought a few Mexican pastries, croissants and beverages, but the breakfast tacos that my amazing mom whipped up earlier in the day were hands-down the highlight of our brunch spread.  You really can't beat homemade breakfast tacos in the morning.  After a grueling week of cake taste-testing, I settled on a vanilla and strawberry cake from Capital City Bakery.  It was pretty delicious, but next time, I'll order a much smaller one - we have so much cake stuffed into our freezer right now! Avienne had her own smash cake, too, but she hardly smashed any of it.  I think she may have had her fill of cake a few days before when she had her first cupcake.

It was a fun time, and I'm glad so many of our closest friends and family were able to spend some time celebrating for Avienne's first birthday.  Next year, though, I'm designating someone else photographer! These were the only decent pictures I was able to snap during the party.  

There's no shortage of sweet shops in Paris.  If you've got a hankering for sugar, you could probably find what you need to cure your sweet tooth down at the corner boulangerie.  My favorite places to go, though are those cozy, little hideouts on some of Paris' busiest rues where you can step in and grab a slice of something sweet and take a pause from the street hustle.

I could probably start an entire blog dedicated to Paris' best sweet spots, but I'd rather just tell you where in the city we like to go when we need our sugar fix.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll be able to make the trip to every single place on this list because ever since I've left France, I've had a craving at least once for something from all of them.

1.  L'Oisive Thé : I can guarantee this will be one of our first stops after we touch down in Paris.  Not only to see Aimee (the awesome owner who I'm lucky enough to call a friend) and browse her luscious yarn collection, but for a perfect cup of tea and a slice of the tarte du jour.  Or maybe the gateau du jour because it's been too long since I had myself a piece of chocolate heaven.  Gui will likely take a chocolat chaud in place of tea because the milk-and-cocoa-powder we find 'round these parts just doesn't compare to the velvety hot chocolate Aimee serves up.  There's so much I love about this place that I would stay all day if I could - aside from tea, scones, cookies, cakes and tarts, they also do a mean brunch (something that's rather hard to come by in Paris).

2.  Pom' Cannelle : When it comes to the famous glacier Berthillon, the only place to head to is l'Ile Saint Louis. But, rather than stand in line with all the other tourists and locals-playing-tourists, we go straight to this place, our favorite café on the island.  Here, we can indulge in the popular, seasonally-flavored ice cream, or nurse that sweet tooth with something else.  I'm usually a gourmande and get a couple of scoops (especially if mirabelle is in season) plus a café leigeois.  Gui isn't much more conservative than I am and generally orders the most delicious-looking thing on the menu (like this salted-butter caramel french toast with a scoop of ice cream). When it comes to sweets, he always wins.

3.  Le Loir dans la Théière - This place. It's perfectly situated on the always-bumpin' rue des Rosiers in the Marais, which means it's nearly always busy. If you come as a couple, though, the wait is usually minimal, and after you've seen the assortment of tarts, you'll soon find that it's worth it, too. Don't expect to be cordially welcomed, though because you won't find any chatty waiters in this busy hipster hangout. And, although they won't rush you out, they're pretty mindful of tables who've overstayed their welcome during the peak lunch rush. Despite it all, their mile-high meringue pie is pretty much out of this world, as are every other tarte I've ever tried from their eclectic dessert table. We always walk in, have a gander of what's available and then promptly order. They're open on Sunday (a rarity in Paris, although common for the Marais), but I think we'll try to stop in at an off-time during the week so we can be sure to nab a spot with our babe. I'm feeling full just thinking about the tart(s) and tea I'll have in my belly after leaving this place.

4.  La Durée & Pierre Hermé - Macarons.  I have a love-hate relationship with these things.  Being American, I feel it's my duty to pay homage to the quintessential French dessert by grabbing a box from one of these  spots, but honestly, they aren't my favorite.  I like macarons as much as the next person, I think, but more as a souvenir than as a dessert.  If I have a choice, I'll opt for a Pierre Hermé creation, but there's something to be said for the ambiance at La Durée - so elegant and extravagant; so French.  The great thing, too, is that we're bound to walk past one of these shops en route to someplace else, so there's no harm in stopping in for a quick macaron fix before carrying on with day.  Right?

5.  Grom & Pozzetto - Yeah, I know Berthillon is the ice cream king in Paris, but there are just some things that, in my heart, Italy will always be better at doing than France, and ice cream is one of those things.  It's likely we will stop at both Grom and Pozzetto for a cornetto, and I am definitely not sad about that.  They're both so different, but so perfectly delicious that I honestly hope we'll be able to go back more than once.  You just can't beat the eccentric seasonal varieties on offer at both spots.

Paris has parks like no other city I've seen, and depending on what you want to do, there are certain parks that will be better suited to match your activity.  There are playground parks in just about every neighborhood where you can bring your kid to play or sit on a bench and take a load off, read a book or work on your laptop.  There are parks well-suited for picnics and large groups; parks that offer long, broad paths perfect for strolling; parks where people-watching is the favorite activity and parks where you can find both lunch and the perfect spot to eat.  Many of these parks serve as gardens for a much larger attraction, like a museum or zoo.

A bit ashamedly, I never spent much time going to parks when I lived in Paris.  I mean, I spent a fair share of time picnicking, meeting up with friends and hanging around grassy lawns, but I barely took advantage of all the places to discover there.  Now that I have a kid, I'm always wishing we had a convenient park or two around our house where we could pass the time - at least one one that isn't encircled by a road.  When we are in Paris in May, I plan on spending as much free time exploring our favorite parks and searching for new ones to take Avienne.

Here are the parks we're fond of and hoping to pop into on our visit, along with some old photos I dug up of some of these spots. I'm sure I'll be adding some future favorites to the list after we've spent some time in Paris with a baby. (I've heard the Jardin des Plantes and Jardin des Enfants are really fun for toddlers and older kids, so we might be checking them out, too).

1.  Parc des Buttes Chaumont : This place was always such a "grown-up" kind of park to me, probably because there are restaurants and a bar/dance club within the park grounds.  It's full of foliage in the summer and walking around is more reminiscent of traveling through a magical woodland than a city park.  The view of Paris can't be beat, either, and it makes you feel like you're on a cloud overlooking the city.  We never spent much time here since it was on the opposite side of town from chez nous, but I'm looking forward to checking out the lake and waterfall that I somehow missed those few times I did find my way here.

2.  Bois de Boulogne : It's definitely a travesty that we lived so close to this park and visited it no more than a few times.  There is so much to do here, including canoeing, biking and visiting the Jardin d'Acclimatation which hosts a zoo and a whole load of attractions.  I've heard some great things about all of the activities there, and now it seems I really have a good excuse to check it out.  I think Avienne might still be too young this time to enjoy all it has to offer, but it will likely become a future favorite once she is old enough.

3.  Jardin du Luxembourg : Always our go-to park, the Luxembourg gardens provided endless people-watching and prompted many a cat-nap on lazy summer afternoons.  It's also the park through which I would cut to go to and from my French classes, barely having enough time to enjoy the sound of gravel underfoot during my commute.  I don't think we'll bring Avienne here to picnic (it's usually pretty crowded and full of smokers), but I would love to stroll with her down the tree-lined colonnade and sit by the fountain to enjoy a bon moment of people-watching.  I feel like that's just what this park was made for.

4.  Jardin des Tuileries : I always feel so refined and classy whenever I'm in the Tuileries.  Even if I'm eating chips out of a bag and drinking from a water bottle.  It's such an elegant park with sculptures all around and just enough perfectly-hedged shrubbery to enjoy a bit of retreat from everyone else around. It's massive and spans the length of rue Rivoli from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde, which makes it the perfect park to pop into for a rest after wandering through the Louvre.

5.  Le Champs de Mars : The champs isn't so much a park as a big field of trimmed grass, but I'm listing it here anyway because it's technically a park and we will almost definitely make our way there for a picnic on a sunny day in May.  There might not be a better place to savor a baguette sandwich and drink from a plastic verre of wine in Paris than right in the shadow of La Tour Eiffel. Am I right?

Holy moly, what a beautiful weekend we had!  The sunshine, blue skies and perfect weather were practically begging us to get out of the house all weekend, so that's pretty much what we did.  After getting a few, obligatory things done at home (laundry, vacuuming, babyfood-making), we took every opportunity to spend some time outdoors. 

We hung out at the park nearby and Avienne rode a swing for the first time ever.  She startles easily (definitely gets that from me), so we weren't sure if she was going to love it or be scared.  Well, she definitely wasn't scared.  In fact, she seemed a bit unamused by the swing at first, but once we sat her forward in the seat, she was all smiles.  Gui and I had fun taking turns pushing her and when the sun got to be a little too warm, we took a stroll around the park before heading back home.  We had so much fun swinging Avienne  and seeing her delight that we went back for an encore on Sunday.