We love New York. Really love it. I wish we could live there, but things like preschool and toddler soccer are forever wait-listed and just too dang expensive for us to even seriously consider living there. So, we go when we have a good excuse and let ourselves pretend like we live there for those few precious days. 

Last weekend, Gui's mom and sister were visiting his aunt and uncle who live in the city, so we decided to meet up with them for a few days of their stay. We hadn't seen them in person since January, which feels like a lifetime ago. They Skype with Avienne nearly every weekend, so it wasn't a huge surprise when she saw them in New York and went a little crazy-happy with the hugs and smiles. It's the first time she's really been old enough to get excited about traveling and seeing relatives. 

It was really cold for the first 2 days and rained cats and dogs on our last day, but the weather is part of what I love about New York, and for me, cold and rain just mean more time spent at our favorite restaurants and coffee shops. We stayed in a different area than usual and discovered some new great restaurants and neighborhoods. As creatures of habit, it's hard to get us to move out of our comfort zone, but we managed and succeeded in falling in love even more with our favorite Stateside city.

: : Plenty of walking and exploring . . . 

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.