We spent the day today at the Jardin d’Acclimatation.

We took the bus there, and we had to take two routes. We switched buses literally right on the Champs d’Elysées in front of the Arc de Triomphe. It’s funny to think about how that profoundly famous location can just be a place to switch buses. There were plenty of barricades up as the final stage of the Tour de France rolls through tomorrow. They’ll be racing right through our neighbourhood, just a couple of blocks from us. With road and metro closures were a bit hemmed in tomorrow, but that’s fine, we’ll just remain close to home.

The Jardin d’Acclimatation was really neat. We got there a little after 11 and while busy, it wasn’t annoyingly so. Poppy was hesitant to go on any rides at first so we started by checking out the animals they have: birds, goats, a warthog, and plenty of peacocks roaming free around the park.

Then we had lunch and convinced her to try this little boat ride. Lines at this point were small, we maybe had to wait 10 minutes. She loved it so we went right around and did it again.

From there we went to the big splashpad they have and played at the copious amount of swings (Poppy finally got as much time as she wanted on a swing!). We also convinced her to go out on a pond in a little boat that Jill drove and try out the other boat ride at the park (which was a snooze fest). Not sure why we could only get her to go on aquatic rides, but it is what it is. There were lots of other cute rides she would’ve enjoyed but it wasn’t in the cards.

She had a bit of a catnap around 3 and afterwards we went to the puppet show. I couldn’t understand what was going on at all but I tried my best to explain my limited grasp to Poppy and she seemed to dig it. From there it was back to the first boat ride she loved for another two rounds (line was about a 20 minute wait at this point) and then we headed home.

Overall the park was so adorable and I think Poppy would warm up to more activities over time.

Back at home Jill went and picked up ramen for us for dinner. We all devoured it.

We’ve eaten a ton of pastries since getting here but hadn’t done a proper patisserie until today. We visited Pleincoeur this morning and picked up a strawberry tart and a hazelnut entremet. The photos don’t quite do them justice, but they were both delicious. The entremet was so pillowy, it was awesome, and Poppy loved it.

A little more park time this morning and then another jambon beurre for me for lunch, a chorizo bun for Jill and some tomato soup at our apartment for Poppy before nap.

This afternoon we ventured a little further into MLK park and found a café where we stopped for a snack and then pressed on to discover a much bigger playground than the one we played at the other day. It’s a really impressive park that feels more Copenhagen than Paris since it’s so modern.

We made tex-mex tacos for dinner and had lots of play time around the apartment this evening.

It was a beautiful day and hopefully should be sunny again tomorrow. We’ll probably try for a bigger all-day adventure of some kind to take advantage of the sun tomorrow.

This morning we got up and took the bus down to the Musée d’Orsay. We didn’t know how much Poppy would be into the art throughout the museum but we knew that they had a special activity room set up for kids through the summer holidays that we could visit when she eventually hit her limit.

Poppy hit that limit pretty quickly ☺️. So we went to check out the kids’ room and it was actually incredible. Firstly, it was set up in an ornate ballroom. Next, they had all kinds of toys, activities, crafts, and books for kids to interact and play with. She spent most of her time coloring and cutting paper. While she was entertained, Jill went to check out some of the impressionist’s works. I could’ve gone as well but was plenty happy with the kids.

From the museum, we walked across the river to the Tuileries Garden. We had been talking up the trampolines they have there, and Poppy seemed pumped but by the time we got there she really wasn’t into it. We bought a ticket but she said she thought there’d be handles on the trampolines (her friend back home has a little one with a handle) so she was kind of nervous about bouncing on them. This is despite the fact she’s been to a massive indoor trampoline park back home where there were definitely no handles – and she loved it. Nevertheless, we just pressed on to the playground where she had some time to play.

We lunched at one of the cafés in the park. Poppy had a hot dog with cheese that she devoured. Jill and I split a surprisingly good mortadella sandwich on focaccia. We couldn’t find the pond with little boats you can rent so we just skipped it and took the bus back home. There was a really brief downpour we got caught in for a couple minutes before our bus came.

After nap we ventured out of the neighbourhood to a park we hadn’t been to yet. I saw they had a set of swings online so figured it would be nice for Pops. Mercifully it started to rain so there weren’t too many kids at the park which meant Poppy had a turn on the swing. We stopped for dinner at Tripletta on the way home (it was quite good) and then played a bit before bed.

Today was a reset day. Poppy was saying she was tired most of the day so we didn’t do much.

This morning we sat at a café for a nice start to the day. Then we went across the street to the park but Poppy wasn’t up for much. She said she wanted to go on the carousel but when we got there she changed her mind. So we just did a bit of window shopping in the way back home.

After nap we went out to get groceries to make dinner and stopped at the park again since Poppy said she wanted to go on the carousel yet again. She faked us out this time so back home we went.

We watched a movie on her iPad. The movie was about 20 minutes of Frozen and then a bunch of Bluey episodes. Dinner was a lasagna we picked up at a local bougie grocer that was pretty gross. Thankfully we also picked up more shrimp for Poppy and that’s mostly she ate.

Then more playing at the apartment before we tried a slightly earlier bedtime. Didn’t really work though and she rolled around in bed for a while before falling asleep around 9:45.

Today was mostly a great weather day, just a couple small pockets of rain despite the forecast saying it was going to be a washout. We still haven’t figured out the weather here. Seems like it’s going to be a really wet morning tomorrow but who knows.

We were up and out of the apartment by 9:30/10:00 this morning. We had reservations for noon at a place in the 11th so we left early to metro over there for a coffee and some playground time before our reso.

Poppy had some oatmeal with blueberries at the apartment for breakfast and then a madeleine and a bunch of my cookie at the café so we were happy with how she’s eating now.

We spent some time at a couple playgrounds in the neighbourhod, but this one was particularly cool. Swings are basically non-existent at parks here. We’ve only found a couple and they’ve been in the big parks. There’s always a line at them too because obviously all the kids want to partake. Swings are Poppy’s jam but she still has fun without them.

Then it was off to Le Cornichon for lunch. Boy was it good. I ordered Tournedos Rossini, not knowing what it was, and it was incredible. My beef intake has now surpassed Poppy’s ham intake for the most concerning amount of meat consumed by one person on this trip so far. Jill had the radishes and butter along with a sausage served on a bed of delicious mashed potatoes. Poppy ate a bunch of the mashed and my fries. We were cool with that.

Made it home for nap then went out again to take a boat ride on the Seine. It was fine, always kind of cool to see the sights from a different vantage point but Poppy was only into it for like the first 15 minutes (it was about an hour) so Jill and I spent a lot of time trading off entertaining her.

When we got off the boat Poppy said she was hungry (good!) and wanted shrimp (a fun challenge!). Turns out we had pinned a Japanese udon spot close by that had tempura shrimp on the menu. So we walked over there and all of us had really yummy Japanese for dinner. Poppy stayed true to her word and ate a bunch of very expensive shrimp.

Metro back home and played a bit at the apartment before bed. Looks to be rainy tomorrow and today was a pretty full day so we’ll likely chill around the neighbourhood and cook a meal or two tomorrow.

Unrelated to the trip, I truly hate writing on my phone. Or more accurately, I hate editing. I’ve never taken to the iPhone’s text select feature so with the odd exception I don’t go back and edit anything I’ve written because I find it too annoying to do so. Adding inline links is also a massive pain on a phone, something I can do in two seconds on my laptop feels so hard on my phone. So there are also fewer links than I’d like in my writing while I only have a phone with me.