Pardon My French

A Blast for Baby

Last Sunday was an absolute miracle of a sunny February day in Ile-de-France, so we packed a lunch and headed into the Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne near Paris. I just randomly picked it by chance out of a guide book since it seemed to be kid-friendly. Both my husband and I were pleasantly surprised at what an overwhelmingly positive experience it turned out to be for all of us.

Look at that sky!

There's not a lot of things to do that are especially designed for people under 2 years of age. I guess they don't really need anything super fancy, but it would be nice for apartment-dwellers like me to have a nice green space for the kids to run around in without having to dodge dog droppings. The "Jardac" ended up being a mix between a regular French park, an amusement park, and a state fair, except from what I recall it was cleaner than the above tend to be. I don't remember having to swerve around dog poop even once! I don't remember seeing any trash at all on the ground, either. This in itself makes the nominal entrance fee of 2,70 euros (per person over the age of 3) completely worthwhile, in my opinion.

Now, if Lil Snagglepuss Speed Racer Hot Feet were a bit older, this excursion could have cost us a pretty penny. There are tons of appealing rides and you have to buy a ticket for each person who rides (accompanying parents need one, too). But LSSRHF is only a mere almost-11 months so we were able to just stroll her around and enjoy her being completely wide-eyed with wonder at all the new sights. Put yourself in a baby's slippers and check out some of the things she saw:

A giant thing that whizzes past...

Little wheeled things that also zoom

Kids , kids...

and more kids

Oooohhh, something that isn't a cat...

and doesn't say "Meow"

Happy Thanksgiving!

The turkey and his mate were just wandering around outside, and hearing the noise they made took me back to my days at my babysitter's farm. I had to laugh a little bit at the city people who excitedly reminisced about the time they had seen one of those "things" before, all the way in Belgium. I didn't know they had turkeys in Belgium, but why not.

Other things we enjoyed:

Lunch in this park

Playing on the "Little Kid" playground

Watching big kids play on their turf

There were bears and llamas and electric boats and even golf. We walked around twice, and by the end we had one very tired baby who actually fell asleep in her stroller. I can't remember the last time this happened because usually she is wide-eyed and bushy-tailed and too terribly afraid she'll miss something to do something so bourgeois as sleep.

She fought the snooze...but the snooze won!

I think we'll definitely take a picnic blanket and go back. We need to get all the fun we can while it's still cheap.