Sunday, July 10, 2011 
I'll definitely miss the fallafel (from l'As du Fallafel, the best in Paris). Of course you have to follow up a Sunday fallafel with a stroll around the Place des Vosges.
And a hop, skip and a jump over to the Ile St. Louis.
Of course no trip to the Ile St. Louis would be complete without some Berthillon ice cream (and licorice-flavored tea).
Ahhhh, weekends are tough here...
Saturday, June 18, 2011 
A few weekends ago, we celebrated Mother's Day in France. This time around the day was especially important for us because we also celebrated the baptism of our daughter.
We were very fortunate that both my huband's parents and my own mother, as well as our siblings and a cousin who lives in Switzerland, were here to share the moment with us. All in all it was a day that we will always cherish.
Since they came all the way over from the US, my family stayed on a few extra days. As always, we had a blast visiting some favorite neighborhoods and sights in Paris. Here are a few shots from the weekend.
Close-up of one of the front doors of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral
The Eiffel Tower
Modern sculpture in front of the main courtyard at Versailles
And, one of my favorite sights from the weekend, bakeware that I bought (but for which we had no room in our suitcases) during our trip back in November plus my favorite cut-out, iced sugar cookies (thanks Mom & Blair!!!)
Sunday, January 30, 2011 
At the beginning of January I started taking my 6-month old daughter to daycare. We were extremely lucky to get a place in the very sought-after "crèches" and so far it's working out really well for all of us. I think this easy beginning owes a lot to the fact that we transitioned over two weeks, starting with a couple of hours and working up to a full day.
On the very last day of the transition period (and my last Friday before going back to work full-time), my husband took off and we decided to spend the day in Paris. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he left it up to me to decide how we would spend our time.
Now normally I would head to the fabric / crafting stores, but I'd recently made a pact with myself that I wouldn't buy any more supplies before finishing my current projects and / or using up a good part of what I already have on hand.
So instead we headed to the Chatelet Les Halles neighborhood where we browsed the restaurant and baking supply stores (see links here) and left with a couple of cutting boards and some stackable plastic storage containers that I planned to use not for food storage, but for my sewing supplies (looks like I found a loophole in my no new crafting supply rule...).
We then went to Le Bistrot Paul Bert for lunch. This restaurant has been on my list for a long time, after reading about it on several of the food blogs I follow. We both ordered the sole meunière (above), one of my favorite French dishes. We skipped dessert at the bistrot and instead headed to Ladurée for ice cream and macarons. I always order the macarons glacé at Ladurée -- a scoop of ice cream surrounded by 4 chilled macarons. They try to coordinate the macaron colors with the ice cream color -- in the past I've ordered rose ice cream and it's always come with beautiful pastel-colored macarons. This time I ordered coffee and, while I enjoyed it more than the rose flavor, the ice cream / macaron color combination is one I can only describe as "1970s shag carpet". Oh well, it tasted good...
We ended the afternoon with a stroll before heading back to pick up Bon Bon. All in all, a perfect day in Paris.
Thursday, December 24, 2009 
Above: One of the window displays at Galeries Lafayette. This year's theme is Noël gourmand.
Below: More of the same + the store's exterior decoration.
On the rue Caumartin, not too far from the Paris Opera
Approaching the Place Vendôme
And, last but not least, the Champs-Elysées
