Today was one of those magical days that will always remind me of what a beautiful city Paris is. The day started uneventfully: Emmett explored the living room while I watered houseplants around the house. He amused himself on the single rug in the house while I ate breakfast (fougasse au lardon, oeufs, and chevre). After his nap, on a whim, I packed up Emmett's lunch of salmon, rice cereal, sweet potato, tofu, and apple-pear sauce; plopped him in the stroller; and walked the 10 minutes to the Place des Vosges. The sun started coming out at around 2:15 p.m., just as I was stepping out of one of my favorite boulangeries where I'd picked up a chocolatine (um, my lunch).

The Place des Vosges was packed with families, a class of preschoolers and their teachers, couples, students, and tourists, all out to enjoy the perfect weather. People lounged on the grass, strolled around the path, and leisurely ate their lunches or smoked a cigarette. Emmett was a bit distracted by the water fountains and the teenagers horsing around nearby, so it took me a while to feed him his lunch. After he was finished, I thought I'd see if he'd be willing to give grass another shot... and he was fine! I gingerly set him down on it and he immediately started plucking at the blades and raking up bits of dried leaves with his chubby little fingers.


He also managed to make the acquaintance of some couples sunning themselves nearby. One woman, in particular, really wanted to play with Emmett. She inched over and started out by collecting leaves for him to grasp. While speaking French to him, she tickled his toes and played peek-a-boo. Pretty soon, they were laughing together like old pals and he was confiding to her, "Da DA da da dada." She let me take some photos of them together, and she offered to take a photo of us before she strolled off with her boyfriend, hand in hand.

Later on our walk home, I asked Emmett what the two of them talked about, but he declined to share, saying it was just entre eux.