There’s no direct flight to Addis Ababa for us, so that means layovers are a part of every trip.

Mariam does a very good job of picking good pit stops when this happens, and this time we elected to stop in Paris to visit a cousin.

Of the two of us, Henry is much less traveled. This is his  very first time in Paris. Too bad we were here for just a day, but it should still have been fun.

Oh, fun it was!

Right after getting out of the Charles de Gaulle Airport, we made a beeline for the Charenton-Le-Pont area to visit cousin Sophie. She spoiled us with a huge home-cooked feast. And after that, it was off to explore the neighborhood.

We had twin constraints: 1)we just a few hours to explore anything and 2)we’re the proud parents of a very lively toddler who would obviously need some child-friendly entertainment. And so we strolled up Rue de Paris (talk about amazing coincidences) in search of green spaces and parks.

We found a delightful little play area that was designed expressly for children 1-5 years old. And it was a hit!

Our little tyke ran up and down and all around, sliding, jumping, and then pretending to be the owner of a food stand using the little wooden toy house as his base 😊.

(also: Yes, he’s a Spiderman fan. Why do you ask? 😜)

We then moved on to a wonderful little café bar called L’Abreuvoir. Goodness, did we ever like the place! The owners were warm and chatty, their kids were charming and cute, and the atmosphere overall was just amazing. It’s a small establishment in an area that’s somehow both lively and quiet (?), and we all loved it.

It was a fairly hot day, so we ordered cold tall glasses of a fizzy ginger drink (and just plain cold water for our boy). We chatted the afternoon away even as our little boy ran all over the place. He discovered a sloping alleyway with stairs next to the cafe bar and then asked me to run up and down with him. We both earned our drinks!

And then that was it. Time to get back to the airport and the plane.

I can’t wait to be back!

I bet you can’t! And you just scratched the tiniest of surfaces of this enormous, historic city. The next time I’ll show you the rest!

I repeat : can’t wait! See you next time, Paris!