Our In-Between Autumn

December is here, and a true winter chill is in the air for the first time this week. We've been settled in our new home for almost a month now, and finally have time to look back at our exhausting but exceedingly rich autumn.

Autumn is the in-between season par excellence, and ours was indeed a true in-between-Autumn, during which we stayed at an in-between apartment for almost 3 months while workers renovated our new apartment, and while Milo began his first months of pre-school.

Milo was extremely excited about starting his first day at school, having talked about it for about a year beforehand, though we never imagined he'd be starting his first 'back to school' morning by stepping out onto rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré in the center of Paris...

Thus, for Milo's first day of school, we hopped into the metro for the first of many commutes over the course of the following three months...

Finally at school!

It was quite the hike every day to get to school from Place Madeleine to Place Jourdain, but how lucky we were ever day after school to be able to come home to a real home indeed—we were staying at the lovely Paris apartment of Perrine's father Jean-guy in central Paris (Jean-Guy, now retired, hitherto spends most of his time in Brittany at his home in Douarnenez).

Yes, a real couch to slump into, a real bath to relax in, and real cousins and family to celebrate with on the weekend (With lots of family parties downstairs, Milo had lots of opportunities to see his big second cousins Olympe and Léonor, who he became very enamored with!)






As our new apartment was just by Milo's new school, we often went to visit our future home in the afternoon, and over the months, Milo saw the whole renovation come to pass.

Milo's future bedroom

The future kitchen

The future bathroom

The future parents' bedroom

The future living room (and Milo giving orders...)

The future entryway (and Milo still giving orders...)

But there was a lot of life going on in all this "in-between time", our life at the apartment on Faubourg Saint Honoré and in the surrounding neighborhood.

Coming home from school for Milo was often a colorful, lively event, when we arrived back in chic central Paris.

Now that is a chocolate shop! Check out the chocolate lion!!

Hopping into a tourist bus on the way home from school to try out the driver's seat...

One of the highlights of our temporary neighborhood was being so near the banks of the Seine...

Meeting up with a friend Andree on the Seine one evening...

Out with friends Joah and his parents Dan and Corinne

Milo and Jean-Guy chalking up the banks of the Seine...

Activities for kids on the banks of the Seine...

Perrine and friend Andree on a bridge over the Seine across from Musee d'Orsay

We frequently took long walks along the Seine, in the morning, afternoon and evening...

A morning walk along the Seine on the weekend...

Perrine's birthday came along during our in-between time on Faubourg Saint Honoré, for which Perrine's sister Lucie and boyfriend Frederic, who were about to leave on their 6-month bike trip in South America, showed up by surprise...

Frederic took lovely photos as usual.

I was just returning from a work trip to Bordeaux and came with sweet Sauternes wines to celebrate...

Lucie and Frederic showed us the amazing voyage they were about to begin. Check out pictures and posts about their trip on their blog: plusque6000kmavantlapaz.blogspot.fr

In 6 months you can cover a lot of ground!

The other big highlight of living in our temporary neighborhood was having the Tuileries gardens so nearby. Just before the school year started there we visited the big fair there with friends Dan, Corinne, and their son Joah and newborn daughter Lula.

We spent a lot of time in the Tuileries in fact during our time in the 8th arrondissement of Paris...

Laying around...

Jumping around...

Running around...

And riding around...

Sunset in the Tuileries, after school.

And thanks to the Tuileries, we learned just how lovely it can be to picnic your way through as many evenings of the year as you can!

Yes those are HOME-MADE hamburgers! No fast-food for our family...

Picnicking with visiting American friends Kay and Nancy

Our last picnic of the year was on a bridge between the Tuileries and the Musee d'Orsay.

We barely had time to enjoy our strawberries for dessert before it got dark...

That short after school picnic pretty much signaled the end of autumn for us. Afterwards the days got colder...

And Milo spent more and more time inside showing off his rapidly improving mastery of the alphabet...

Luckily, we had some great visits to break up our routine, like the passage of good friend like Cory from Cleveland....

And Rosalie, the highly literate (and widely published) mother of Jeffrey's friend Matt Koskenmaki, from California...

And Papitou/grandpa Jean-Guy, as we entered deeper into autumn...

Papitou gave Milo his first lessons in astronomy...

At the end of Jean-Guy's stay in Paris, he brought Milo to Brittany for a short break with his grandparents. As it turned out, they left just at the moment that Perrine and I began moving our things over to our new apartment, which by the was finally nearing completion.

Very soon, we would to say goodbye to our in-between home at the heart of Paris!