4 Ways to Make the best of Winter 2022 in Paris
Happy New Year! Bonne Année!
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy this winter as Covid rattles and disrupts the world for another go. We only had one person catch the virus in our household so far, and thankfully it was a very manageable bout of sickness. But enough about the pandemic!
Our new year is all about having a new baby! We welcomed our second (surprise) “confinement” baby into our lives at the end of October and he is animating our family life in such a positive way. Babies are the ultimate symbol of hope, aren’t they!?!
We hope that this year we will all be able to breathe easier (pun intended) perhaps even without masks. But in the meantime we are bound and determined to make our winter season full of cozy joy. Here’s how!
- In our charming neighborhood we don’t have to go far for some delight, Les Batignolles is one of the loveliest places in Paris to live for families. The park Square des Batignolles is a wonderful place for kids to play and it is a big plus to our life here in every season. Also, metro line 14 arrives right across the street for people who don’t live in the Batignolles and want to hang out in this neighborhood. It makes it so much easier!
2. Les Batignolles is full of restaurants and cafés so we can stay close to home and avoid the Parisian crowds and traffic and struggle to move around in this city. (It truly has become unbearable). I love café Le Tout Petit, very home made! Also Bistrot 21 is recently my favorite spot for a coffee date.
3. But we like to cook comfort food at home in the winter too. I have taught my six year old to help me make a quiche and he can do it almost all by himself now.
We also have a holiday that is basically a reason to eat crepes, La Chandleur on February second. I think it corresponds to Groundhog Day in America. And also, I will be perfecting my cinnamon roll skills this winter because I am absolutely addicted to them.HELLO CALORIES! And the smell of that cinnamon baking is a great way to make home even more enticing.
My Chéri is also perfecting his Venetian cappuccino making skills (also made with cinnamon), using our imported-from-Venice Girani Caffe beans. We are addicted!
4. When it’s too cold or wet to play outside, we have plenty of card games and family games to chose from. Petit Chéri is old enough to make it interesting and fun for us too! My favorites are the coding game because it stimulates learning, as well as Mankala (my personal favorite, that my fourth grade teacher had taught my class), and Connect Four and several card games such as Scoppa!
Cheers (with a home made spritz and a giant heater to hang out next to!) to a healthy happy 2022.
With love from Paris (les Batignolles)
Melissa
It all looks lovely Melissa. I hope you and your family remain well. It’s summer here in Australia and I’m enjoying salads, warm weather and wearing shorts and T-shirts most days.