I’ve got to say that this theme has to be one of my favourites. I studied French at school and university and have long been a bit of a Francophile! Parisian parties were really trending a few years ago, but have gone off the boil now, so there wasn’t much party ware around. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to find some props from around my house and my local party hire shop had some Eiffel Tower cutouts to complete the scene. I decided to go for a more Provincial look, rather than the classic pink and black associated with Paris.
You only turn nine once and what a way to celebrate! When planning the party, I came up with the idea to turn the space into a pretend cafe complete with menus and table service. My eldest daughter, Portia was a lovely waitress and Murray dressed up in his tuxedo and played the part of a hilarious French waiter with many amusing facial expressions. The girls thought he was an absolute hoot and loved ordering from the menu even though the waiter’s accent was a little hard to understand!
A few weeks prior to the party I started to make an apron for each guest from some oilcloth I had leftover from my Mexican themed 40th birthday party. I had a lot of issues with the bias binding around these, so was kind of regretting my decision, but once I’d made a few I felt as if I had to keep going. It was a relief to finish the last one! The girls looked amazing in their aprons and they were fun to wear for the cooking we did together at the party (Madeleines) and the cupcake decorating competition.
I raided my cake decorating stash and placed lots of toppings out for the girls to decorate with. They were very creative! On the menu for the party were the following French delights : homemade chocolate eclairs, chocolate mousse, pain au chocolate, cupcakes and of course macarons.
To decorate the space I used a cardboard booth from Ikea I have had for years with some croissant decorations I added hanging from the top. I was excited to find the croissant Christmas decorations in the discount bin at Myer for only 50c each last time I was in the city. I also decorated Harriet’s bike with some flowers and used an old ladder I bought from an antique fair to hold my collection of French props.
The party bags were paper bags I had at home embellished with paper doilies and free printables from here and here. Harriet is not a cake lover, so requested a chocolate smash cake instead. I had to have two attempts to achieve success! My first attempt with a pudding basin was not successful, so I recommend using a china bowl instead if you wish to make one. It certainly was a lot of fun for the birthday girl to bash her way through with a hammer and I’m happy with the way it turned out, looking almost like a French bonnet!
I’ll leave you with a photo of the after party wreckage. A great time was had by all!
