The Paris OASIS initiative includes climate-adaptive renovations of ten schoolyards to support experiential education and resilience-enhancing social cohesion every day that will provide publicly-accessible cooling refuges for times of extreme heat. Based on our interviews and site visits, we show how the OASIS initiative demonstrates the power of participatory design for adaptive landscapes. At the same time, the project also carries lessons from its challenges, including limited engagement with lower-income residents and questions about how the pilot projects can scale up and connect to other aligned initiatives in the city.