To pave is to coat or cover with a very hard material, like concrete, asphalt, or stone. It's easier to shovel snow from your driveway after you pave it.
When road crews pour hot asphalt on the street, they pave it, and when the city creates new sidewalks in your town, they may pave them with bricks or concrete. The colloquial expression "to pave the way for" means to set up a situation that allows something to happen more easily — for example, if your parents read you books from the time you were very small, they helped pave the way for you to love reading.