Paris in the Spring Time

{March afternoon at Trocadero}

{Magnolia tree near the National Assembly}

{Luxembourg Gardens}

I love Paris anytime of the year just like Ella Fitzgerald sings, but Paris in the spring time is a particularly wonderful season.  The last two years, I was fortunate to experience the magic that comes over the city.  It reminded me of my college days in New York.  The first 50-plus degree day in March, all the students would form a mass congregation (often ditching class) on the steps of Low Library at Columbia.  The New York winters were long and chilly and we didn't care that it was not quite warm enough weather, we were going to enjoy the sun.  Parisians do the same thing at the first sighting of spring in the forecast.  The flowers are in full blossom, people have a spring, no pun intended, in their step, and for all of France's secular proclamations, they still take their Easter decorations very seriously.  This makes for wonderful window displays.   There is also an abundance of chocolate fish all over Parisian bakeries, known as the "poisson d'avril" (April fish).  French tradition for April Fool's involves trying to sneakily stick a paper fish on the back of an unsuspecting victim.  Ah to be young and in Paris...

{Easter window displays}