I love Paris in the spring time

Today, I had a fluorescent pink egg for lunch at work. AB had made a big jar of pickled beets with eggs and onions. After soaking in the beet-vinegar mix for over two weeks, the egg white took on a gorgeous luminous purple-pink hue.

Pretty eh?

I was in Paris the past week and the weather was so good – lots of sunshine, clear skies and temperatures of around 20°C – that it almost seemed like it was summer!

What a difference it makes when the days get longer and warmer as the weather shifts from winter to spring…

As I laid in bed with the window slightly ajar at daybreak, I could hear birds singing. The trees along the church next to AB’s place were abloom with white flowers one weekend before making way for bright green leaves one week later. Over at the playground, little children were running around in colourful jackets while their caretakers chatted on the bench.

Ah, quel plaisir!

I love paris in the spring time
I love paris in the fall
I love paris in the summer when it sizzles
I love paris in the winter when it drizzles

I love paris every moment
Every moment of the year
I love paris, why oh why do I love paris
Because my love is here

I never had any grand or romantic illusions about Paris. For me, Paris is just a big city, not all that different from London or New York, except that most people speak French instead of English. After having lived here for a year, “la ville lumière” has gradually grown on me and now that I live in Brussels, I’m always happy to be back.

I like its winding, cobblestone streets that often lead me to something new, as well as walking in circles. I like being able to walk all over the city, be it from Belleville to Opéra, or from République in the Right Bank to the quartier latin in the Left Bank.

I like that it’s somewhat chaotic in Belleville and Strasbourg St. Denis, and that the oh so “bobo” (bourgeois-bohème) Marais is just 10 minutes away on foot from these immigrant neigbourhoods. I especially like Belleville – that I could be speaking in French one minute and in Mandarin or Cantonese the next; that I get my fix of roast pork, shrimp dumpling soup and deep-fried spring rolls; that it feels so familiar.

I like that there is a Space Invader lurking around, as well as the street art all over the city… n’importe où, n’importe quoi, n’importe quand (no matter where, no matter what, no matter when).

Ah, so many things to like about the City of Light!