I thought I'd seen it all by now. I'm nearly four-and-a-half years old after all. But this Easter I was blown away (gobsmacked as the rain-soaked Brits would say). Will this world never stop amazing me?
We're all pretty happy about the arrival of spring. Papa was particularly happy. Sure, he likes the sun as much as the next Cuban/Texan from Paris but that's not it. You see, since winter arrived I've been asking papa why the leaves fall from the trees when it gets cold. I know the answer by heart: "the trees go to sleep until the springtime then baby leaves, blah, blah, blah". I'm almost as sick of the answer as he is of the question. But I like to drive him crazy. Now the leaves are back I don't ask the question quite so often.
Anyway, I digress. Here's the sun, and the flowers, and the baby leaves, and whatever - this is not my first spring you know; I've seen this before. But then there we were, hanging out with cousins Melina and Nefeli and Constantinos taking in a few rays while the lamb edged its way to medium rare, when I see this shiny object under a bush. It kinda looked like one of those space blankets but with a mauve hew. I decided to investigate.
This was no small alien space ship taking soil samples under the lavender bush, this was an egg, a big egg, wrapped in gaudy foil. I took a chance and picked it up, a fragrance of milk chocolate emanated from the strange object. Ivory coast, before the rains, 55% maybe 60% cocoa, forastero mostly, maybe with a hint of a trinitario mixed in for quality. Certainly no criollo but not bad given it was hanging around under a bush. Was I going crazy? Early Alzheimers? Was the stress of the moyenne section de maternelle getting to me?
Just then my dear cousins started to scream. There were other eggs, lots of them. All over around the house, in the trees, on the window sills, under the swings. What was going on? I figured some local chicken had swallowed a mercury thermometer in a Hershey factory.
But no. It was crazier than that.
Leapin' Leporids! Can you imagine? Papa said (and he doesn't bend the truth) that these space eggs were left by some philanthropic lagomorpha that has nothing better to do with his trove of chocolate prolate spheroids than leave it's contents lying around so that kids like us can ingest titanic amounts and entertain our weary parents with the tantalizing results of the ensuing sugar high! I mean, are you serious? Maybe this world does hold a surprise or two. After the fat guy dressed in Coca-Cola red who left a bunch of presents after breaking and entering down a smoking chimney I get this? No one told me it was going to be this weird. Next you'll tell me some fairy sneaks under pillows swiping teeth in exchange for a couple of coins!
Cheap fairy! Just in case, I only take Euros.
By the way, thanks to Olivier for cooking my hungry parents dinner and to Dude for organizing a killer start-of-the-season picnic at the Parc des Sceaux.
Check out the pictures of said picnic here: Sceaux sunny
Or, instead of washing your hair, check out these shots of the Chetif Moulin in spring: flower power
Don't believe in the Easter bunny? Check out proof here: The hare raising event
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