Joyeuses Pâques! Paris, Easter Sunday, 20 April 2014

In France, oeufs de Pâques (Easter eggs) are said to be brought by the Easter bells (cloches de Pâques), which fly from Rome and drop them in people’s gardens, but we found out that if you are an Australian kid in France for Easter, the Easter Bunny still delivers the chocolate. (When we visited cousins in Torino the next day, we found out that he also delivers to Australian kids in Italy.)

Our kids were particularly missing their cousins and the Easter egg hunts they have done with them in recent years, but Sarah, the owner of our “Airbnb” apartment in Paris, thoughtfully emailed us “Le top 5 des chasses aux oeufs" around Paris.  From these we selected the one on the Champs de Mars at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Easter Sunday morning. 

We took a by-now favourite métro trip from Edgar Quinet station on line 6 – it emerges from underground just after Pasteur station, and presents a rare métro-view, including glimpses of the Eiffel Tower. (For what it’s worth, Wikipedia concurs: “it is one of the most pleasant lines on the Métro. This is due in part due to is numerous views, sometimes exceptional, of many of Paris' most famous landmarks and monuments.”)  This time, we disembarked closer to the non-Tower end of the Champs de Mars, at La Motte-Picquet – Grenelle.

Numerous marquees were set up on the Champs de Mars – we headed for the one with the large “Kinder” chocolate brand signs and registered the three kids for five Euros each – apart from the value of the activities, this was money very well-spent, as the event was a fundraiser for Secours Populaire Francais.  Each child received a sheet of paper instructing them to hunt for three different-coloured plastic eggs.  This could be done by “fishing” for the eggs on the lawns, or visiting different boxes, each labelled with a child’s right, e.g ‘d'avoir un nom et un nationalite' (to have a name and a nationality).  Our kids chose the fastest option – fishing (no translation required), and it wasn’t long before they each had caught their three allocated-colour eggs, and traded them for a bag containing three Kinder surprise eggs (and a pouch of fruit puree and a bottle of water). 

The chasse done, we spent another happy hour or so at some of the other marquees, playing old-fashioned games like sack races, skittles, coin toss and getting (in kids’ age order) a balloon butterfly, a dragon and a monkey.

This was a very memorable Easter morning!

After lunch, it was time for Andrew to venture out to Orly airport to collect the Peugeot 5008 we have leased for a trip into northern Italy and the rest of our time in France.  Grace joined Andrew for the task, partly for company, and partly as an interpreter if required.  Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and a couple of hours later the car was safely parked close to our apartment, all car safety seats installed, and ready to be packed early the next morning.

Mission accomplished! And with a few sunny hours left in Paris, we returned for one last visit to our local park, le Jardin du Luxembourg.