April in Paris
LA VIE PARISIENNE Forget the romance: April in Paris is monsoon season. The weather – even in the spring – is among the least charming aspects of life here, second only to dog poop on sidewalks.
Cafe de Flore, a legendary cafe on the Left Bank, St Germain district [video © Celine Marchand]
The romantic idea of “April in Paris” was born in 1932 when Vernon Duke and E. Y. “Yip” Harburg set it to music for the Broadway musical Walk a Little Faster. The expression quickly became part of the public perception when Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, and others performed renditions of the song, and Doris Day starred in the April in Paris movie. The myth became entrenched.
I nearly fell for it myself.
As a young college grad packing for a six-month internship at Newsweek‘s Paris bureau, I had trouble closing my suitcase. I told my mother, “I think I’ll leave out my winter coat. After all, I’ll be arriving in Paris in the spring and be back by fall.”
Her reply? “Take it, honey. You don’t know when you’ll be back.”
My mother is a wise woman, and I was smart to follow her advice. It was so cold and wet that spring, I wore my winter coat through the end of June. And then my short-term stay stretched into decades, as so often happens to foreigners who discover the charms of Paris.
Soggy gardens led English poet Thomas Tusser to write “Sweet April showers do spring May flowers” centuries ago (in 1557!). The French are more pragmatic. “En avril, ne te découvre pas d’un fil, en mai fais ce qu’il te plaît” translates as “In April, don’t take off a single thread; in May, do as you please.”
Even so, trying to find a romantic spot for a picnic is not completely dependent upon the weather: a “keep off the grass” sign is probably lurking nearby.
A Fool-proof Plan
Due to Parisian fog, my flight from New York for that long-ago internship was diverted to Luxembourg. My new life in Paris started on April Fools’ Day.
The French call that April Fish Day (poisson d’avril). Children stick paper fish on the backs of classmates as a prank. If someone shouts “poisson d’avril!” the joke is on you. But the jokes are not just for kids.
French media have traditionally engaged in April Fish Day hoaxes. Some years ago, daily newspaper Le Parisien announced that Walt Disney Productions had secretly bought the Eiffel Tower and planned to move it to a construction site east of Paris (where Disneyland Paris stands today). This “news” was met with equal parts outrage and laughter.
Since Easter often falls in April, the holiday can be quite “fishy.” Shops stock chocolate fish, bells, and hens. The fish may signal the end of Lent or refer to the Biblical story of Jesus Christ multiplying the fish. Church bells supposedly sprout wings and fly to the Vatican for eggs, which they drop on the way back, prompting Easter egg hunts. (In the Alsace region, chocolate bunnies reportedly lay eggs.)
Yes, there are “April Showers” in Paris… but as promised in the song of the same name by Louis Silvers and B. G. De Sylva, featured in the 1921 Broadway show Bombo, those showers will bring May flowers. Just like in Thomas Tusser’s poem. Besides, while carrying your umbrella, you can always enjoy “Singin’ in the Rain…”
