Joyeux Paques!
Paris is a beautiful place to be at Easter time.  The choclatiers windows are all beautifully decorated with beautiful creations.  The tradition here is to make bells and fill them with fish.  Teeny tiny little chocolate ones! And huge, gorgeous chocolate eggs.  You now see the occasional bunny, too
The reason for the chocolate bells, as explained by my www.Paris-walks.com guide is the following:

Church bells are silent as a sign of mourning for one or more days before Easter in The Netherlands, Belgium and France. This has led to an Easter tradition that says the bells fly out of their steeples to go to Rome (explaining their silence), and return on Easter morning bringing both colored eggs and hollow chocolate shaped like eggs and bells.
No stinking cheap baskets, gross peeps (yes, I am a peep hater) or fake grass. All very high end, and unaffordable to us on a budget.  But so beautiful.

I feel I have walked about 5-7 miles a day, done our 68 stairs up and down at least 4 times a day and have immersed myself in Paris for the past 9 days.  Can't wait to come back....without Larry.  He is just not a fan of cities.  I have taken advantage of two wonderful guided tours, and could have done many more.  The first, Paris-Walks offers 2 tours a day, for a reasonable 12e per person per tour, lasting about 2 hours. I also did a one on one tour with a group called Paris Greeters.  They are volunteers who will give you a walking tour. Typically you buy them lunch and offer a small gratuity.  It was a very interesting day, and gave me a lot of insight into French life. Do not believe the hype about the 35 hour work week that we hear about here.  They work hard, and so many people are self employed, and many of you know how difficult that can be! I would guess that on our block alone, there are at least 25 shops where the owners are there all day long.

The tourist areas of Paris are under siege daily, but especially now, during Easter week.  But we managed to find a few minutes of quiet at the Jardin Tuilleries.

Poor Zigs is ready to leave the city.  Despite the fact the smells are so overwhelming and enticing, the lack of grass and time off leash to really run are making her restless.  She so wants to run!  Yesterday she stood in front of a fenced off grassy area and just stared and tried to get in, to no avail.

Here she is locked out of the grassy areas at Parc Monceau, which is one of the most beautiful parks in Paris; way off the tourist track.

Off tomorrow heading south.  Next post from Portugal, I think.