It’s been rainy and cool in Paris this Spring but, suddenly, this last Sunday, the sun came out and the temperatures went up into the 70′s. As you can see by this video, people were out in huge numbers enjoying it all, along with street music.

My grandsons in Switzerland may not believe in the Easter Bunny, but that doesn’t stop them from eating Easter Candy.

The youngest eating a white chocolate bunny.

I think this one likes candy. He wore those sunglasses all day for some reason.

I went to Dallas for three days to see my other son, my daughter and their children. I was in the car a lot, as is often the case in Dallas, and took this photo from the front seat while my son was driving. It makes me happy to live in a city where I can take the metro or bus and very seldom use a car

I then headed to Arizona to stay with my Mother who is doing incredibly well considering my Dad died in November. I think the final year of her life was harder on her than I realized. We didn’t do much but one day we did drive up north from Phoenix to Prescott where we used to live and where I went to high school. This photo is of Thumb Butte and I wish I had gotten a different angle of it. I once even climbed to the top on a path behind it. Lots of memories in Prescott. We passed a house that was once ours and, on impulse, stopped the car, rang the doorbell and told the lady who answered that we used to live there. She very nicely invited us in and showed us around. We both remembered it as much larger, as memory will often do to you. The lady bought the house from my parents in the early 70′s and there she still was. I didn’t really want to stop but I’m glad we did. Mom really enjoyed it.

This is the only photo I took of any cactus in Arizona. There were some varieties beautifully blooming but I never got to get close enough for a photo except for this one in my mother’s neighborhood.

I’ve been so busy traveling that I haven’t posted something in real time for quite a while. In fact, this blog posting won’t be in real time as I will put it up in a couple of days. First I was in Switzerland for Easter with my son and his family and then on to the States to visit family in TX and AZ. I am back for one day before leaving for Northern Ireland where I will meet friends. I would have had two days for recovery but our plane from Chicago heading for Paris had technical difficulties after an hour in flight. It turned out that the toilets couldn’t flush-sort of important for a flight over 7 hours longs. I had fallen asleep when we started our descent and had missed the announcement that we had to turn around so when the lights came up I was really surprised that I had slept the whole flight as that never happens and I opened the window shade and looked out it wasn’t morning and the landing field looked strangely familiar. Then the overhead announcement said, “Welcome back to Chicago”. I sort of felt like I was in my own personal Groundhog Day. We were given vouchers for a hotel but the van driver wouldn’t let the eight of us on the van telling us that the hotel was full so we had to trudge back to the terminal and finally got another hotel and waited over thirty minutes for the van. I wasn’t in bed until 3 AM. Finally, at five the next evening, we took off with working toilets and touched down at last in Paris. I’ve never had that happen before although some of my fellow travelers did. We all sort of became friends going through this experience. So, anyway, here are some photos taken in Switzerland.

First, this slightly blurry photo of Lake Lugano taken as the sun was almost gone. I took it from a chinese restaurant on the side of the lake I hadn’t visited before. I had to wonder how in the world a Chinese place came to be here in Switzerland. I’m sure there’s an interesting story there.

My son and his family were invited to a friend’s for Easter lunch and I came along. It was in a three story building and each floor had been converted into an apartment. I especially loved the blue stove once used to heat the room. Wood was put into a fireplace in the back. The family didn’t use it though because they would have been responsible for its upkeep if they did. They said the apartment above them had three of these.

A look at the other side of the living room.

A view out a window showing the incredibly beautiful day outside.

I thought this was lovely. I would never have thought of doing this. She cooked them up later for lunch.

A few more photos taken the last time I was in the Marais. (I am actually there quite often. It’s just a short metro ride from our place).

A cute elephant hanging over a Thai restaurant.

A tea pot perhaps done by the designer who did faces on pillows and plates.

Part of an ancient sign left from a boulangerie on a shop that now sells clothing.

This is the most famous and well-known place to buy falafal. It’s on Rue des Rosiers. There are several other places selling falafal on the same street but they never have people standing in line to get in. A guy across the street was saying, “No waiting here!”

During an excursion to the Marais, I happened to see a lot of red:

The awning of Breakfast in America where I had lunch. Some of my meals there have fallen short but the hamburgers always look good.

What more do you need besides crepes and wifi? They should have added wine too.

Cute little ballerina in the Repetto window.

What a great red. I bet they were good to eat too. They call them grenades here.

I walked past a window and noticed all sorts of Indian gear in the window and took this photo and then noticed that most of the other gear was for S&M, you know, naughty things. I guess it’s the thing to do-dress up like an American Indian-which you get out the whip and handcuffs for those adventures.

Around the corner from Notre Dame is this pretty little restaurant. It always has very creative decorating on the outside and the inside is full of ancient furniture and architecture. The food can be very good or just okay and the service is sometimes bad so I don’t go there anymore but I always stop to look at the outside when I’m in the neighborhood.

I like the color of paint they used this year.

Part of a church font perhaps?

Little baskets hanging from the wysteria ready for Easter.

Around the corner from there is another place. I like their sign. It’s called The Reserves of Quasimodo, being near Notre Dame.