Fun fact: here in France, the Easter Bunny doesn’t bring eggs.
Instead, we have the Easter bells (“les cloches de Pâques). Wait, what? Traditionally, Catholic churches don’t ring their bells between Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday. It symbolizes the state of mourning over Jesus. Somehow, this turned into a story for children that the bells have all flown away to Rome, to be blessed by the Pope. When they come back, they rain down chocolates for all of the good children. Which is why French children hunt for their chocolates outside.
(The internet tells me that the French chocolate hunt can take up an entire morning, unlike the American version).
There are parts of France near the German border where the Easter Bunny brings eggs. Also, the American influence means that the Easter bunny has been getting a pawhold into the zeitgeist. The internet also tells me that this can get quite contentious. We didn’t have to pick a side, however, because Lilian is 13 and knows that her chocolates came from the store.
Instead, Lilian got a scavenger hunt.
Lilian asked Kristian for a hunt. There may have been a slight miscommunication (Lilian asked us this morning if she needed to clear out of the living room so we could “hide some stuff”). But, we had so much, I’m glad for the mixup.
We came up with a list of 9 locations, all places we’ve been before. They were all in our general vicinity. The farthest, the Monument to Saint-Exupéry, is a km away (no, I will not be translating that into American, look it up).
We printed clues for each location out, put them in an order that wasn’t too much of a straight-line (but not so much of a zig-zag that we tortured our child) and then divided the clues in half. At each location, Lilian was met by one of us. We gave her some chocolate eggs and her clue for the next location (where the other parent was waiting). I sewed her a little bunny-shaped treat bag to put her chocolates in.
(We also blocked her from using “Find My” on her phone so she couldn’t cheat).
(Oh, modern life).
A few notable locations:
- The local Cat Café
- The plaza outside the local basilica (where we saw an artist carve a lion with a chainsaw)
- Our favorite boulangerie (Au Vieux Petrin), where Kristian likes to get morning croissants
- Mosaïque, a fancy patisserie, where Lilian got to pick out our dessert for tonight
- Place Ampère, where there is a statue honoring André-Marie Ampère, who the the unit of electrical current, the ampere (or amp) is named after
Lilian was supposed to sit and have a coffee with Kristian at Au Vieux Petrin, but we timed things badly (#HouseOfADHD). We had to rush that stop and switch up the order of things a bit to get to Mosaïque on time. It was well worth the rush, though, because our desserts were amazing! They were actively closing up when we got there, so I’m glad we hurried. They were so sweet (hehe) though! The guy working at the counter even gave us a free cookie.
Later in the hunt, Lilian and I sat with the tourists and unhoused folks in Place Ampère and had an iced coffee (me) and an iced matcha latte (her).
It was a beautiful, sunny day. Not too hot, not too cold… perfect for running around the city. It was a wonderful reminder of all the places that we’ve discovered. I loved seeing how comfortable Lilian was walking around on her own. She brought Lumi with her (because it’s fun to have a buddy!) but she would have been just fine by herself.
Not gonna lie, I also enjoyed having an excuse to sit outside in the nice weather and hang out on my own for a bit.
After all the excitement of the morning, we took it easy for the rest of the day. Dinner was a random mix of beanies and weenies (why? because they’re tasty and easy to cook) and veggies from today’s marché.
I hope that you all had a joyful Easter (if you celebrate) or a lovely Sunday!
