I love Paris . . .

Ella Fitzgerald (among others) crooned her love for Paris, no matter what time of the year she found herself in the city. Cole Porter, who wrote the song, tried his hand at composing for the ballet in Paris in the early 1920s, so presumably he knew something about the subject. (Paris Hilton, on the other hand, does not seem interested in considering the song's relationship to reality.)

Maggie already posted her agreement with Porter and Fitzgerald about Paris in the fall, and I've disagreed about the pleasures of non-stop winter drizzle, but we're all back on the same page now that we're starting to see the first signs of spring.

Thanks to these flowers and the astoundingly blue, sunny skies we've been having recently, even the cold snap of the last few days and the freak storm that buried Southwestern France in 16" of snow can't diminish our delight. Spring is really, truly, finally! almost here.