Paris in the springtime

Joanna Leggett loves the French capital in all seasons, but particularly in the colourful and hopeful days of spring

- Joanna Leggett

They say the olfactory sense creates longlasting memories, so for me Paris will always be associated with food! My abiding memory from my first visit to Paris is waking in the early morning to delicious smells wafting up from the local boulangerie. Craning our necks outside the window of our bedroom, over a wrought iron railing, we saw Parisians walking out into the sunshine with morning baguettes tucked under their arms – and not a loaf of Hovis in sight!

MEMORIES MADE

This initiation formed the final leg of a school pilgrimage to Lourdes. I can no longer remember where we stayed, but I do recall clambering up winding staircases to attic bedrooms in our hotel which was back then, I'm sure, in a somewhat undistinguished arrondissement; it was a school trip after all! Imagination and appetites fired, we descended into the basement to partake of croissants and confiture before being taken on a whirlwind tour of the capital’s famous churches – Notre Dame, Sacré Coeur and the almost mystical Sainte Chapelle on the Ile de la Cité – another introduction but this time to the beauty of medieval paintings which cover the walls and ceilings. I had never seen anything like it!

Being teenagers, we were far more interested in food, of course, than of making yet another genuflection before another shrine. It has to be said, we stood with far greater reverence outside boulangerie and patisserie windows, gazing at displays of the most sophisticated choice of gâteaux and pastries imaginable! At lunchtime, we sat beside the Seine and hungrily devoured baguettes stuffed with jambon cru.

Those were the days before Eurostar so we came home via the Gare du Nord and Channel ferry. I still marvel at how easy it is these days to be whisked directly from St-Pancras station in London to the centre of Paris in a little over two hours.