EUROPE IN THE SPRING

Memories for a Lifetime

- Uzma Irfan

When Shakespeare spoke of the ‘uncertain glory of an April day’, he sure wasn’t referring to an European spring, which remains uniformly pleasant and balmy unlike its notoriously fickle English counterpart.

Indeed, a springtime vacation in the European mainland covering France and Italy is like meeting a young newly married couple, who are still in the first flush of love. Their vitality, radiance and unalloyed happiness is infectious. For those moments that you are with them, all your cares and concerns vanish and you are reminded of what the poet Browning sang, ‘God’s in His Heaven, all’s right with the world.’

Europe in the spring presents exactly such an experience. The icy white of winter thaws into a pageantry of colour against a tapestry of green that refreshes the eyes in the benign sunlight. The city streets, country roads and mountainsides shed their chill demeanour and wear a welcoming glow. Optimism suffuses the air leaving no room for even the slightest vestige of cynicism. The world beams at you and you reciprocate without demur.

So, when we decided to take our next holiday in Europe, there was no debate about the time of the year. March and April were the unanimous choice and it was on a cheerful March afternoon that we landed in Paris, enroute to Nice, or Cannes to be precise, from where planned to break out on our tour.

Cannes hosts the annual MIPIM conference, which, for the uninitiated, is the world’s leading conference for the real estate industry, and thus we decided to mix in a little business before we got to the business end of the holiday, pun intended.